Monday June 10th, 2024
We left Funter Bay this morning at 5:30 am. We looked at the weather predictions the previous night and saw that early morning looked best for crossing over Lynn Canal into Icy Strait. As we left the dock it was the water in the harbor was smooth, which was definitely a change from the previous afternoon and evening. What we didn’t account for was the Fetch of Chatham. A “fetch” simply put is the area in which ocean waves are generated by the wind. The wind blowing in a constant direction generates waves, and so it did in Chatham Strait. We only had a 3 hour cruise but soon after leaving Funter Bay we encountered 4 foot waves from the fetch. What made it rough was the fact that we were taking all of it on the beam of the boat. This is lovingly referred to as a “washing machine.” It lasted about an hour—seemed to me like an eternity—but then we came into Icy Strait with smooth seas. Now, the dirty little secret here is that Marlene “knew” it was going to be rough but didn’t let me know. She didn’t want me messing my pants so early in the day:)
We arrived in Hoonah around 8:15. The staff were extremely helpful in guiding us into our slip. This is a very authentic, very remote, Alaskan native village. We love it. Our goal is to explore it more tomorrow. The rest of the morning and afternoon were spent doing a few boat chores, a short walk, and a nap.
Just up the harbor from us is a community of native totem artists. Pretty cool seeing this first hand.
We are happy to be here. Glad we are tucked in as we await our turn to enter Glacier Bay in the coming days.