5/3/08 - Alaska Ferry from Bellingham, WA to Ketchikan

Saturday, May 3, 2008

This morning I left my things in the sleeping area, taking only my wallet, to go wander the ship a bit. Now that I’ve gotten to know several people around me, I’m comfortable leaving my things when I go to other parts of the ship, and I’ve noticed they do the same. We’ll be together on this ferry for the next 3 days, so it sort of becomes its own small community over time.

A sunny chat, aft on the bridge deck (behind solarium).

Earlier I was chatting with Matt from Vermont who is bunking nearby. He’s on his way to Fairbanks to work on an organic community farm where they grow vegetables and give classes to teach others how to do the same. He gets paid to work, lives for free in a tent and gets all the vegetables he can eat from the farm. I gather he’s done this kind of work before in Oregon, and after this summer season he’s thinking about going to Hawaii or back to Oregon this winter to work at a similar farm.

Inside Victoria passage
Matt is single and in his early 20’s, and I am so impressed with young people like him. He’s making his own way in the world and doesn’t expect Mom and Dad or someone else to foot the bill for his chosen lifestyle – a mentality that some never seem to outgrow regardless of their age. It’s obvious that he has a very strong work ethic, and based on what I’ve seen him do since I met him just yesterday, he demonstrates great responsibility in his choices: if he can’t afford to do something on his own, then he waits until he can by saving and planning – instead of expecting someone else to make it easy for him with a quick handout.

In this “immediate gratification” era in which we live -- constant access via cell phones and the Internet, drive-through fast food, sometimes too-easy credit cards, and instant-everything -- it’s great to see someone like Matt, even at such a young age, demonstrate an understanding of what it means to make their own way in the world. From talking with him it’s obvious that he lives his life by saving up and paying his own way through it. What a sense of accomplishment he must feel in everything his does – because he earns it by using his brain and his labor. The more I chat with him and other people like him on this ferry, it’s clear they have all experienced that exhilarating sense of independence and pride that comes from standing on your own two feet in the world -- working hard, “paying your dues” as they say, and making your own way through life.

Matt in the solarium

And I love how most people on this ferry seem to actively engage with people who are different from them, in both age and background. When I was Matt’s age it seemed most of the people I knew were more like me – we all had similar backgrounds, jobs and home lives. I’m not sure if that sort of “keeping to your own kind” was part of the culture in the region where I lived, or if I just wasn’t aware enough of my surroundings to pay attention and seek out people who were different. So for me a great perk of moving to other parts of the country was that it provided me the opportunity to meet people who were very different from me in how they lived – both culturally and economically. Different religions, different value systems, different income and education levels – but somehow, in most places I’ve lived those differences didn’t seem to matter or be a hindrance to our getting along, but rather they were a great benefit that people seemed to enjoy.


The boat deck

The longer I live the more I realize that it’s not who we know or who we’re related to or what our backgrounds are like that draw people together (or apart), but rather how our minds work and how we think. I think of myself as sort of an observer of life, and in my own life I’ve met plenty of sincere, cooperative and sharing people out there who go out of there way on behalf of others. And I’ve noticed it’s those people who tend to live happy lives, perhaps because they seem to make the best of whatever life brings them. And of course I’ve also met plenty of the “it’s all about me and what I want or intend” people too, who seem to live at a more “on the surface” façade level where maintaining a certain image seems more important than the life lived underneath that surface. And I’ve noticed those people seem to struggle through life and be angry at the world and unhappy much of the time. When I realized that basic fact of life, it wasn’t too hard to figure out which path is the happier and more fulfilling one to try and follow.

Someone told me the other day they thought Tim and I had always led a “charmed life”. That’s pretty funny to me, because if they really believe that, then I can only say they weren’t paying enough attention to notice the error in that “perception”. It’s true that perhaps Tim and I haven’t chosen the “normal” kind of life, and perhaps we try not to make a habit of complaining about the more negative aspects of our jobs, our financial obligations, or our life and the people in it. But that certainly doesn’t mean those “negative” aspects aren’t there, we just also made different choices about how we handle those things too. Everyone needs to “vent” sometimes, that’s a healthy thing once in a while. But what good does it do to spend my life complaining to others about every problem in it? I guess I believe that life is what we make of it, and while we can’t always choose the twists and turns that life’s road will bring us, we CAN chose the path we take to get over or around those obstacles in the road.

A room with a view (bunking in the solarium)

Speaking of obstacles, one of mine today was waiting for breakfast time to arrive in the cafeteria. I’ve been up since first light just before 5am, along with a number of others from our group in the solarium, since most of us turned in not long after dark around 9pm. After a night sleeping inside-yet-outside, I find that I’m hungry this morning at a very early hour, but the cafeteria (the only onboard place for food except vending machines) doesn’t open until 7am. Fortunately an apple in my own personal “pantry” held me over until opening time. I’ve already decided that I’ll eat at least one hot meal onboard each day, and then try to make do with my own food supply for the remainder. I enjoy eating breakfast out, and that’s fortuitous because it appears breakfast is the best value on the ship for meals. For example, today’s breakfast special is stuffed French toast for only 5.50 or sourdough pancakes for 5.00.

