OWNERSTORY - ALASKA
85
Eventually, they set sail again for Singapore, Borneo and the
Philippines, where they once more spent a lot of time “losing
ourselves in an idealistic lifestyle, exploring this incredible part
of the world and turning even more native. Sailing further south
through remote areas of eastern Indonesia to Darwin, Australia
in 2010 brought us back into the first-world and to western culture.
Storm damage from Cyclone Carlos delayed Sänna in Darwin
before we decided to beat against the eastern trade winds,
along the Great Barrier Reef to Brisbane, followed by a particularly
tough crossing to New Zealand in 2012. We’d reached our
half-way destination and took a well-earned breather at our
furthest point south.“
From New Zealand, it was straight to Alaska. Well, nearly. The
direct route would have been an incredible 9000 miles diagonally
across the Pacific Ocean, from west to east and from the
southern to the northern hemisphere but convenient and highly
alluring stopovers en route were the French Polynesian islands
and Hawaii, where they again stayed for ten months.
And then, two years of glorious Alaska. One highlight of the
famous Inside Passage is the Glacier Bay National Park. Glacier
Bay is a homeland, a living laboratory, a national park, a designated
wilderness, a biosphere reserve, and a world heritage site.
It’s a marine park, where great adventure awaits by boating into
inlets, coves and hideaway harbours. It’s also a land park, with
its snow-capped mountains, spectacular glaciers, and emerald–
green forests. From the summit to the sea, Glacier Bay’s
wildness is remote, dynamic and intact.
It is possible to enter this fantastic area of sheltered Fjords, wild
coastlines, temperate rainforest and rugged mountains with your
own boat, as Sänna also did, although access for private yachts
is restricted to a certain number. Just outside the National Park,
Chichagof Island seems to be nearly as attractive – Sänna even
wintered in the sheltered marina of Hoonah under the watchful
eyes of the friendly locals, while Marie and Dave flew home to the
UK to visit friends and families. About Chichagof, Dave writes the
following: “Chichagof is mountainous, thickly forested, remote
and wild. The island has the largest concentration of brown grizzly
bears than any other place in the world… almost three per square
mile. Offshore are the greatest numbers of humpback whales
found anywhere and pods of orca whales regularly penetrate the
numerous secluded sounds, fast-flowing straits and beautiful
coves. Wolves, deer and powerful bald eagles scour the shorelines
searching endlessly for food of some type or other. And then, right
in the middle of this not-much-at-all except high-peak mountains,
there’s the small boardwalk settlement of Pelican. Pelican,
believe you me, is like nowhere else you can imagine. Pelican is an
infamous-gem known only to Alaskans and they don’t take kindly
to any so-called travel-expert looking to ‘discover’ the next tourist
enclave. There’s no roads in or out of Pelican, there’s no roads at
all. There are no motor vehicles, no traffic laws or anything like
that, just an amazingly picturesque timber-township-built-onstilts
constructed into the mountainside to feed the now dilapidated
and ruined fish cannery that’s still crumbling into the sea.
The only way to Pelican is by boat and even then, intrepid vessels
have to brave the terrifying Inian Pass narrows with twelve-knot
rapids to get even anywhere close. It’s not easy to get to Pelican.”