Alaska Girl and the M/V Little Patch of Heaven
Copyright © Jay Beedle 2019
How would you feel if you were a young child and forced to live on a remote island? This is the story about a young girl named Jayleen, who did, and a little skiff that could, how the two became partners in the search for freedom, adventure, and calm waters.
At age-six Jayleen, younger brother Jason, and mother were forced to move from Juneau to a life of exile on a remote island at the northern end of the Alexander Archipelago of Southeast Alaska. The Archipelago, a group of 1,100 or so islands that range in size from the Prince of Wales Island at 2,577 square miles to tiny islands the size of a small boat.
Shelter Island, the island of Jayleen’s banishment is only 10-square miles, a pinhead on the map of Alaska compared to the humongous Prince of Wales Island. Prince of Wales Island has towns, roads, bridges, stores, flush toilets, and people-more than 2000 people. Shelter Island is covered by a tall dark forest, has wild animals, spiders, banana slugs, and newts. Shelter Island is surrounded by a moat, but without a drawbridge, no towns, no roads, no walkways, no stores, and very few people -11 to 13 in the winter.
Shelter Island is located in the middle of Stephens Passage between Admiralty Island and mainland Alaska. Admiralty Island has the highest population of brown bear per square mile in the world and is nicknamed Fortress of the Bears and is only one and a half miles southwest of Jayleen’s cabin on Shelter Island. Bear can swim for miles. (No wonder Jayleen chose to sleep on a raised bed five and a half feet above the floor.) On the other side of the moat, one and a half miles to the northeast is Juneau, Alaska’s Capital. Jayleen’s forced internment was on the southwest end of Shelter Island at her mother and father’s cabin.
The Auke Bay boat harbor in Juneau is eight-miles away from the family cabin by boat and frequently inaccessible due to bad weather….Ugh! Raging weather can sweep through Southeast Alaska any time of year, but mid-September through April tend to be the worst. Storms from the Gulf of Alaska pound Shelter Island, during the fall, winter, and spring. The wind either screams from the southeast bringing wind, rain, or snow; or howls from the north with fringed wind and/or snow. Temperatures of 10 degrees, freezing spray, and winds of 80-mph to 100-mph in Lynn Canal and Stephens Passage are not uncommon during the winter.
Jayleen’s Great Grandfather Hub was born in Juneau in 1918, her Grandfather was born in Juneau, she was born in Juneau. Jayleen lived in Juneau her whole life, her friends and extended family lived in Juneau. Juneau has flush toilets! She liked Juneau. When Jayleen was six her father had some type of #midlife crises, quit his job, sold the house, packed up and moved his family to a cabin on a remote island one and a half miles from the Fortress of the Bears. The cabin didn’t have a flush toilet; it had an outhouse (#spiders love outhouses) located 50-feet from the cabin, day and night, rain, wind, or snow if you had to go-you walked/ran 50-feet to take care of business.
Jayleen was taken away from a fun city life and her friends.
She did have her brother, but he was only two and a half years old. He was not the same as her friends in Juneau.
After a year and a half on Shelter Island, she did enjoy a short two and a half year hiatus, living in Juneau and in Homer, Alaska, while her father’s midlife crises was put on hold. But that was short lived and she found herself #marooned on Shelter Island again.
How would she escape?
When Jayleen was twelve-years old (two-teener) her father had enough of her complaining about not being able to see #friends in Juneau, especially Lindy, Tessa, and Jana, her favorite cousins.
Her father decided to install a drawbridge; encouraging Jayleen to drive herself over the moat and back from Shelter Island to Juneau and ordered a new 14-foot Crestliner from Rocky’s Marine in Petersburg, Alaska. The aluminum welded, open skiff came with bench type seating and cost $2,250, $200 cheaper than the 16-foot model. It was a bit of a hassle to get the skiff from the barge company in Juneau to Shelter Island, but the hard part was figuring out how to afford a motor to power the little gray skiff. A 20hp-outboard seemed ideal, unfortunately at $2,500, that wasn’t happening. The 8hp-Yamaha kicker on the family boat would have to suffice. At the age of twelve Jayleen became the proud owner and captain of her first boat with the agreement-dad could commandeer her skiff when needed.
With the family gathered on the beach oohing, someone asked Jayleen what she would christen her new skiff?
“Little Patch of Heaven.” She replied.
Before anyone could whisper the word freedom, Jayleen was racing around making waves in the M/V Little Patch of Heaven.
