Wednesday, 12 June 2019
Haines, Alaska, USA
One of those nights were I just cannot get to sleep. Despite being tired.
1am. Awake.
2am. Wide awake.
3am. Still awake.
4am. Bored of being awake now.
5am. Sleep now required.
Must have been about half five by the time I drop off.
And then.
All hell breaks loose just after 6am.
In the bedhead units are loudspeakers for the emergency alarms.
I can assure you, dear reader, they are very LOUD.
My ear just happens to be inches away from said loudspeaker.
Having just dropped off to a deep sleep, woken with a jolt, the sort to give you a heart attack with fright, as the emergency alarm sounds.
BLAH. BLAH. BLAH. BLAH. BLAH. BLAH. BLAH.
“Medical emergency alert team to cabin 8131. Medical emergency alert team to cabin 8131.”
Jesus Christ. Frightens the life out of me.
Never mind cabin 8131, medical team is required in my cabin 5068. Heart is pounding having just been disturbed by this loud alarm.
It’s a groggy day as I walk around like a zombie in need of sleep.
Still dismal weather as we dock in Haines. Can only assume the ship is docking here as Skagway is for northbound cruise ships. If I thought there wasn’t much to see in Skagway, then Haines has even less. Have decided not to do any more overly priced shore excursions as I’ve already done the ones I wanted to do northbound. So. A day free in Haines. Hmmmm. A leisurely day then.
Across the road from the dock is Fort Seward. Originally a church settlement built in 1881, the US Army arrived and took over the redundant church in 1901 and built up the fort due to the ongoing Canadian border dispute, a few miles away. Decommissioned at the end of World War 2, it was resurrected as Fort Chilkoot by WW2 veterans starting a new community and subsequently incorporated into the town of Haines in 1970. The former parade ground is now, in effect, the local village green and the turn of the last century buildings still line the sides of the parade ground. Interesting walking tour as you travel around the perimeter of the parade ground.
Nearby is the Raptor Centre, but the birds are all in cages hiding away which doesn’t make for good photos, even though you’re quite close. One of the birds, an Eurasian eagle owl, is being displayed on the hand of one of the keepers and you realise how big these owls really are as you get close.
Haines main tourist attraction though is…the Hammer Museum. The world’s first museum of hammers. I kid you not. Their mission? ‘To preserve the history of hammers.’ I kid you not.
Dare I say it, but it is actually quite interesting.
With some time available, make my way to the public library to take advantage of the free wifi and catch up on blogs. Oh yes. As with most libraries, it won’t be that busy. Will it?!
Ho. Ho. Ho.
The world and his wife along with Uncle Tom Cobleigh and all are there.
Never have I seen a library so full of people.
They’re all here for the free wifi. Not just cruise ship passengers, the silver surfers, but also the ship’s crew. It’s full of Filipinos and Indonesians. All taking up valuable bandwidth video calling friends and family.
The ‘high speed’ wifi isn’t so high speed now. It takes ages to upload all the blog photos and videos. Slow going progress. So slow in fact that I have to relocate to a café with free wifi.
Off I go. The things I do for you, dear reader.
Grab a coffee and ask for the wifi login. But. Can I connect. Can I ‘eck. There’s a problem with their wifi. Sod it. Needs to be rebooted. Come on, need to get back to the ship. This is taking ages. Loads of blogs to upload.
After 15mins the wifi issue is resolved. But is dreadfully slow. This is horrendous. Will be glad to get back to civilisation.
Ship silently slides out of Haines after dinner. These ships continue to impress with the silence and manoeuvrability.
As we depart, some lads have rigged up a winch on the quayside and using it to drag a line across the shore line at speed so they can waterski. Quite an ingenious idea. No idea how they’re putting up with the very cold water though.
Like the Noordam, the Westerdam also puts on the BBC Earth Alaska film with live music. It really is a sensational film highlighting Alaska in all its glory. Having watched it on Noordam, reminds me of just how good it is.
And how much I’ve enjoyed Alaska.
