6/18/2024 - 6/23/2024 St. Florian and Kinship left Juneau and headed out for some exploration. We have ten days to wander before we need to be back in Glacier Bay for our four day reservation to the Glacier Bay National Park. We are going to use this time to explore Icy Strait and parts of Chicagof Island. These towns and anchorages are the less-visited parts of Southeast Alaska. We continue to get a mix of rain and sunshine.
6/18/2024 St. Florian and Kinship arrived in Funter Bay at about 3pm. We tied up to one of the government floats. These floats are docks, built by the State of Alaska, free for use by anyone. They have no power or water, but are very convenient for a secure overnight stay. We had no luck with crabs in Funter Bay, despite the fact that a commercial crabber had twenty traps down near the government float. There was a fish cleaning table on the end of the float that others were using to clean their daily catch. They threw the carcasses into the water and the eagles then claimed the leftovers. As interesting as this was I failed to take any pictures while I hid inside the boat from the giant horseflies.
Funter Bay is a two-mile-long bay on the western side of Admiralty Island near its northern tip, in the Alexander Archipelago of the U.S. state of Alaska. It lies within the Hoonah-Angoon Census Area, in the Unorganized Borough of Alaska. Funter Bay was the site of a World War II internment camp for Aleuts relocated 1500 miles from their homes. It was the site of an abandoned cannery in which the St. Paul evacuees were housed. The St. George camp was across the bay at an old mine site. ( ref: Wikipedia)
6/19/2024 We moved further west across the channel to visit Swanson Bay, a very pretty and well protected bay. it was clear and sunny when we arrived in Swanson Bay, but that brought out the giant horseflies. Thank goodness we have screens on the doors and windows.
6/20/2024 We moved further westward to the town of Hoonah at the north end of Chicagof island. There is a large cruise ship dock here about a mile outside of town with dedicated restaurants, aerial tram, and zip lining that are only open when a ship is in port.
“Hoonah" became the official spelling in 1901, with establishment of the Hoonah branch of the United States Post Office. "Hoonah" is the approximate pronunciation of the Tlingit name Xunaa, which means “lee of the north wind”, i.e., protected from the north wind. ( ref: Wikipedia)
Hoonah is a fairly large town with something like 700 residents. It has everything we needed for a little recharge. Laundry was a top priority, along with boat repairs.
One of Kinship’s heads stopped working (a head is the nautical term for toilet for you non-boaters). This is why we like to have boats with two heads, the backup can be important. Phil did all of the obvious things (like remove power to reset controllers) with no luck. Brad’s digital multimeter (DMM) tool came out again to search for the cause. Can you spot the broken wire in the picture below? Brad was able to repair the broken wire with his “collection” of parts on board. I will never complain about the extra parts because you just never know what you will need. A few minutes later the repaired wire was installed in the toilet controller and the head was back in business. I think both Phil and Brad were relieved this was an electrical problem and not a mechanical one that would have required pulling the head out to get at the inner bits.
6/21/2024 We left Hoonah early (6:15am) for the eight hour run further west to the port of Pelican. This involved heading west through Icy Strait, into Cross Sound, and around the corner into Lisianski Inlet. Cross sound is basically open to the Pacific Ocean, but the weather was fine (rainy but somewhat calm) and we weren’t too uncomfortable as we moved into Lisianski Inlet.
The town of Pelican is named after the town founder’s boat, not the bird. There are no pelicans in Pelican, Alaska. Most of the town is built on boardwalks and pilings. Quad ATV’s are essential for getting around. There are a few high end fishing lodges here that seem to be the reason the town exists. There is a fish processing facility here also.
6/23/2024 We left Pelican on a foggy morning for the short three hour trip to Elfin Cove. We followed right behind Kinship as we had one quarter mile visibility. The fog was just starting to lift as we came into Elfin Cove.
We enjoyed our week going westward. Tomorrow we leave Elfin Cove and rendezvous with Second Verse in North Bight.
6/18/2024 Meanwhile, on Second Verse…after sending guest Mike back to Los Angeles Bill and Sally decided to make the journey north to Skagway. We parted ways with them on 6/18 as we headed to Funter Bay. They spent one night in Auke Bay, then ventured to Haines and spent a night there before going all the way into Skagway. They enjoyed two nights in Skagway where they took a ride on the White Pass and Yukon train trip.
From Sally Andrew: OK, when I decided to check out the Hammer Museum in Haines I had low expectations, but thought it was just quirky enough that it deserved a look. It turned out to be really cool! It was started by Dave Pahl, a guy in Haines who just liked hammers, and over time had collected several hundred various types of hammers in his house. At some point his wife said either the hammers went, or she was gone, so Dave bought a 100 year old house in town, fixed it up, and opened the museum. Turns out there is a whole world of hammer collectors out there (who knew!), so Dave started buying rare and exotic hammers at auctions and putting them in the museum. He has a 7,000 year old stone hammer (that I held), hammers used to build the Egyptian pyramids, and hammers from all different types of craftsmen through the ages. The museum isn't just about hammers, it's really about changing technology through the ages, as told by the hammers people used to build things. There are over 2,500 hammers of every type you can imagine. When Dave opened the museum in 2002 he was sued by Armand Hammer (the baking soda guy) for trademark infringement because they already had a Hammer Museum. Armand Hammer sued three times, the first two times the suits were dismissed as frivolous, the third time Dave Pahl got the story to the Wall Street Journal, who was going to do a big corporation beating up the little guy story, and at that point Armand Hammer went away. Anyway, the Hammer Museum in Haines, Alaska, if you're ever in Haines you've got to go see it!
After enjoying Skagway, Second Verse moved south and stopped at Funter Bay and Swanson bay. We all come back together on Monday, 6/24/2024 in North Bight and then continue cruising as a trio.
You are having an amazing experience! Mike & I had our honeymoon in Glacier Bay at Gustavus Inn, which just changed ownership to the Hoonah Indian Association in 2023....I remember lots of Dungeness crab and a fantastic hailbut dish, along with many outdoor adventures. Mike said he chose Glacier Bay for our honeymoon because he figured it would be the last time he could persuade me to be in a cold environment. Anyway, you're basicallly in heaven! Please give my best to Phil & Annette too -- I'm off shortly to Yorkshire, Suffolk & London! Cheers, Leslie