Alaska Yukon Trip 15
Day 6
August 27, 2009: The movie ended just after 11:00 PM, so we drove to the ferry terminal and lined up with the few other cars already there and proceeded to try to sleep in the car. The effort was pretty futile since every time another car drove up to the line up or whenever one of the dock vehicles would come or go, we’d be alert. I was going to say we were awakened, but we never really fell asleep to begin with. In any case…..we’d try to close our eyes, but they never ended up staying closed for long.
Finally around 1:00 AM someone came around asking to see our boarding pass. We were instructed that once the gates opened we were to drive up to lane “whatever” (2 I think), park and go into the ferry terminal. The gates opened around 1:30, so we did as instructed. Inside the ferry terminal the process was much the same as checking in at the airport. Tickets were checked, customs forms filled out, luggage tags and instructions given out. This is where we learned that the car deck on the ferry was locked after boarding so whatever you needed had to be taken up. This meant a furious shuffling and repacking of clothes, food, and camera equipment to minimize the number of bags we had to carry up. Then it was back to the car to try and close our eyes some more.
The ferry arrived at 1:30 AM right on schedule. The border opened at around 2:00 AM. Then things got interesting. I’m not sure if the border guard missed out on his afternoon nap or what. He asked for license plate number, which we gave. He repeated it back to us wrong. So I corrected him, he repeated back wrong again. Around and around we went, with me repeating it 4 times in total. Finally he repeated it back correctly and entered it into the computer.
Then it was “insurance & registration, please”, “where did you purchase the vehicle”, “when did you purchase the vehicle”, etc. Finally we were told to pull up to the building, park, turn off the ignition and step out of the vehicle. “Oh crap” we thought. We’d been through a vehicle search a couple years ago going to Seattle. That time we only had a few suitcases to search, this time our vehicle was loaded with luggage, all my camera gear, outdoor stuff, coolers and food.
The guard came up as we were getting out and told us we should remain in the vehicle. He took a flashlight and read the vin number of the car, then went back inside. He was back in a few minutes to inform us the license plate had been reported stolen. WTF?! We’ve had this plate for many years. The vehicle is only a little over a year old, but we had this same plate on our old vehicle. We weren’t really worried because we knew we hadn’t done anything, but you get a little worried about how long it was going to take to straighten out whoever’s mistake it was that was causing us this problem.
Turned out the guard still got our license plate wrong and entered it wrong. The one he entered was a stolen motorcycle plate. Ahem…okay. So we got that cleared up, were given our passports and vehicle papers back, and allowed to line up for the ferry. We now had another 1 and half wait until boarding, so we tried to get some shut eye again. By this time we’re getting really tired. Then James looks in the mirror and sees the border guy approaching our vehicle again. He needed our passports again to try and clear our names from the system. Meanwhile the ferry starts loading and he still hasn’t returned with the passports. We watch as everyone is being loaded and we’re still sitting there waiting; beginning to think we’re going to end up missing the ferry. Finally he came back and we were allowed to board.
4:00 AM: We grabbed our luggage and went up to the purser’s desk to pick up the keys to our berth. Some of us fell asleep right away. Some of us were still a little hyped up and heard every sound….the anchor being lifted, the safety instructions on the PA (kind of important 1 of us knows what to do), the comings and goings of the crew, and finally the ship leaving port. Sometime after 4:30 I finally fell asleep too.
In: Travels · Tagged with: alaska, BC, border, Canada, ferry, guard, ocean, ship, USA
