June 11, 2010
Got up and took our time having breakfast and taking the camper down, but it was dry. Went to Totem Lodge and arranged to stay there for the night, left the camper in the parking lot and then went adventuring. Went to Cow Bay looking for eagles but not many to be found. Evidently they don't get fed by the locals until a cruise ship comes in. You know, attract the birds, attract the tourists. We went to the Sunken Garden and looked at the nice flowers. Then we walked through the Memorial Park for people who had died at sea working in the fishing industry. Kind of sad to see all those names inscribed on the brickwork.
Next stop the dump. Why the dump. To see eagles of course. And did we ever. Joyce took one picture with 24 in it. Of course it did not have the ambiance that you would associate with eagles, but when they were sitting in the trees or flying over the woods you would never know it was a landfill. The landfill staff were very friendly and did not mind talking to us at all. They even gave us orange vests so we could walk in one area and get better pictures. We stayed until it started raining and then left. Went back to our motel and just hung out the rest of the day. It was raining hard and the wind was howling. Glad we were in the motel.
June 12, 2010
Up at 4:00 and at the ferry terminal at 5:15. Over 3 hours before we were loaded. Nothing to do but sit in the car and watch it rain. It rained a lot. Finally underway in the fog and rain. Winds were high and the ride was rough. After we got into one of the sounds, we were more protected from the wind. First stop was Ketchikan. Had a couple of hours so we took a taxi downtown and looked around. Typical tourist town. They get a lot of Cruise Ships.
Continued on and weather would rain, would stop, would rain again. Not really a good day for sightseeing but we had choices of several good seats and got to know some of our fellow travelers. Our Cabin was small but nice. Two bunk beds(you know who had to get the top bunk) and a small shower and bathroom. The mattress on my bunk was so good that if I could have gotten it off the ship I would have.
One stretch of channel that we had to negotiate was the Tongass Narrows. A 21 mile channel that is 26 feet deep and twists and turns like some of our mountain roads. Our ship had a draft of 20 feet and needed 5 ft for adequate steerage. No margin for error there. They can only run it with a +2 Tide. It is so narrow that only one ship can run it at a time. Sometimes there is quite a traffic jam.
As tired as Joyce and I were, we attempted to stay up for the passage. It was after midnight and we could only see the channel lights of red and green. Joyce gave up and went to bed but I stuck it out until we had gotten through the worst of it. I stayed until we were going through a section that only looked about 300 feet wide and there were house on both shores with there lights on. It was a very long day but interesting. We saw a couple of whales, some Orcas and Dall Porpoises. Got some pictures and hoped for a better day tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment