Summer 2013 in review

I spent the summer in Southeast Alaska working for what I originally thought was just one company but it ended up being three! I was originally hired to work for a float plane company and it turns out that the father and son co-owners also own two other companies, a small marina and yacht agency. So my job changed by the hour and the day. Most of my time was spent on the float plane business as a customer service rep, phone calls, emails, bookings and reservations, driving the company mini-bus to pick up cruise ship customers. But I also did bookings for the marina and helped boats tie up and the most varied and often most fun part was the yacht tasks.

The basis of the job comes from foreign flagged vessels operating in Alaskan waters and a requirement to contract with an agent/agency. A yacht agency does the leg work for a yacht, anything from booking a dock to sourcing food. And beyond Working as a yacht agent meant using a little creativity and lost of resourcefulness. Being new to town I was still learning where all the different stores were and different street names and yet I would have to source different supplies from places I had yet to know existed. More on that in a different post.

Float planes, what strange creatures! I’d never ridden in one before I started working for the company. I’d also only visited Southeast Alaska for a week, so I was really in for a treat! The area averages about 13 feet of rain each year and is a rainforest. Many people ask about snow, thinking that it’s Alaska and it must be some crazy amount, to my surprise as well, under two feet the entire winter. Coming from Vermont where we’ve gotten two feet in one storm I was a bit shocked. I have yet to even see a flake fall there since I left before October 1^st. Maybe another winter.

Southeast Alaska, more specifically the Misty Fjords National Monument is a spectacular place. The beautiful landscape will constantly wow you. The wildlife is breathtaking. I was fortunate enough to see a humpback whale after being in the state for days, eagles soared every day on my drive to work, deer munching on grass, mountain goats grazing on the mountain tops, it was fantastic. I was thoroughly spoiled in that my first summer was probably the driest on record so I saw beautiful blue skies weekly and spectacular sunsets.

My accommodations were in a rental house that I shared. The house is a three bedroom, two bath house with garage and a beautiful beach just steps down the road. We were nearly at the end of a dead end road and well outside of town, so it was a nice place to escape from all the excitement of town and tourists. The beauty did come at a price, an hour of commuting each day, but it was a price we were willing to pay. Jon and I shared his truck and we would often catch rides with our housemates. One of our housemates is Jon’s coworker, also a Forest Service employee.

Jon and I also got the opportunity to be tour guides when family friends, Julianne and Ellen, had a day in port on their Alaskan Cruise. I was able to arrange a flight with my company and the three of us ladies went out in the 6 passenger plane for an adventure piloted by Josh. We had a spectacular time! Jon joined us for lunch in town before we headed out to try and find some bears which was unsuccessful. We walked around to view some of the totem poles that are famous in SE Alaska and finished our day with drinks at the Cape Fox Lodge overlooking town and the cruise ships.

I thoroughly enjoyed working and living in Southeast Alaska and Jon and I plan to be back in the Spring of 2014 for another summer.