Happy Memorial Day!



Prince of Wales ferry



Juanita drying seaweed in Kasaan Village

Haida Longhouse Interior

On day #25 of our Alaskan adventure, we saw some very special sights. The first was a killer whale—only the fin, but it hung around us for quite a while. We cruised on to Prince of Whales Island and stopped for the night at Kasaan, ten nautical miles up into Kasaan Bay. This is a Haida native village that used to be the home of a large fish cannery, now in ruins. After docking at their public dock, we took a mile walk through the little village and along a nice trail in the forest to Haida sacred grounds which had several totem poles (still standing) and a large longhouse with more totems inside. All were quite well preserved. We also saw and heard our first Alaskan raven. We had the privilege of chatting with Juanita, a resident of the village, who was laying out seaweed to dry in her front yard. We also talked later on the dock with a couple returning from fishing. Marge and Russ gave us a little insight into life in this remote village and growing up in the Haida and Tlingit cultures.

When we left Kasaan the next morning (at 5:55 am!), it was raining, only the 3^rd day of rain in almost the month we have been cruising—not bad! It was a drippy day, but no hard rain and no wind! We overnighted at Meyers Chuck, a protected bay with mostly summer homes, a post office, and an art gallery. A couple in our yacht club in Bellingham has a place there, but hasn't arrived yet for the “season.”

The next morning we had a lovely, calm trip north to Wrangell. We saw some huge humpback whales on the way. Wrangell is a working town (not cutesy), with the emphasis on fishing and tour boats going to the Stickeen River and the Anan Bear Observatory. We stayed an extra night here to get laundry and shopping done and relax a little. A highlight was walking to the Petroglyph Beach, a park set aside to preserve the petroglyphs carved in stones on the beach by very early people. Visitors here walk around and find the petroglyphs on their own.

On Sunday, May 29 we left Wrangell for our trip across Sumner Strait and north through the Wrangell Narrows, a very narrow dredged 21-mile canal that one traverses through a path marked by 63 navigational markers. It keeps you on your toes, and we felt very lucky not to encounter a tug and barge or the Alaska ferry coming the other way! At the top of the Narrows is Petersburg, a town of about some 3,400 people. Petersburg has a strong Norwegian influence, having been formed by a Norwegian (from Tacoma, WA!) over 100 years ago. It’s a huge fishing and fish processing center, and many of the boats in the harbor are fishing boats.

Petersburg Boat Harbor

Markers through Wrangell Narrows

A Fishing Camp on Wrangell Narrows

Hope you all had a good Memorial Day holiday and that the Bellingham Ski to Sea Relay Race went well for all of the teams! We are heading into the wilderness again on our way to Juneau.

Signing off,

Susan, Rod, and Katie