The cafeteria on the Matanuska Alaska Ferry

I chose the French toast and milk and carry my tray to a table decorated with laminated illustrations of sea life (animal and plant) from the nearby Alaska regions. The illustrations and descriptions are from the Alaska Fish and Game, and with the clear images and accompanying scientific and common name descriptors, it makes a great educational and fun tool to review while you eat and watch the islands cruise past on either side of the gently rocking ferry.

I just heard them announce another car deck break a few minutes ago – they seem to have those about four times each day for about 15 minutes each. There are pets on the ferry but they must remain in the vehicles, so the car deck breaks are the time when pet parents can exercise their pet and give them bathroom breaks (they hose down the aft section of the ferry afterward). This is also the only time passengers can retrieve things from their cars, since only crew is allowed on the car decks except during the car deck breaks.

Lighthouse near Queen Charlotte Sound

It’s not quite 9am and as I sit blogging on my lawn chair in the solarium I hear an announcement that we’re about to arrive at our first open water crossing – Queen Charlotte Sound. This is where the ship exits the passage inside Vancouver Island and leaves the open Pacific to port for about 90 minutes, until we reach the Queen Charlotte Islands just south of our first stop at Ketchikan. I enjoy the open water and now that daylight has arrived we can see the hilly shores on both sides of the ferry. About 30 minutes after the announcement, I see the rocky coast of Vancouver Island disappear into the ocean, and suddenly the vista is white-capped deep blue water as far as the eye can see to the west.

The boat motion has increased significantly now as the wave height has also increased to 4-6 feet. I love this motion of the boat rising and falling as the bow plows through the seas and gently sways from side to side with the rocking motion that I find so soothing – but that is probably also upsetting a few stomachs aboard about now. Two of my favorite things to do in these kind of waves is to stand on the stern and watch the rise and fall of the bow and mid-ship ahead of me, and to stand on the bow and feel the rise and fall at its most noticeable point. For someone who loves boats and being aboard them, that feeling is priceless indeed.

As I wander through the ship to check out the facilities, I am reminded that this boat is a functional ferry and not a cruise ship. The first difference between this ferry and a cruise ship is the size – this is much smaller than the major cruise lines today which maximize passengers per ship. The M/V Matanuska is one of the two largest ferries in the Alaska ferry fleet (there are 10 total), second in size only to the M/V Columbia. The Matanuska can carry 499 passengers and 88 vehicles in 108 cabins and public sleeping spaces and one car deck. In addition to the car deck, there are only three other decks. The cabin deck is where the double, triple and four-berth cabins are located along with the direct stairway to the car deck where we enter and exit the ferry at each stop. The cabin deck also houses the purser’s desk and office for information and assistance, but there is no shore excursion desk – when we reach a port, passengers are on their own to explore or book their own tours. The boat deck (named for the life boats that are deployed from there) holds the cafeteria in the stern, a small bar and lounge mid-ship, and the large observation lounge forward with massive windows that look out in three directions and comfy chairs and couches to enjoy the view. The bridge deck is restricted in the forward area where the bridge is located, but the remainder is open to passengers with the theater room at mid-ship and the solarium and open deck in the aft section. There are plenty of bathrooms and public showers on each deck, and the ship is filled with great historical photos of the ferries and images of Alaska which highlight its fishing and seagoing heritage.

Two kinds of life boats (the orange ones are the traditional tenders, and the three small round canisters in the foreground are the more hi-tech versions of life rafts).

The ferry includes very limited organized activities like one would fine on cruise ships – there are no organized walks around the deck, no shuffleboard or climbing walls, no gym, no ongoing buffet – this is a functional ferry to get us from one place to another, not a floating resort destination. However the ship does provide some basic amenities -- the theater room shows movies every few hours during the daytime (people sleep there in sleeping bags at night), there is a tiny video arcade on the boat deck, and the observation lounge includes a small children’s play area and an assortment of free puzzles and games for passenger use. During our trip there were always two puzzles going on either side of the observation lounge, with passengers taking turns at fitting in the pieces while relaxing or reading in the lounge. Other than watching the movies, most passengers spent time reading, talking, or just enjoying the view.

By 10am we had moved farther out into the open water and we now had a rolling swell hitting the boat at the port beam, so our gentle rocking motion has increased to a several foot pitch from side to side. Now we’re talking. To me, this is what being on the water is all about – feeling the boat ride out the ocean’s movement, and adjusting for the motion the way a rider moves with a horse as they move together at a beautiful slow or fast gate. I love that feeling, and to me the water is just as alive and has a mind of its own too, just like the horse that moves beneath the rider on its back.

The ocean is also alive with sea life, and later in the day we are fortunate to see both whales and dolphins. The whales spout their watery plumes high into the air and flip their tails out of the water as they dive. The dolphins danced around near our bow as it slices through the water at about 18 knots.

I met additional people as I moved about the ship, including two girls traveling to work in different locations in Alaska, a couple from the tent on the solarium who are going up to backpack and camp for several weeks, and a family with a young son and another child on the way where the husband is serving in the military and have been deployed to Anchorage for two years. It’s fascinating to meet and talk with others on the ship and to find out everyone’s “story” for what brings them here and where they are headed next. We have plenty of time to get to know each other, because with 36 hours to our first stop at Ketchikan early tomorrow morning, we have another full day at sea today.