The Aurora Harbor in Juneau from my room at the Breakwater Inn.
Today was a layover day in Juneau so I had plenty of time to take care of some chores like picking up my food package from the post office, and washing my clothes at a laundermat.
Juneau has all the amenities that you would expect to find in a mid-sized city in the U.S. so any food or supply item you may need is on hand. Supermarkets, hardware and marine supply stores, bookstores, restaurants and clothing stores are all available.
The Alaska State Museum is located in Juneau and is definitely worth spending a few hours exploring. Exhibits feature Alaska’s historic pioneer past, its varied wildlife, and indigenous people.
My room at the Breakwater Inn.
The hotel where I stayed, the Breakwater Inn, conveniently has its own restaurant with a varied menu and reasonable prices. This turned out to be an important issue since there are virtually no restaurants within easy walking distance of the hotel.
One of the important things that I had to do today was check to see if a kayak could navigate the Mendenhall Bar wetlands during low tide. I would have to navigate through these wetlands immediately after launching from Juneau tomorrow morning. This area north of Juneau, is un-navigable to motor vessels during low tide, but I thought that maybe a kayak could make it through because of its shallow draft. Low tide tomorrow would be at 8:10am and high tide at 2:45pm. I was hoping to get off to an early start, and put in as many miles as possible, which would require paddling through the lowest spot in the Mendenhall Bar at very near low tide. The best place to acquire this important information would be the Harbormasters Office. There the staff would have local knowledge of the nearby waterways. Upon explaining what I wanted to do, and then double checking my tide information, I was assured by the staff that I would have no trouble at all navigating the bar even at low tide. With this assurance, I felt confident that an early morning launch would be feasible.
