Blog Reader, Blog Reader, Blog Reader, this is Tammy, aboard Vessel Domino and at the Blog. We stay docked at the Municipal dock here in Hoonah. Haven’t seen the harbor master yet so will drop our money in the honor box and go about our day.
Today we walked up to the Icy Strait Center which is about 2 miles from the dock and all up hill. We stopped at the grocery store and the Northwest trading Center for a few items that we will pick up on the way back down the hill.
We have tried to stay out of the touristy areas this summer but there have certainly been times when we ended up in the same area as the large cruise ships. The Icy Strait Center is a cruise ship destination so there are plenty of tourists today. The Center is not really what I had hoped. There are restaurants, shops, a reasonable salmon processing cannery display, a nature walk into a small section of the old growth rain forest and a clan house with a display of a very large grizzly shot by a local police officer in Hoonah. They are also now advertising the Icy Strait Point Zip line which races a mile down a mountain to the shore.
We bought a ticket to the see the clan dances and while we waited we took a nice walk in the BIG trees. I guess I can see that this would be a great way for a cruiser to get off the big ship and stretch their legs. The clan show was not exactly what i expected. There were about 5 dancers and they were friendly and it was interesting but I suspect that once the cruise ships can actually dock (a huge new dock is being built for the cruise ships) there will be more tourists and I would suspect that the shows will be more often and probably better staffed. All of the lore and dances include the Bald Eagle, Raven, Bear, Orca and Salmon. The stories all include the animals helping the natives survive.
We have been told that Hoonah means "village by the cliff." The Tlingit people have occupied the Glacier Bay to Hoonah area for centuries. Hoonah is the largest Tlingit village in southeast Alaska. I have read that the Huna people were driven out of the Glacier Bay as the glaciers advanced from approximately 1400 AD to 1750 AD.
Captain George Vancouver came into the Icy Strait area in 1794 and it was completely iced shut. He was unable to go into what would later become Glacier National Park. "The ice was more than 4,000 ft thick, up to 20 miles or more wide, and extended more than 100 miles to the St. Elias Mountain Range. Muir explored the same area in 1879 and found that the ice had retreated 48 miles up the bay. By 1916 the Grand Pacific Glacier had retreated 65 miles from the opening of the Bay.
This is Tammy on vessel Domino signing off and standing by on Channel 16.
· Left Dock/Weighed anchor: At dock in Hoonah
· Cruise Log: 0 NM
· Weather Conditions: Cloudy and breezy
· Navigational Obstacles: Making our way through the cruise ship tourists. The cruise ships carefully loads these people onto the life boats and takes them to the icy Strait dock and drops them there for the day.
· Wildlife Sighting: Eagles, huge slugs
· Arrived Dock/Dropped anchor:
· Slip for the night: $25
· Lessons learned: I was told by a local in the grocery store that the Icy Strait Center is not a cultural center but just a cruise ship dock with restaurants. She wasn’t completely wrong.
· Fun Meals underway: Fish and chips at the very expensive Icy Strait Point shops
· Time today Helm for TEA: 0
· Time today Helm for ACA: 0
