Day 29- Sitka! We made it!
It took a while to navigate into the harbour and then find a slip but we are officially at Sitka and tied up 1630 local time on June 26.
The habour is absolutilel packed and clearly built for the salmon trolling fleet out here. There are trollers of all different shapes and sizes, including sailboats that have been rigged up with trolling gear.
There are not many slips for our length of boat but we found a 100’ end tie that we are sharing with another 50’ boat.
We are going to shower and head off for dinner before exploring the town a little.
Since we are a Canadian vessel we need to check in with Customs at Sitka. Kristine called ahead yesterday to let them know we were coming and I called today. What a great process. The officer was super nice and had no problem if the guys were gone when he got there as everyone has early flights tomorrow. Since we are arriving from a US port there is no clearance formality, but they do track our vessel through SE Alaska via our cruising permit number and we are required to check into the other ports we visit. If the rest of the check ins are as easy as this it will be a very refreshing experience.
Thanks to everyone who has been following along on our trip. It was very surreal arriving back into the cold waters of the North Pacific and although we still have a couple months left and we are still in Alaska, it sure feels good to be sailing again amongst the mountains and forests!
Hey congratulations Kolby and crew – certainly a well earned landfall! ! I guess it must have felt like 29 days! See you next month!