Haines and Skagway

Well we leave Haines in the morning.  We have been enjoying a couple of extra days in the marina here as the weather has been from the south since we arrived.  Tonight it turns from the north again.  Not sure if it will be strong enough to sail but at least it won't be 30 knots on the nose.  We are very happy we stopped here.  Haines might be the friendliest town in Alaska.  Hard to beat Hoonah but we think Haines might have pulled it off.  The harbor staff are incredibly friendly, which is great, considering it might be the busiest we have been to.  We had to wait in line for more than an hour to get to the fuel dock and boats were jogging all over in and out and rafting up to each other as we came in.  We actually were worried at one point if we could get through and make the turn to the fuel dock or would have to go beyond and do some fancy maneuvering.  Boats were rafted three wide on one side and two on the other on the first pontoons past the breakwater, but as we came in they all broke ties and left as we coming at them.  We still had some fancy maneuvering to do to get to the fuel dock but as the wind had finally dropped to near zero we took our time and snuck in and did a 180 to make it easy to get out before tying up to the fuel dock.  190 gallons later they found a nice spot for us to sneak into.

We did a quick trip around town and a quick run through the Sheldon Jackson museum before hitting the grocery store and the local brewery.  While there we had heard of a nice restaurant to have dinner in.  As we had pretty much been tied to the boat for nearly two weeks, we treated ourselves to a night out on the town.

totem pole in front of the Sheldon Jackson Museum

beer garden at the Haines Brewing Co

Welcome to Haines

Haines Harbor

The next morning it was an early start to catch the first fast ferry over to Skagway for the day.  Mark had spent some time there when he was working on the Reese Eagle and insisted Pauline come for a visit.  Skagway is a tourist town.  Practically the whole town is set up for tourist and the fact they average four cruise ships a day plus all of the drive in tourists, they have to be.  Skagway was the starting point for most of the gold rush people and so has a pretty colorful history.  The town has done its best to keep up the image of the old town and has restored several of the old buildings and made all of the new keep to a code so as not to distract from the theme.  Most of the sidewalks are boardwalks and some establishments have that wild west atmosphere.  We made sure we had lunch at the Red Onion Saloon which was a house famous for its working girls.  The girls are still working but  as described, their duties have changed.  The staff still dress and play the part and of course offer tours of the upstairs.

We were going to ride the train up the pass.  Mark had brought one of the locomotives up from Bellingham on the  barge.  The cost was a little out of our price range so we found a place that sold more beer instead.  We had a great day out but our feet were happy when we returned to Haines and Sari Timur for the night.

approaching Skagway Harbor, with those big cruise ships

the railroad in Skagway

a very interesting frontage of the visitors center

That night there were supposedly very good northern lights and a big earthquake (5.2) but we slept right through it all.

The rest of our time here we have been doing chores and trying to reorganize a little so we can free up the V-birth for our guest when he arrives Sunday.