6/3 Skagway

Haines.

Woke still whoozy from the prev eve's seafood. Cold, grey, drizzly, had coffee at a coffee place, then spent time in their well-done museum, where i learned the well-organized native people had kept all foreign settlement out of their area til those damn yankees, 1867. After that, everything went to hell.

The natives living along the resource-rich northwest coast had quite the artistic culture. Everything was decorated. Yet they had no word for 'art', cuz everything was imbued with it as a matter of course.

They lived in large wooden homes, sailed in large wooden boats. They made wooden boxes, and this was interesting: The sides of the box were all from 1 piece of wood; the corners were notched; then steamed, and BENT into place to form the sides of the box.

I'd arived after office hours the day before, so i went in to pay my slip rent before leaving. I don't know if the harbormaster knew i was there, but he was glad to take my money, and, unique among all the marinas where i'v stayed this trip, he charged me an extra 2' (marinas charge by how long your boat is) because there's an outboard hanging on the back, thereby achieving an extra $1 or so. It just seemed weird.

Rugged out on the water, but again the waves were with me so wasnt too hard & i had not far to go.

Arrived Skagway, the intended final destination for this adventure. 3 cruise ships.

So i was just a little emotional about actually achieving the goal, except i wasnt there yet. I'd have to park parallel to a dock which was perpendicular to the wind, on its downwind side. Everytime i tried to sidle up to it, the wind would blow me away. It was really embarrassing. Finally a man took mercy upon me and grabbed one end as i went by, making it possible for me to manuver in the other end. Ignominious.

And Skagway, truly, thanks to the efforts of the town and the National Park Service to preserve the authentic historic character of the whole place, looks a lot like Disneyland.

I'll spend a couple/few days here. To recuperate i got me a historic hotel room. I was expecting something like the perfect one in Ketchikan, but no, this one is authentic: small/cramped, bathroom down the hall, constantly crying babe, single small high window, every creaky step in the hall, clear coughing in the next room. $117.

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Thots about the trip:

Crisises:

• My first contact with the boat and its owner. Suddenly i was afraid of the concept of such a commitment decision.
• After that, a series of nitely crisises where i'd wake, regret the whole concept of the thing for numerous reasons.
• I return to the boat after a month gone, to prepare for, then start, the actual trip. But the engine won't start. (And then it did.)
• Waiting days in Ganges BC for a mechanic that doesnt communicate.
• Days in Port Edwards, both an engine and outboard that won't start, trying/failing to fix it myself because no else is available. And then someone does come out and has both running in an hour.

Each crisis, i wished i'd never gotten into the thing.

All along the way, people'd ask me where i was going.

I could not honestly answer, i was making it up as i went along. There was no way to know how far i'd get. Tho i did know there was no way to go any farther than Skagway. Going North, it's where the continent intervenes.

Now, here I am. Not a crisis, but a decision: what now? In a sense: done, Mission Accomplished. But truly: only 1/2.