July 12-13 – Hoonah
From Pelican we decided to make a
7-plus hour cruise to Hoonah, and enjoyed seeing more humpbacks in South Inian
Pass.
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| Coming into Hoonah |
We were excited to visit Hoonah.
It’s reportedly the largest Tlingit settlement in Southeast Alaska and its
close proximity to Glacier Bay made it a perfect stopover before meeting our
next crew, Lee & JoAnn, who were flying into Gustavus in a few days.
Motoring into the harbor I was
immediately struck by a graveyard we passed entering the channel with an old
totem pole at its perimeter. It was a somber introduction to Hoonah.
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| Chipper Fish |
During our stay, we had a number
of meals at Chipper Fish, and passed
on greetings to its owner Kristi from her Aunt Karen in Pelican.
One morning at breakfast we met a
Tlingit elder by the name of Ken, who we ran into later that day after dinner
when he was painting the bottom of his boat Weather
Oar Knot on the grid at the end of our harbor. As we struck up a
conversation with him he told us he was a manager at Glacier Bay, and it
suddenly dawned on us he was also the soft-spoken native spokesperson in a
video we watched at the Park during our orientation meeting.
Noticing that it would soon be
dark and Ken still had a long way to go to finish his bottom paint, Roland
generously offered to help him paint.
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| Ken and Roland putting bottom pain on Weather Oar Knot |
At 10 pm they were still going at
it, but thanks to Roland’s help, Weather
Oar Knot had a fresh coat of bottom paint before nighttime fell. And Roland
no doubt had the appreciation of a new Tlingit friend.
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