Friday Funny 09-05/2022 (Another Auke Bay-Juneau Saga)

 

This is exactly what Statter Harbor in Juneau feels like!

We ran out of anything green, except for green beans in a can, toilet paper was getting scarcer, the wine locker has just a couple of boxes left, and the fuel gauges are significantly lower. It's time for a "town" stop for supplies. 

After we left Glacier Bay, we had a short stop in Hoonah. We anchored for a couple of days, then motored over to the outside marina transient dock, so that we could walk to the store. It was apparent that the barge hadn't been in to restock the shelves so we got a few things, and decided that in the near future we'd have to head for Juneau. 

On the way to Juneau, we made our usual stop in Swanson Harbor, we tied up to a state float, and met some other cruisers there. At one point there were loads of kids, dogs, and fireworks, they moved on after spending one night, whew! Gus was very annoyed. 

This Tollycraft, with the inboard diesel engine removed, and refitted with two large outboards, had a group from Australia onboard. No, they didn't bring this boat from there, it's kept in west coast Canada, and Captain Buck returns to it every year. This was the first trip to Alaska for the other three. We enjoyed their company, and learning about their home. 

Another excellent sunset. 

They headed out for Glacier Bay in the early morning. We had our morning hot beverages, and also left, heading for Juneau. 

I've written previously about Statter Harbor at Auke Bay, and the craziness in there. 

You have to time your arrival just right, when the commercial whale watcher boats, the personal cruise boats, and the commercial fishermen are out doing their thing, and then you MIGHT find an open spot that is long enough for your vessel, possibly power too. We left Swanson Harbor so that our arrival would be about 1:00pm, everyone else, (theoretically), were still out. We scored! It was a bit hairy to get into, so Bill stepped off of Denali Rose at the bow, and tied it off. Normally, that wouldn't happen, it's always midship line first, but we needed to back against it, so that the stern would swing into place. A few back, and fill jolts, in we went, AND we found an open power spot on the pole, so we're satisfied. 

Approaching Auke Bay, mega yachts tied up on the outside breakwater, they don't fit inside.

Our welcoming committee, a breaching whale, couldn't quite get the camera on him fast enough.

Once you're tied in, you watch a continual parade of locals, commercial boats, and visiting cruisers, jockey around looking for a place to dock, it's really insane. If we hadn't had to get fuel, and food, we would have avoided the place. 

We went in on a sunny day, wasted our time in the sun, but heavy weather was coming, and we wanted to be secure beforehand. Everyone else also had that idea, and we watched boat after boat, circling around, hoping to find that elusive dock spot. It's sad really, I felt bad for those who had to finally give up.

I'm going to call out a company here, I watched this sightseeing whale watching boat cut off a sailboat who was on their final approach to this spot, and tie himself off without a care. He didn't even look up to see the sailboat with fenders and lines out ready to sidle up to the dock. Very rude! 

Later another jetboat from the same company came up and rafted to him.

On the positive side, we found out Costco will deliver your order to the Harbormaster office for you to put into dock carts and wheel down to your boat. We certainly took advantage of that! We had two full carts.

So you have an idea of the size of the cart.

Lots of goodies piled on the back deck of Denali Rose. 

We are planning on being out and about for another 3 months or thereabouts. so though the bill was steep, it's our provisioning for months to come. Now it's on to Fred Meyer's, their website says they deliver, after filling an online shopping cart, two phone calls, and three clerks later, we found out they don't deliver after all.  Then we arranged for all the items that we had in the cart for pickup, but something in their software just wouldn't connect, and after Bill spent hours filling the cart, and trying to make it work, and two phone calls, we gave up. We rode the bus there, and did all of the shopping ourselves, three carts worth, and we had a taxi pick us up, to take us back to the Harbor. We're still money ahead of renting a car for the day, even if it wasn't quite as convenient.

All in all, this was a productive trip to Juneau, with a small amount of effort to get tied to the dock, and have a shore power connection. Having the major shopping items delivered from Costco was a terrific asset, we'll have to do that again, and tell all our cruising friends in SE. 

We did goof on double checking the Costco cart, and we ordered twice as many paper towels as we wanted, needed, or could stow. Oh, well, we're ready for the paper Armageddon. It'll have to live on the lower settee for now. 

I tried to get this post out on Friday, but having to rewrite the shopping saga three times, has delayed it until Monday. 😌

As always, we enjoy hearing from you, either here in comments or on our Facebook Denali Rose Sailboat page.