On Sunday morning we had an 0530 Uber lift from the airport to the ferry terminal and the ferry M/V Hubbard which left Juneau at 0700 and arrived in Haines at 1145
The Alaska Marine Highway System ferries are what “Hurtigruta” used to be along the Norwegian coast: The primary means of transport of people and goods among the commutes here in SE Alaska.
As an example: The Alaska state capital of Juneau does not have a road connection, so it is ferry or plane.
In Haines we were picked up by Joe Osterling of SEAK Expeditions, our kayak renter and outfitter.
Joe and his company is the reason we went to Haines. They have a strong reputation and first class equipment, and we don’t want any compromises on equipment, that is about safety.
Joe first took us to the Helsingland hotel to drop off luggage and then to his warehouse to look at the boats. (For the kayak nerds: Two Cetus high volume and one NDK expedition).
We agreed to take a test paddle Monday and then Joe dropped us off for lunch.
The rest of the day was about fighting jet lag by walking up and down main street (all 650 meters of it) doing some window shopping -and some real shopping in the well stocked outdoor shop.
Eventually it was dinner time, but even after an excellent halibut fish & chips dinner it was still too early to call it a day.
We took a detour through the harbour, along way we became aware of what looked like an abandoned graveyard, we later learned it was and old graveyard for the Tingit tribe.
From what we could read people died young around here a hundred years ago.
No one had looked after this graveyard for years or maybe rather decades. The inscriptions were hardly readable, the souls resting there apparently forgotten by all.
It was a somewhat sinister end to the day, but at least it was an end: By the time we were back at the hotel it was almost 2100 and we could finally call it a day and declare lights out in our small suite in Hotel Helsingland.
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