My Second Trip to Alaska - Day 2

May 13, 2003 - Alaska Day 2

The next day we decided to drive down south to Seward where there are ocean cruises. I had been on one in my last trip but there was also a snow storm during this time in the area and I could not see much. Seward is about 3 hours drive from Anchorage. We took AK-1 all the way down to Seward.

On the onward journey we had quite an interesting experience. Our cruise would start at 10:30 A.M and we were already running late. We were running under half tank when we passed gas station. We decided not to turn back hoping that w would find another one. One thing we learned about about Alaska in retrospect is, "do not take chances with gas, gas stations may not come by that easily."


After traveling for about half an hour we realized that we were quite low on gas with still not gas in sight. We seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. Then the critical decision to make was whether to go back all the way the gas station we had seen and fill our tank up or to continue in hope of a gas station. One thing was clear, if we turned back we would miss the cruise. I argued very strongly for continuing saying, "We have already traveled about 40 miles I am sure we will find something within the next 20 miles. We have enough gas for that and besides if we turn back we miss the cruise!" People agreed and we continued.

Much to our dismay, even when our gas had hit the last gallon we found no civilization nor any sign of gas and by now it was clear that we would not be able to make it back to our previous gas station even if we tried. We continued. Soon the low gas indicator turned on, this meant that we had enough gas for about 10-15 miles now (I have has quite some experience with low gas situations in the past). It was now clear that if we did not find a gas station soon, we would be stranded in the middle of nowhere and also miss our cruise. We continued hopefully.

After traveling about 10 miles down the road all of us let out a sigh of relief when we saw a small alley to our right by the road leading into a thick jungle - it has a sign saying "gas", but nothing was mentioned regarding how far in this gas station was. I turned the SUV into the alley and continued driving, but even after driving for 5 minutes there was no sign of any gas station, only thick jungle on both sides! Abhimanyu noticed that his cell phone did not have any signal in this area. We realised that none of had any cell phone signal either. Then came the second decision point.

Abhimanyu said "we'd better turn back, we have been traveling for quite sometime since the low gas light has turned on, clearly our SUV could run out of gas any time now. If we are stranded here we do not even have a cell phone signal. If we turn back we will atleast be straneded on the highway where we have signal and more chance that some passerby will spot us. Here, there is more chances that a bear will spot us that a human."

Abhimanyu's logic as usual was sound, but I was unwilling to give up. "We saw the sign when we entered, the gas station must be here around somewhere. Perhaps its just a few mts ahead and we will not only miss the cruise but also really get stranded. We are not stranded yet."

"Who knows how old the sign is, maybe there was a gas station many years ago and there is now now. Being stranded on the main road where there is a cell hone signal is better than gettin stranded here."

It was hard to argue with Abhimanyu's logic, but I was not willing to give up. I somehow still refused to believe that we would not find a gas station if we drove a little further. Besides somehow I was thinking its only 10 A.M in the morning now. Even if we get stranded here, I thought, two of us could walk back to AK -1 which would be about 30 minutes walk and ask for help from passerby or use the cell phone to call someone. In essense this was not like our lives would end if we got stranded here. However, I thought it unwise to spell out my thoughts.

"I really think there is a gas station just a little ahead. If we turn back we will definitely miss the cruise. I think we should drive on."

Both of us seemed convinced about our views and we decided to use the democratic method to resolve this impasse. Nara and Jerry were asked to vote. Nara being diplomatic as he usually is said, "I am fine with whatever you guys decide and refused to take sides." So everything was now left in the hands of Jerry. Both me and Abhimnayu campaigned for our causes and kept giving arguments to convince him our way.

"Come on Jerry, whats life without a bit of adventure. " I would say, appealing to his male ego.

"I dont think getting stranded in the middle of nowhere is an adventure, its stupidity," Abhimanyu would say.

"By turning back we will get stranded and we will miss the cruise. By not turning back there is some hope that we will find a gas station and that we will make it to the cruise on time. If we turn back we will always keep wondering if there was ever a gas station that we would have found if we continued. I am sure in retrospect we will find out that there was a gas station just a few mts ahead."

I kept the engine on all this time, cos I have learnt from my past experiences never to shut of the engine when you are very low on gas - it will not start.

Jerry finally voted - "lets continue and find a gas station, I think I agree with KK, there was a sign back there after all." I won and we moved on in search of the gas station.

After a few minutes we saw another sign for a gas station pointing in the opposite direction! This meant that we had missed our gas station somwhere on our way. We made a U-turn. Everyone was tense including me. I was always thinking, I would be held responsible for this if we got stranded.

The SUV started to get hiccupps beyond 10mph. I knew we were close to the end, our car would run out of gas in a minute or two. Then we saw the gas station to our right. A dilapidated shed in the middle nowhere and very easy to miss. Our hearts jumped. We had made it!

After filling gas we raced back to AK-1 and down south to seward. We made it to Seward just 2 minutes before the Cruise! This was quite an adventure and we will probably never forget it.

The day was quite sunny and very well poised for some great sightings. The boat was mostly empty and so we did not have too much trouble finding ourselves some good seats on the boat.

The sea was relatively smooth and it was easy to stand on the deck and take photos unlike the last time I had been to Alaska. Jerry had a telescopic lens with his camera and this made it much more fun! The mountain goat seen in the picture was impossible to see with the naked eye - it looked like a small white dot.

On the way we passed by a beautiful glacier near Resurrection Bay. We had never before seen such a gorgeous glacier - it was a feast for our eyes.

There were a lot of whales in the waters and we caught sight of a lot of them. It had been my dream to catch the photo of a whale diving in with its tail popping out. It was really hard with the boat moving and the speed with which the whale did its diving. However, after a few tries I managed to take one of my awaited dream shots.

Some whales came quite close to our boat, perhaps about 10 mts or so and I managed to take quite a few photographs of them. It was one of the most amazing experiences I had ever had watching these enormous water beasts emerge and nose dive into the ocean. I also caught some very nice shots of the whale's dorsal fin when it was coming right at us!

Besides whales there were puffins, sea lions, sea otters and a large variety of other marine life here. The puffins can stay submerged underwater for a long time while they hunt for food and they are also very good fliers. They are truly creatures that can stay in air, on land and in water was long periods of time. The sea otters were lazily floating about on their back while eating their food.

There were thousands of various kinds of marine birds here going about their business. It was truly a fantastic miracle of nature that we miss so much in our urban lives.

There were sea lions by the hundreds basking under the sun. What amazed me was the heights to which they had actually climbed up over the rock.

One of the most amazing sights that we saw while on the boat were these dolphin like fish that were racing with our boat. They would playfully swim criss-cross in the font and sides of the boats and sometime briefly jump out of the water. They fish were really fast (my guess would be abour 15-20mph) and put together for us an amazing display of aquatics. It was really hard to take a picture since not only the boat was shaking a lot but these fish were extremely fast. Nevertheless after trying quite a few times I managed to get some photos.

I was in a rush to get here during our onward journey and had not taken any pictures on the way. I took some pictures of the scenic views on our return journey.