Ocean Sail Issue 23 - Tuesday, July 25, 2000

When people ask us how we spend our time I often give them a glib answer of “I don’t know what I do, but it takes all my time.” This is no truer then the last month. No adventures, no great memories, just the business of life.

Today, July 25 was the day that we were to take delivery of out boat. But the factory failed to order the engines in time for completion of the hull.  They offered and alternative engine model, but we stayed with our original selection. So delivery is delayed till the end of September. This left us with two months to waste. Everyone should have problems like ours.

Our quandary was what to do with this bonus time: tour Europe, the USA or Mexico. One day while having lunch with a friend we mentioned this problem to him and he said one word: “Alaska”. It took hold like no other plan that we had. Maybe it was the remoteness of it, maybe it was perception of adventure, and maybe it was the eagle sized mosquitoes. Whatever it was after lunch we went out and started looking at travel guides.

Everyone knows of the Alaskan Highway or the Al-Can stretching from Dawson Creek to Fairbanks. Shortly after my parents were married (in Alaska) they drove the length of this highway while it still was gravel for its entire length. Now it is all paved or sealed highway. But there is also the Dalton Highway from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay. It follows the path of the Alaskan Oil Pipeline and crosses over the Artic Circle to end just a few miles short of the Artic Ocean in the town of Deadhorse.  Denali beckons south of Fairbanks and offers walking, wildlife and no doubt mosquitoes. Even farther south is Anchorage and Maritime Alaska of Homer, Seward , and infamous namesake of the ill fated tanker: Valdez, as well as a couple of Glaciers. Then to the east and a little bit north is Wrangell and St. Elias Park and Preserve. All these areas have their own unique history interwoven with fishing, trapping, gold, copper and coal mining and of course the new bonanza, Tourism.

This is perfect Hummer territory and a great inland adventure before we head off for our sea adventure. One does not casually head to Alaska as services can be far apart and the need for self reliance is similar to heading out to sea. We had the Hummer serviced and thoroughly checked out. For a previous adventure I had purchased a used rim and run-flat for a spare tire, but since these tires are more then three-foot across, stowage is a problem. A swing away tailgate tire carrier and fuel tank rack solved this problem. Since we would be camping for about 5 weeks, the we bought a roof top tent system. It’s made in Italy and imported by a company called Lofty Shelters (www.loftyshelters.com). It’s the size of queen sized bed (5x7 feet) and features a fiberglass clamshell that telescopes up about three feet with the turn of a crank on the side. The three inch foam mattress can remain made up and ready for sleeping. From parked to horizontal position is about 45 seconds.

Of course none of this was as easy as it sounds. The spare tire rack I originally ordered did not arrive at the Hummer dealer, so the Hummer dealer hunted around, located one and had it air freighted in. The “good” for a spare tire that the dealer said it had turned out to have a nail in the sidewall – but we only found this out after 2 hours of struggling to mount the tire on my spare rim. Unable to located a tire in Seattle, the service manager lent me a tire off his own Hummer, and I left my rim and run-flat as collateral. The roof-top tent came with a Yakima rain gutter rack, but the mounting hardware for the tent rubbed against the Hummer roof, so we  had permanent tracks installed on the Hummer. Oh did I mention the two folding Montague MX mountain bikes on the roof racks next to the roof top tent. (http://edit.store.yahoo.com/lib/montagueusa/mount2.gif) We will road test these in Alaska before we take them to France.

So all prepared more or less, we headed to Anacortes and boarded the ferry to Sidney on Vancouver Island. Our first stop was Ktoo’s parents lovely home, and probably the last home cooked food we would have for the next 5 or 6 weeks. After a brief stay we head north to Port Hardy where we took yet another ferry to Prince Rupert. While the ferry ride is only about 300 miles it would probably take two days to drive the same distance.

We camp for the first time in our roof top tent and as the mosquitoes buzz against the screen the patter of rain starts to fall on the roof. Soon we are sound asleep snuggled under cotton sheets, fleece blanket and with a down sleeping bag thrown of top for good measure. My watch alarm wakes us at 5:30 and the light drizzle has not let up. We thank our lucky star that we don’t have a wet tent to pack up and in less then 10 minutes we are dressed and headed down the road to the ferry.

Despite our eager beaver start there is already a line at ferry terminal. We of course have reservations,  but since we made these arrangements our height has increased by a foot and half. The clever attendant notes this and send us to the head of line “10” with a balance due that we pay at the main building. We are hurrying up and waiting again, but this time the ferry is loading without us. We are in the “you had reservations but did not tell us about your over height” line. Motor homes, camper van, cars are all loaded  - well everyone to our right has been loaded. The tension mounts. Finally the traffic director waves us in and we take our rightful place behind a whole fleet of motor homes. The Hummer looks small.

It’s a fifteen hour ride, and the weather is gloomy. Low laying clouds encircle the island hill peaks as the ferry slides up the placid waters of the inside passage. We pass the time by sleeping, reading and listening to our fellow passengers The time creeps and the constant rain keeps us in the cabin. Our only relief is to this is every 3 hours or so they let us go down to the car deck to extract stuff from out vehicles. The first time I go down I most can’t find the Hummer. The motor homes have been breeding and the car deck is wall to wall with them. Finally at 10:30 pm we arrive in Prince Rupert and full up with 100 liter of diesel and attempt to find a place to park. Our first stop is the Safeway parking lot were a dozen of other motor homes are parked. We setup here, but the road is no noisy that after a hour or so we wind the tent down and head to the out skirts were we find a parking area for a hiking trail. It is much quieter and the gentile patter of rain puts us to sleep. 

We awake with a 15 passenger van pulling in behind us and curious German tourist poking their face against the windows of the Hummer as we look down on them from out Roof Top tent. After they leave we scramble out and face the day.