KETCHIKAN – boats and bald eagles

Today is our last land visit on this cruise – the town of Ketchikan.  I am up early so decide to go for a wander around the ship and take some more photos of onboard life. It is great to walk around so early – you can take your time and take photos without people aimlessly wandering in front of you.

It is also nice to experience some quiet down time.

Heading upstairs through the tennis court and past the funnel, my destination is the top of the ship and the Crow’s Nest. 

 What fabulous views you get from this oh so comfortable lounge.  As it is early, there are no Fakers taking all the chairs like they normally do.  It is so wonderfully quiet just to sit and watch the Inland Passage drift by without a worry in the world.

This lounge is also a bar and entertainment area by night where they have a live band and on some nights Karaoke.  That would have been great fun.  There are lots of things to do on the ship that’s for sure.

The clouds and mist are still with us but that only adds to the drama of the landscapes.  I see some fishing boats that must have been up extremely early and hope that they were successful in their endeavours.

Heading towards Ketchikan there are signs of human habitat on the sides of the mountains.  Some photos even though the clouds are really, really low.  The waterway in front of me is breathtaking and there are lots of sea birds out looking for a fish breakfast.  That is as much native wildlife as I see but that’s OK.

Deciding that I better go back to the cabin and get ready for breakfast as the ship is supposed to dock at 10am, Kylie and Tyler are up and ready to face the Fakers.  We head on up to The Lido and over breakfast discuss what we want to do in port.

We all want to see wildlife and lots of it, though with only one day here it is hard to decide.  We do not have any tours booked or particular sights to see – we are going to play it by ear and see what the day brings.  Sounds like a good plan.

Oh Captain announces that we are approaching Ketchikan and we will be here until 6pm. After his promises of whales etc we wonder if this announcement is correct.

When we finish our lovely brekky we go back to the cabin to organise our belongings for the day and then sit on the verandah and look at the outskirts of the town.  This photo is of a timber mill – we also watch the ship dock.

This itself is a feat – so at least Oh Captain redeems himself a little.  We cannot see the town from our cabin, however we can see the harbour with the boats and the sea planes.   Oh Captain tells us that we can now disembark.

Lucky for us the sun has finally decided to honour us with some rays so waiting until the rush is finished we head on out to the hallways and gangway and arrive on the dock to a chorus of people promoting their tours and sights.

One lady has a newborn baby in a sling – she also has no teeth – and offers us a Rainforest Wildlife tour.  No thanks – no more mushrooms and moss for us.

There is a Visitor Centre which is a long building with stalls inside so we wander around deciding which one shall be honoured with our hard earned cash.  We decide on Ketchikan Outdoor Tours.  This is a small family operated company that is just starting out.  We drive our own inflatable boat around following the guide for about 3 hours.  It is not a cheap excursion but sounds like good fun and anyway more frequent flyer points for me – so we make a booking and have about 2 hours to kill before we head off.

There are three ships in port – the Norwegian Star, Diamond Princess and our Madam V.  So of course there are loads of tourists all pushing and shoving to get to the shops for those great bargains or freebies.

We decide to cross the street to visit the outdoor market area.  There are many hand made crafts for sale including some paintings of spirits and whales done by native Americans.  Always good to have something original so out comes the money again.

In this market there is also an exhibition of native birds which includes the most majestic of all – the American Bald Eagle.   All these birds  come from a sanctuary and the handler tells us all about the birds and how Thor was rescued while hanging upside down in a trap.

They are not sure if he can ever be released back into the wild as he severely damaged his talons but they are hopeful there will be a good outcome.  The people who operate these sanctuaries are fabulous.  All those birds that cannot be released are used for informative lectures and displays in the hope that maybe one day us humans will wake up to ourselves and start looking after them.

Another point in the handlers favour is that he is wearing a Deadliest Catch t-shirt.  I love this show!  Crabbing in all kinds of weather on the Bering Sea and how those men put their lives on the line day after day is beyond me and my thoughts of physical endurance. I get exhausted just watching from the safety of my lounge!  But I digress!

Time to move our thoughts to souvenirs and shopping but we remember we still have the inflatable boats to go so we cannot really buy anything.  Nevermind we will look and purchase later.  We walk up along the dock to where we have to meet our guide and I spy one of the Deadliest Catch boats – the Aleutian Ballad.

Now that would be a good excursion in calm, sunny weather.  Still with time to spare we decide on coffee.  Coffee anytime of the day is a good idea – but now would be great.  We find a little shop – not very busy but the lady has now got two orders to figure out and she is not having much luck.  Seems to take forever to get the coffee but it is a nice day so who cares.  The shop also has for sale a deck of playing cards with fish on them so I get those for Mitchell.

