Travel Postcard 

A Voyage to Southeast Alaska with World Explorer Cruises
On Board This S. S. Universe Explorer
Selected notes while cruising Southeast Alaska Inland Passage

by
George and Ninette Medovoy

We set sail: Most of the passengers have retired to their cabins before dinner, but we remain on deck to watch the lights of Vancouver, British Columbia disappearing into the charcoal night.

The Universe Explorer carries 739 passengers and 330 crew members - considerably smaller than those floating hotels that ply Alaskan waters with as many as 1,500 passengers. World Explorer calls its voyages Adventures for the Heart, Mind and Soul. If you're looking for gambling, glamour and glitz, or formal dress every night, this is the wrong ship. 

In the next nine days, we'll experience an informal eco-cruise up British Columbias inland passage and then to the small towns of southeastern Alaska.  
We'll spend an average of nine hours in each port, sign up for tours arranged by Universe Explorer, and do some serious shopping.

And well hear from onboard experts to better understand this part of the 49th state: a geologist, an astronomer, an anthropologist, a botanist, an Indian from Metlakatla, a historian, and an artist-in-residence who organizes watercolor workshops.

Of course, there will be great evening entertainment, too, including talent shows, costume parties, a five-piece band for dancing; classical and modern pianists and singers, and some great sing-alongs like Yes, Sir, That's My Baby. 

The ship has a 15,000-volume library with books on Alaska and a computer room for computer classes. Dinner is the 8 p.m. second seating - time to experience the legendary, endless meals associated with cruising.

Each night the dinner menu has a light cuisine meal, vegetarian options, fish and meat dishes, salads and desserts. And, yes, you can request an extra dessert! The menu features wines and champagnes from California, France, Chile, Germany, Australia, and Washington State. And as if all that wasn't enough, there are mid-day barbecues, teatime snacks like a New York Deli, and midnight snacks ranging from pastas to ice cream.

Time for bed. The cabin steward leaves a piece of chocolate on the pillow. One last peek out the port hole into the dark night. Overnight our Irish captain charts a northerly course up the west coast of Vancouver Island.

Up at 6:30 a.m. to catch the suns reflection off the water. We can have the buffet breakfast and eat on deck or wait until the 8 a.m. dining room seating. Lets try the buffet of scrambled eggs, fried potatoes, and smoked salmon. 

The Universe Explorer makes its way through British Columbias Inland Passage. Lots of time to enjoy the fresh ocean air and read on a deck chair. 6:30 a.m. Folks are on deck with their first cup of coffee, anticipating the 8 a.m. arrival at Wrangell, an island town of 2,000. The first sightings of southeastern Alaska come into view: low-lying mountains partially exposed by rays of sunlight.

Three ladies in 19th-century costumes - Wrangells official welcoming party - wave to curious passengers who wave back from the main deck. Despite their dated costumes, you can tell that the 21st century has arrived, even here in Wrangell: one of the ladies is talking on her cell phone! Wrangell reflects the tight-knit, remote communities of the 49th state. We meet Beth Comstock, a young mother of eight who carries her six-week-old daughter Bethany. Comstocks a stay-at-home mom, but she works part-time leading tours when the ships come in during the summer and fills in as a substitute school teacher. Her husband works in the oil industry.

Like condescending tourists, we ask, What is life like here? Its wonderful, says Comstock. It really is. Its very much like Mayberry. Were just a family. You know everything about everybody. Some things you don't even want to know. Its also very safe. My wallets in my car, she says, the car keys are in the glove compartment. I don't think I've ever locked the car. Ever. It feels really nice. You don't lock your house. You don't lock anything up.

And when someone's kids need to go off to compete in a basketball game, the family puts them on the ferry or on the one Alaska Airlines flight out, and the other teams family picks them up, feeds them and takes care of them. We do the same, says Comstock.

Wrangell has been governed by three different nations - the Russians, the British, and then by Americans, who forced the British out.

The weather here is fairly moderate by Alaska standards. Situated in a rain forest, the town gets about 100 inches of rain a year. We drive to the other end of town to inspect faded rock carvings near the shore, said to be 10,000-year-old Tlingit Indian praises for the salmon that return every year.

The chiefs tribal house is a replica of the original built in 1834 after the Russians arrived. It housed an extended family that lived around a big open area filled with cooking fires.

