Sincerely, Denise

JUNEAU TO HOONAH

Friday, June 19^th

Left the dock at 5AM, we are anxious to get moving along. Of course the weather predictions were wrong again and we awoke to wind that was unexpected. As we rounded the southern end of Douglas Island, we were greeted with increasing wind and building waves. We endured that for about an hour, praying it wouldn’t build even more, when over the course of about 15 minutes it went to light chop then to glass! Lucky us.

Today’s journey was about 8 hours total and it was Humpback Dodge Ball. Multiple sightings in the distance of humpbacks earlier in the journey but the last hour I was at the helm required a lot of diversion tactics. First one was a HUGE one that surfaced on my starboard side so I diverted course away from him and slowed way down. Humpbacks will surface showing you just their backs and fin, do a blow, go under again and resurface within a minute or less. BUT, if they show you a tail that means a deep dive and you have no idea when or where they will come up. So this first whale finally did a deep dive but he was so close I kept the speed very low. Sure enough out of the corner of my eye a few minutes later it surfaced just off my port side not 40’ away and headed my direction so I quickly cut power and coasted. After 5 minutes or so, and no resurfacing, I powered up and kept going, keeping a watchful eye. About 30 minutes later I spied one in the distance right in my path, as the spout shot in the air. I watched as that one also submerged with a tail shot, but nonetheless I steered 45 degrees to port and slowed way down to give it some room, it was headed away from the boat, or so I thought. A few minutes later it popped up right in my path! Cut the engines again and coasted until I felt it was safe to continue. Big whales, huge tails. Great morning! In the distance off towards the west, the mountains in the distance towards Glacier Bay rose up into the sky, gleaming dramatic white peaks that almost looked backlit like a Thomas Kincaid painting. I don’t think I got any photos of it because I felt it would never do it justice! We docked at Hoonah around 1:30PM, got settled, and wandered uptown to see what we could see. Nearly everything was closed due to the June Nineteenth holiday, but we managed to visit a small gift shop, grocery and hardware store. Oh and the bar was open “The Office” so we had to make a pit stop for a beer as well.

Hoonah is the largest Tlingit settlement in Alaska. The story of how Hoonah was settled in the 1750s is really interesting. The “Huna” community was originally settled in Glacier Bay National Park and the outer coast. In the mid 1700s there was a mini Ice Age where the glaciers rapidly advanced within Glacier Bay and forced the community to flee as their settlement was iced over. They came to present day Hoonah and resettled there. There was also an oral history among the Tlingit about landslides and subsequent tsunamis in nearby Lituya Bay where the clan was also located, causing that population to relocate to Hoonah as well.

Dinner tonight was on Far Niente where Bill and Lorraine started us off with scratch Lemon Drops and Old Fashioned's, then treated us to a fabulous Chicken Piccata dinner with Caesar Salad and homemade ice cream.