No wind this morning. Totally calm, but foggy.
Thankfully the dozens of gill-netters that were working Lynn
Canal yesterday were nowhere to be found. Dodging them in quarter mile
visibility wouldn’t be fun.
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| Not much to see out here |
We pushed north on glassy seas. The current pushed us north,
too—I routinely saw 9.5 knots speed over ground at an 8-knot throttle setting.
The radar screen remained empty.
After about 20 miles the fog began lifting. We spotted a few
glaciers in the surrounding mountains. Given the dreary weather, we opted to
keep going. No reason to stop at a picturesque anchorage if we couldn’t see
anything.
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| Fog lifting, still calm |
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| Dozens of glaciers are visible from Lynn Canal. This is one of them. |
And so it went. Past one anchorage after another, past
Haines, until we arrived at Skagway around 1:00 p.m.
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| Mountain peaks in Skagway |
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| Looks like we'll have some company... |
I’ve long wanted to visit Skagway. Maybe it was the
elementary school history lessons on the Klondike Gold Rush. Or perhaps Yukon
Trail, one of two computer games (the other being Oregon Trail) I was permitted
to play as a youngster. Or maybe it’s just Skagway’s location as the
northernmost point on the Inside Passage.
Regardless, Skagway was a bit of a disappointment. We
arrived while four hulking cruise ships occupied town. The neareast to us was
the Disney Wonder, which blared the
soundtrack from Frozen for much of
the afternoon.
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| iPhone panorama from the Skagway small boat floats |
Ashore, Skagway wasn’t much better. A town of 700 full time
residents just can’t absorb 8000 tourists easily. Wandering the streets we
found dozens of jewelry shops, all advertising “specials” and offering the same
free “train charm” for entering the shop.
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| Add caption |
The restaurants and bars were filled to capacity during the
day. We visited the National Park visitor center and watched the movie about
Klondike history. In 1897, 100,000 people made their way to the Klondike during
the gold rush. Hardly any struck it rich. Many died. Skagway was one of the
jumping-off points for the trip through the interior. Back in the day, it was a
pretty rough-and-tumble place: shootings, brothels, etc. Today, it’s a tourist
trap.
Actually, that’s not entirely true. After the last ship left
(about 8:00 p.m.) we wandered back through town. The brewery had good beer and
a pleasant staff. The Red Onion Saloon, crowded to overflowing during the day,
had live music, reasonably priced drinks, and no cover charge (like during the
day). Locals were friendlier, too.
Skagway is beautiful. Mountains all around, lots of
waterfalls, snowfields in the distance. But a bit too touristy…
45.09 nm today
1748.28 nm total
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