Skagway. Frontier storefronts with historic charm mark the town located by the Lynn Canal, the longest glaciated valley in the world, geologist-ships lecturer Dr. Monty Elliott of Southern Oregon University tells us.  In 1898, Skagway was a lawless frontier town of 20,000 filled with beer halls and brothels - the starting point for miners heading up the Chilkoot Trail for the Klondike, over 500 miles north. Today's population is about 1,000.

Some things haven't changed in Skagway. Take this recent ad in the Anchorage Times: Need a woman. Single white male, late 40s, with 30 sled dogs, looking for a single white female to warm up the cabin and help feed the team.

Haines. George's chance to kayak on Chilkat Lake has arrived!

From the ships deck, Haines is postcard-perfect - a town of 2,000 nestled in the Chilkat Valley, otherwise known as the Valley of the Eagles for the over 3,000 bald eagles that gather in the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve each fall to partake of the abundant supply of salmon.

Jagged peaks range from 1,900 to 6,500 feet, with hillsides covered by spruce and hemlock. Its the driest place in southeast Alaska, with only 60 inches of rain annually.  

Abundant wildlife includes both brown and black bears - sometimes spotted downtown - wolves, goats, and marine mammals.

About 40 of us join Deishu Expeditions for the drive back to Chilkat Lake, whose glacial waters are teaming with spawning sockeye salmon. Along the way, a fisherman, waist high in the water, is snagging fish in a river. On the other side, two brown bears are doing the same thing!

Satin-like and still, Chilkat Lake is so immense that if the earth were flat, its waters would stretch all the way to the end. Ned Rozbicki of Deishu explains how to paddle the three-person fiberglass kayaks, as we stand like soldiers with paddles at the ready. We zip up our red life vests, slip into a plastic skirt that fits around the kayak opening and take our places.

Only a misty rain is falling - pretty spectacular for September. Ordinarily there are horizontal winds and substantial rains by now. The kayaks glide across the water as we make a back and forth motion with the paddles, as the fellow in the back guides the kayak with his feet. I'm in front. 

Now Ned announces: Okay, everyone into the stealth mode. Everyone comes to a full stop. The silence seems forever, but suddenly a salmon jumps out of the water, splashing down either to dislodge parasites or jolt its eggs to lay them. High in a tree, a bald eagle whirls around, disappearing into the forest while its mate stays behind.

Rozbicki came to Haines 10 years ago on a lark from Seattle. His intent was to write a magazine story about Alaska. And like so many people who live here, he, too, has a bear story. My friend and I took our bikes on the ferry from Seattle, he remembers. We got off the ferry and rode to a wooded area close to the ocean to set up tents for our first night. Id been in Alaska maybe all of two hours, and I look up and there's a brown bear running at me through the woods. I thought, This cant happen. You cant get off a ferry, set up a tent and have a bear running at you. Its totally impossible. I was in something of a state of denial, but it was happening. Rozbicki told his friend there was a bear running their way. His friend said, Yeah, right, then he, too, saw it. For reasons still unknown, but for which Rozbicki and his friend will be forever
thankful, the bear suddenly turned and headed the other way.

In spite of the frightful incident, Rozbicki was hooked and stayed. But my friend was a quivering mass, he said. I haven't seen him since. Sitka: This charming town is the centerpiece of Baranoff Island, one of many small, forested islands in Sitka Sound. Since the harbor wont accommodate big ships, tenders take us ashore to Sitkas snug little harbor.

A short walk away, a worker is taking advantage of the sunny weather to put a fresh coat of paint on St. Michaels Cathedral, the first Russian Orthodox Cathedral in America dating to the days when Sitka was the capital of Russian America. The Russians named the town Saint Archangel Michael, and the famed New Archangel Dancers, who perform for ocean-going visitors, have taken the towns name. Visitors are also reminded of the fact that the Tlingit Indians were here 10,000 years ago.

Botanist Mary Stensvold, a ships lecturer, lives in Sitka with her conservationist husband. They own a wonderful bookstore here called Old Harbor Books, specializing in Alaskan history and art, Arctic exploration and the Northwest. Stensvold says business is good because reading is one of the few things you can do in Sitka when it rains. 

On this day, its short-sleeve weather, perfect to go out on the Sea Otter Express jet boat to spot whales off Sitka Sound. 

