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Published: November 14th 2008
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M/V Malaspina
My home for 2 & a half days: the Malaspina makes the entry from Bellingham, Washington state, to Juneau, Alaska, up the inside passage. The Inside Passage to Juneau
No map this time, too fiddly. More slow travel though: The
M/V Malaspinaferry from Bellingham in Washington state takes two and a half days to navigate up the inside passage to Juneau, the state capital of Alaska. The South-East, they also call it the
panhandle, is mostly blue sea, grey cloud and green trees. This far South, even in mid-winter, I'm told the average temperature is above freezing. But being coastal it's a damp cold, so it's just like Scotland, which is almost on the same latitude.
I've learned such a lot whilst I've been here. At the same time as the European powers were colonising the North American continent from the East, Russia had already found Alaska from the West in 1741. They devastated the sea otter population for the Russian fur industry and established a capital called
Novy Arkhangelsk (now Sitka). But they never fully colonised Alaska properly nor took it from the indigenous natives, the Tlingit, who are not the same as the 'red' indians throughout the rest of N.America. For numerous reasons (having killed off the sea otters, for one) Alaska was never very profitable and they approached
America to buy it from them, which happened in 1867. And so there are Russian Orthodox churches across the coastal parts of the state. It's the natives mostly who worship there, having been converted by the Russians.
I spent 3 days in Juneau waiting for the next scheduled ferry to Sitka, the
M/V Chenega since you can't drive anywhere from Juneau, the only ways in are by boat or plane. And whilst I was there, Obama won the election. I'd planned to get whomever was in the hostel with me down to a bar, convinced it was going to be a close-run thing and a bit of an all-nighter - in the end, it was all over by 7:30pm just as I'd finished cooking dinner.
Sitka WhaleFest 2008
Sitka was a little gem. I was there for the 2008 Whale Festival. I know nothing about whales and only discovered there was a festival on the week before in Vancouver. A couple of phone calls and some time on the internet to book ferries, flights & hotel rooms and my fortnight was organised. The festival organisers had scheduled lectures on migration patterns of beluga, bowhead, grey and
humpback whales, sooty shearwaters and foraging behaviour of seals and sealions. I didn't realise Killer Whales went after anything bigger than seals, but it turns out they kill a large number of grey whales around the Aleutians every year, which are bigger than killers. Seems a few of them 'mob' a grey by rolling it over and lying on it for long enough it can't get it's blow-hole back to the surface to breathe, so it panics and drowns. Also, I'm so used to hearing about whales being endangered, I hadn't known that greys were de-listed from the endangered list in 1994, with the Pacific population at around 180,000, pretty much recovered to pre-whaling numbers in the late -1800's. If you want an excuse to come out here apart from just to see Alaska, have a look at
. November's not too cold yet, but it's late enough the Summer season's finished and all the cruise ships have gone.
Sitka's a known feeding ground for humpbacks this time of year, as they prepare for Winter migration south to Hawaii. So they'd organised whale-watching tours out into Sitka Sound and we were lucky enough to see two greys breaching. I Juneau out of season
With a tourist season that's merely 4 months long, the residents of Juneau simply grow their hair long during the Winter. So that's one mystery explained. Still to solve the sheer quantity of lumberjack shirts & baseball caps. didn't get a picture of a this (you need pro- gear for that) but I have a few tail-shots of them diving from just 150 yards away.
More new friends: Richard and Liz were my companions on the ferry to Sitka and we kicked around for most of the weekend there, and put me up in their place for a night on the way back before I caught the next plane further North.
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Merryn
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Very jealous!
Martin, your photos are fantastic and, whilst I shouldn't complain at the start of a warm and sunny weekend in the Barossa Valley, I can't help wishing I was in Alaska right now. It is soooo beautiful.