The word racing is used loosely here, with only Jayleen in the skiff, the top speed was maybe 8-mph, with two or more people onboard it was more fun to spin doughnuts than try to go somewhere. Jayleen’s parents enjoyed watching her take the M/V Little Patch of Heaven out for cruises, many with cousins, friends, uncles, brother Jason, and/or Merlin the family Shih Tzu-Pomeranian.
Life was better on remote Shelter Island that year, but not perfect.
Jayleen’s goal was to travel between her cousin’s home in Juneau and her cabin as fast as possible, but that darn 8hp-kicker didn’t have the gitty-up and go needed if she wanted to spend more time visiting than commuting. Jayleen did not make any solo trips to town that year.
Jayleen and boating went together like freedom and liberty, a born natural.
At the age of two weeks Jayleen went fishing for the first time, Grandfather Sandy caught a beautiful 25-pound king salmon, the king salmon weighed three times more than Jayleen. By age-three, Jayleen steered the family boat and reeled in fish by herself. When she was six, Jayleen joined her Uncle Jack, Uncle Bob, and her father on a round trip-300 plus mile excursion from Juneau to Sitka, Alaska aboard their family 20-foot boat.
By the time she was a two-teener, she could handle a 26-foot, twin-engine boat more proficiently than most of the adults at the harbor and drove her family’s whale watching/charter fishing boat on every fishing charter. The truth is, her mother and father’s charter business would not have succeeded without Jayleen’s help. And she captained the 18-foot family boat on most trips, hunting, fishing or commuting.
Financially, Jayleen and her father were doing better the following year and together bought a new 15hp-Yamaha outboard with electric start and power trim and tilt (#the old man’s back was hurting too much to pull start a small outboard) from Willie’s Marine in Juneau. Freedom was Jayleen’s new life.
About this time, gasoline hit $5.00 a gallon at the fuel dock in Auke Bay, forcing Jayleen’s father to rethink the family’s main mode of transportation between Juneau and Shelter Island. It was expensive commuting in the 18-foot or the 26-foot family boats and he purchased a used 16-foot Crestliner skiff with a 20hp-Yamaha outboard. Jayleen became the owner of the 16-footer; hence the 16-footer became the new Little Patch of Heaven. To this day Jayleen and her father continue to use both boats, but the 16-foot Crestliner is used much more than the 14-footer.
Since the first day Jayleen captained the 16-foot, M/V Little Patch of Heaven, it has safely carried Jayleen, her family and friends, her dog Merlin, groceries, building materials, four-wheelers, and everything you can imagine a family living remote needs-through calm seas, rough seas, storms, wind, rain, snow, sun, and freezing spray over 26,000 miles!
The circumference of the earth is 24,901-miles. The M/V Little Patch of Heaven is working on its second trip around the world. It looks a little worse for wear after 13-years of heavy use; four different outboard engines have propelled her, two Yamahas, a Honda, and a Suzuki. Countless fishing, hunting, commuting, photography, and sightseeing trips in rough water have taken a toll on the M/V Little Patch of Heaven. The hull cracked and started leaking after a three hundred mile round trip to Pelican, Alaska a few years ago. A small patch of aluminum, a little 5200 sealant and six stainless steel bolts mostly stopped the leak. The drain plug stripped out. More 5200, aluminum, plywood, a hole drilled and she has a workable drain. She has broken welds, scratched paint, and shows scars of scraped barnacles, but continues to safely travel Alaska’s waters.
Jayleen continued to master her boating skills while growing into a young adult on that remote island surrounded by a moat. As a teenager she enjoyed hundreds of trips, fishing and hunting, but most trips were wildlife photography trips, with a focus on killer whales and humpback whales. Now as an adult, she has thousands of trips logged showing customers from around the world, the beautiful scenery and wildlife in the waters surrounding the cabin she grew up in, one of the most beautiful places on earth.
Jayleen became a United States Coast Guard licensed Captain (Merchant Mariner) at the age of 18, paid her way through college, graduated with a degree in communications and a minor in business and started her own whale watching business, Jayleen’s Alaska at the age of 22. She does custom personalized tours out of Juneau for six-passengers or less. She named her boats, M/V Alaskan Girl and M/V Juneau Girl.
Jayleen’s love and appreciation for the wilderness, wildlife, and beauty of Southeast Alaska has grown–it truly is her little patch of heaven!
Jay is the author of South Shelter, a book about raising a family on a remote island in Southeast Alaska, it can be purchased at Hearthside Books in Juneau. A kindle version without pictures can be purchased on Amazon.
Jayleen’s Alaska website: jayleensalaska.com