Metlakatla: Its too cloudy and misty for us to get into Metlakatla, Alaskas only native reserve located on Annette Island.

There are no tourist shops on the island of 1,800; goods include hand-crafted art pieces made by over 60 local artists. 

Misty Fjords: Everyone on board seems to be on deck now, as our ship slowly enters the Misty Fjords national monument, a 2.2 million-acre wilderness relatively
untouched by human hands and accessible only by seaplane or ship.

The words quickly spill onto the notepad: a curtain of clouds has opened up to let us into a magical kingdom of towering seacliffs and myriad waterfalls.

Ketchikan: Five miles long, four blocks wide, and two blocks up Deer Mountain.

That's how residents of this town of 20,000 built on the hilly slope of Revillagigedo Island describe Ketchikan, which has the largest collection of totempoles in the world.

The Universe Explorer docks along the main street, which is lined with gift shops, art galleries and cafes. Much of the town is built on piles over water, or perched on the hillsides with wooden ramps for streets.

Ketchikan Creek, where a picturesque row of wooden buildings once housed the notorious red light district, runs furiously through the neighborhood with hundreds of giant salmon. It was raining when we arrived - not unusual for a town that gets 162 inches of rain a year and is known as the wettest on the North American continent. George has signed up to fly in a 15-seater Beaver seaplane over the Misty Fjords and land on an alpine lake. 

Here is his mini-story: 

It was a great idea ... but, well, already I'm having second thoughts. While I have breakfast, with the rain picking up and cloud cover thickening, a small seaplane takes off near our ship. A seasoned private pilot eating breakfast with me says: How can they take off in this weather?

I wonder if this will be my last breakfast - ever. I push my plate away. Should I go or should I stay behind? But something pushes me to the waiting van, where a pleasant lady checks my name off a list. It takes forever for anyone else to show up. Am I the only one on this flight? This is not good.

Presently more passengers show up, and eventually there's about 12 of us. Once in the plane, the single pilot, a young, rather stoic fellow wearing a green parka, tells everybody without expression: Your floatation device is in that pocket. Please buckle up.

Then: If anyone would like to join me up front, come on up. That's my cue. and I hobble up to the co-pilots seat. The engine is rumbling, and I wear my headphones to listen to the music and the narration.

As we taxi away from the dock, the pilot takes out a roll of paper towels, tears off a piece, and motion to me to wipe my side of the window, which has fogged up. I do as I'm told, half amused that this is the way they must do it up here in Alaska. After a bumpy ride over the water, were airborne, heading for the Misty Fjords. Well, this isn't so bad after all. There's plenty of visibility because I can still see the harbor. I give the window a few more swipes with the paper towel. The breeze coming
through my side window feels good.

Fifteen minutes into the flight, things start to change, and I'm really worried. The last time I worried in a small plane was when the pilot was climbing out of a raging forest fire in the San Bernardino Mountains, but this is far more ominous because I cant see anything out the window.  Its really raining. I want to say to my stoic pilot, Lets do the Misty Fjords another time - lets turn back. 

But luck is with me. I guess I haven't realized it, but the pilot has actually been turning back because I can begin to see the outlines of Ketchikan again. And what a wonderful sight it is! That night at dinner, what a tale Ill tell, one of many from the voyage to southeastern Alaska.

IF YOU GO...

For more information about World Explorer Cruises to Alaska, call 1-800-854-3835, or visit www.wecruise.com.

From May to August 2001, World Explorer Cruises will offer its Route of the Pioneers Alaska cruises, and from May to July 2001 its Land of the Ancestors Alaska cruises. Both are 14-night itineraries leaving from Vancouver, British Columbia. Fares range from $1,995 to $3,995 per person. For May, the second person sailing under double occupancy in any cabin pays half price. For May, June, July and August departures, there is no single surcharge in categories E and F, and third and fourth persons sharing a cabin pay only $595, including port fees. Those booking by Dec. 31 will receive a $100 TravelSmith Outfitting merchandise certificate and between Jan. 1 and April 30, 2001 a $50 certificate. In June and July the sun almost refuses to set in Alaska, with long days that are pleasantly warm. World Explorer will also introduce two 18-day, year-end 2001-2002 cruises in Central America and the Panama Canal. Fares begin at $2,330 with a second person in cabin half off, based on double occupancy, cruise only.

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