Day 38 | Flotilla to Alaska | Ford’s Terror to Juneau

We had the anchors up by 5:45a.m. this morning to make our way to the rapids for high slack, which we thought would be around 6:30a.m. The rapids cooperated nicely and we had an easy transit.

Exiting Ford’s Terror and motoring out of Endicott Arm always feels a little deflating. On the way in, the views get progressively more impressive. On the way out, the sheer cliffs turn into steep, forested hills. The ice grows less dense. More boats start appearing on AIS. Don’t get us wrong: the scenery is still beautiful, it’s just not as rugged and in-your-face amazing as the last few days. Today’s misty weather after so much sun furthered the feeling.

We enjoyed a nice boost from the current for the first half of the day, but hit the wall the second half. Still, we arrived in Juneau in plenty of time to get settled and meet for our farewell dinner at In Bocca Al Lupo (one of our favorite restaurants in Juneau).

Odd to see zero cruise ships as we approach Juneau.

A few final thoughts:

  • The boats all did great. Very, very few problems.
  • We largely forgot about COVID, which was incredibly refreshing!
  • We appreciate that Canada let us transit to Alaska (and we look forward to being able to slow down on our way through when Canada is open again!)

Alaska offers too many highlights to list in a wrap-up (but we’ve done our best to show you in photos along the way). The wildlife and scenery are breathtaking, and for those of you who have asked us if it’s really worth it to go north of [insert furthest north place you’ve been here], it ABSOLUTELY is worth the effort to get here.

65.6nm today
1397.5nm total