By Larry McCullough (and photos too)

Jamie is back on the boat and life can get back to normal and I can try to get healthy again. Jamie left to go home for her Mom’s 96th birthday on July 3rd, Happy Birthday Betty! That meant that I needed some crew to help with the boat as Independence II was scheduled for Juneau to Skagway, back to Juneau, south to Petersburg, Le Conte Glacier, Wrangell and finally Ketchikan.

Maybe it was because Jamie left but the weather got gloomy, the sun literally did not return until the evening Jame flew into Ketchikan. Two of my Mountain Biking friends flew up to take Jamie’s spot, yes it takes two to replace Jamie. Keith and I have been friends since High School and Chris and I met on a scuba diving trip to Honduras in the early 90s (that is when I bought the map of the Bay Islands that was mentioned in the Honduras post). They replaced Jamie for about 10 days, there was two of them but it seemed like the drinking was a lot more than twice as much. I am getting old!

As mentioned, the weather sucked. Our schedules had to change to avoid large seas due to the wind. It is a long haul from Skagway to Juneau, not surprisingly it is about the same distance as Juneau to Skagway, but the weather can make things so much worse. The wind gets funneled in through the long straightaway called the Lynn Canal, around 70 miles. Going to Skagway we had the wind and waves at our stern which made for a very tolerable ride, BUT, as they say what goes up must come down. Did I ever mention that boating can be stressful? All I could think was, we are going to get hammered if we have to go back to Juneau in these conditions. We had two days in Skagway and luckily, thankfully, the wind and seas calmed down for our return. I had the boys up and ready at 6:00 AM and we had some nice conditions with some clearing that showed some spectacular vistas.

A bit about Skagway, a fun town where the streets become deserted once the cruise ships leave. A must, and I repeat a must, is the train ride to the White Pass Summit, a bit pricey at $150 but well worth it and beats walking. The views were magnificent and the narrator gave very good descriptions of the work involved to build the line and you actually get glimpses of the trail that the gold prospectors used. Not only did they have to climb the 3,000 feet to the summit, but once there, they had another 500 miles to go to find the gold. Did I mention that each prospector had to bring with them 1 ton of supplies or they would not be allowed to pass! We are such wimps these days.

Speaking of wimps, I was starting to feel like one with all the hydrating that was taking place (never while driving the boat). In Skagway we went into the Skagway Brewing Company for a manly beer and were greeted by the maître d “that it might be a little noisy tonight, it is Tranny Bingo Night”! No, that has nothing to do with the train ride we took up the White Pass Summit, it has to do with transvestites playing bingo who sometimes get very excited. No matter where you go you can always find a little bit of home (being a 5th generation San Franciscan). We had a couple of Spruce Tip beers, literally made fresh from the tips of new Spruce trees and dinner there, I remember both were pretty good but I can’t remember what the food was. I do remember that when I hear the word bingo it will never be the same. After dinner it was off to the local’s bar, The Happy Ending Bar, and I kid you not, inside the Morning Wood Hotel, how could we possibly miss that! They had some big screen TV’s and much to my surprise, again, a bit of home, a PBS station looping the guy that shows you how to paint, Rob Ross, I must say a bit addicting. This turned into our bigger night in Skagway because I did not want to wake up with the Irish flu and pound into the waves to make it back to Juneau.

The next day was taking it easy and walking up to the town cemetery and the beautiful waterfall behind it and visiting the National Park Service Museum and the town’s museum. A quiet day was appreciated because of the following day’s schedule which started a bit earlier than planned. Having three old men on the boat meant the head was being used frequently throughout the night. The urge struck Chris at 3:45 and with the sun starting to shine and me misreading my watch, I thought great, let’s get going. Which we did within an hour. I am glad we did because we got going before the winds picked up, although we did have a several mile run where the incoming wind mixed with an outgoing tide creating some significant chop.

We arrived in downtown Juneau Haris Harbor around 10:00 AM, 116 miles. The parade was going on but all I wanted to see was the back of my eyelids. More bars, more rain, but one real nice guy who gave us about a 2lb chunk of fresh salmon. For the most part, people in Alaska have been great, one day crabs another salmon.

I am stressing again, more bad weather. I wake the crew up early again when I get a fresh weather report early in the morning, bad weather a day early, can not take the chance of getting hammered on the 127 miles to Petersburg. I am getting it hammered into my head that saying you are going to be in a certain place on a certain day can not be done, so we get there a day early and the boys don’t get to see Mendenhall Glacier and more bars.

More bad weather on the horizon, I just want to get to Ketchikan. I had told the crew we were going to the Le Conte Glacier, I now am telling them we can’t because of the weather. I see the disappointment and decide to go to Le Conte on the way to Wrangell, which worked out great. At Le Conte there are some Jet Skiers, about 8, I yell over to them how about you take a picture of us and we will get one of your group. Dominic, a great guy who happens to be the guide, comes over and I get his phone number and text him shots and he does the same.

A night in Wrangell then another 98 miles to Ketchikan. On the way, 49.7 miles from Ketchikan, a warning appears on the engine screen at the helm, “Critical Fault, return to dealer immediately”. Oh shit. Stay tuned.