Friday, June 16, 2017

Leave at : 7:20 a.m. Temp: 50 degrees

Saying for the day: Those who wish to sing will always find a song.

Very rainy and extremely windy as we walk from our campsite to the dock for the Catamaran to Juneau. We board at 7:40 a.m. and sit with folks from Vancouver, very pleasant people to chat with.

We stop at Haines City on the way to pick up more passengers, and now we are a full boat.

We are seeing a whole lot of Stellar Sea Lions, about a hundred or more, lying scattered on the rocks at the base of the mountains. Also, lots of Bald Eagles for us to see flying and nesting; fun to see them anytime.

Then we get a surprise, Humpback whales! They gifted us with sprays, a breach, a flipper wave, and their tails as they dove down into the Fjord. AWESOME!

At this juncture, the waves which are all ready extremely high and choppy, get even worse. The Captain, who has done this run for 5 years, has never had to make the announcement he did today:

"I'm sorry folks, the seas are now too dangerous to continue and we'll be turning around and going back to Skagway."

So it's a no to Juneau.When we thought it couldn't get worse he pointed ahead and said I won't take you through that, it was like the Columbia Bar. You would haave had to be there. Like Deadliest Catch, airborne then coming down with waves over us with a crash that sounds like the boat breaking in half.

How long staying: 3 more nights