28 June 2017; Haines, Alaska.

Haines is special place. It really should not be there and you can see that as it looks totally different than the other Alaskan towns. And that gives it, its charm. Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway are now the major tourist towns, while Haines in its little sheltered corner of Lynn Canal is somehow only a small part of it. Holland America was the company that started calling here on a regular basis, as it decided in the late 1990’s to make Haines the Southbound stop on its 14 day Alaska service to Seward giving the guests who made the 14 roundtrip from Vancouver at least one different port to look at. (If they need more T shirts, they can still take the ferry to Skagway which is available to those who joined in Seward for the southbound trip only).

The metropolis of Haines was originally an Indian Settlement and to put it simply the Indians choose the Valley on which edge Haines is located to sit out of the wind and to enjoy some good fishing. The wind can whistle up the Lynn Canal as a funnel wind with speeds of up to 50 or 60 miles an hour and it is not much fun if you have to face that every time you open your front door. When the United States bought Alaska they bought with it a border dispute with Canada. That resulted in the building of the William H. Seward Fort just south of the town.  As far as I know Canada has never invaded the USA over “the Haines Question” so it must all have been settled.  Haines got its names from a Mrs. Haines who was instrumental in providing funds for a mission school which was built here in the 1880’s.

Haines as seen from the ship with the ex military houses against the mountain ridge.

The fact that the town looks so different from any other town is caused by the Military houses against the hill above the dock. I suppose the military had some sort of standard house design and brought that with them when the fort was built and the subsequent expansion of the military activities through the years. One big difference between these military houses and the average Alaskan house is the size of windows. Everywhere along the inside passage and in the various towns, the locals construct their houses with as large as possible windows to let as much light in as possible. Understandable as for half the year, the weather is gloomy to very dark for most of the day. This area of Alaska does not have the midnight sun but it comes very close to it. A few days ago we had the day with the shortest night here in Alaska. On the ship the sun set at 22.50 and rose again at 03.20 hrs. In those 4.5 hours it never went really dark it was more of a prolonged dusk. During the winter it also works the other way around. It never gets really day light. So the more light that is being let in, the better.

The electronic chart showing the ships approach and subsequent docking at the pier in Haines.

The port has only one dock for cruise ships although there are moves afoot to construct a second one. It is standard for us, to dock nose in, portside alongside. Partly because we do not like the ships Azi pods to come close to shallow water, partly because the first tours are leaving at 06.30 and going nose out / swinging over starboard would mean coming in another 30 minutes earlier. That means a lot of people have to get up even earlier than is already the case. If we swing in the evening, it will go faster as we move the ship away from the dock and into open waters and a lot of crew are still around working anyway.

From Haines there are tours to be made all over the Lynn Canal and Skagway. Quite popular is the local tour as there is a fair chance of meeting Moose. Our tour today spotted a Mama Moose and a baby Moose. Great excitement of course. Moose are not universally liked though by the locals. One of our pilots lives in Haines and when she is ready to harvest her tomatoes, a local Moose tends to come down and “help” with the harvest.  Our company also offers bike tours in Haines, as the Chilkoot valley is near flat and traffic is not such that you risk life and limb while peddling around.  Top of my Agenda is the local brewery (bring your own bottle) and the Hammer Museum. The latter is not a joke but has an enormous collection of everything you can hammer with from all around the world.  Deep in the archives of this blog you will find an entry where yours truly (instigated by the Art Auctioneer) donated an auctioneers hammer to the museum.  And they also sell a T-shirt, called”I got hammered in Haines”.  And that is one you cannot get in any of the other T shirt shops in Alaska.

Tomorrow we are in Juneau, where the plan is to arrive at 07.00 hrs. Weather: it is supposed to be an overcast day but with not much or any rain. Temperatures will soar up into the high fifties.