Reaching our Tour Company we are given a warm welcome along with warm woolly socks, gumboots, waterproof jacket and trousers, jacket and gloves.  We are then asked to watch the safety video and while this is happening we are introduced to our guide Pat.  He will be in one boat and the three of us in another. Sounds like fun.

We get all our gear on and I feel like a really big orange Michelin Man.  I can hardly walk. Kylie and Tyler have bright yellow gear and then comes the cruncher.  We have to walk along the street in this gear to where the boats are moored.  Oh well, if we provide a good chuckle for everybody then that’s OK.

We have decided that Kylie will be the designated driver so we pile in and set off until Pat decides that we are really not travelling all that well and this is due to the seating arrangements.

At the moment Kylie is driving with Tyler beside her and I am up front.  Pat decides that we should change around.  Tyler is now up the front and I am beside Kylie – all this is done on the water in an inflatable boat!  None of us manage to fall in so off we go again.

Pat is really great.  The sea is smooth, the sun is shining and every now and again Pat stops his boat for us to catch up and then he tells us about the area.  He takes us into little nooks and crannies that we would never have visited by ourselves.

Whilst motoring along Pat comes back to us and tells us to turn off the engine as he has spotted some porpoise.  We get a glimpse of a mother and calf enjoying the sun but all too soon they are gone and we don’t get to see them again.

We then journey on over to Gravina Island where we hope to see some Bald Eagles.  As we look up we see the distinctive outline of said Eagle soaring on the air currents above us.    The cameras have been given a miss because by the time you get them out and focus the wildlife has gone and you’ve missed enjoying it in real life.

We start our engines and head out towards a rocky outcrop where we spot lots of movement.  There is a huge amount of seals and a sea lion on the prowl which excites Pat as he has not seen a sea lion before.

It is great to see the sea lion and when he is swimming around all the seals get out of the water and onto the rocks.  Apparently seals are one of Mr Sea Lion’s favourite meals.

Personally, I will stay with the salmon, and of course Ketchikan is the Salmon Capital of the world.  We stay here for quite some time just enjoying nature until it is finally time to depart.  We say goodbye to our new found friends and hope they don’t end up on the dinner plate!

Pat then heads us back into town and on the way we see another bald eagle and some Native American Totem Poles.  Even though we have not seen any whales or bears it has been a great trip and I can thoroughly recommend it to anyone who just wants to be one with nature.

We arrive back into town and head on to the Creek Street Marina which is the oldest part of town.  Creek Street is an enchanting boardwalk that sits on wooden stilts above the Ketchikan creek.

The purpose of its buildings, meanwhile, lends it its notoriety, as this used to be the city’s red-light area.  Today its brothels have been replaced with boutiques and restaurants, transforming a once-seedy wooden street into the town’s foremost tourist attraction.  Well, that sounds nice until we actually get into the little marina and notice a really bad odour and then we discover the source.

It is salmon spawning season and once the males and females have spawned they die. Obviously they have chosen the marina to bid their final farewells. There are still some salmon jumping merrily about oblivious to their fate but there are loads of salmon carcasses floating around and bumping into our boat.  It is not a pretty picture but that’s nature for you.  You gotta take the good with the bad.  I manage a photo of the marina but am loathe to use the dead salmon for a Kodak moment.  Pat realises that the stench is getting a bit overpowering so we head out of the Marina and back to the dock.

On the final leg of our journey and in our eagerness to get away from the floating salmon we motor past the front of one of the cruise boats.  Unfortunately for Kylie this cruise boat has decided to leave port and we are in the way so Kylie revs the engine and we are out of the way.  Our Madam Volendam is still at the dock resplendent in the sunshine and I just cannot resist a happy snap.

Arriving back at the dock we are greeted by another Tour employee who ties up the boat and helps us out.  Unfortunately Tyler decides to get up close and personal with the dock, or maybe he was just glad to get back and decided to kiss it.  Unfortunately it was over before we realised what had happened and we didn’t get a photo. We ask him to do it again but he just huffs at us.

We walk back to the Tour Company to get changed and we give Pat a well deserved tip along with our thanks for the great afternoon. We also tell them that we will have no trouble recommending this company.

We still have to do our shopping so we visit loads of shops – there is even a store that has an entire section dedicated to loads of Christmas goodies and who can resist?  Not this group of black ducks.

It is late afternoon and we are feeling peckish so we decide to have seafood on the dock.  There are lots of little cafes and vans all plying their trade so we decide on some freshly cooked fish, giant shrimp (prawns) and chips from one of the vans and sit on one of the benches.

This bench is right beside the Madam V.  What a great place and what great food.  The prawns are huge – and so delicious.  As we sit and eat we watch the people trundle along all laden down with their bags – just like the ones we saw at Vancouver when we boarded. We have shopped as much as those passengers we saw then.  Funny how things turn out.

We head on back to the ship to unload our goodies and take stock of the day.  We have had a great time – and we only have one more day to go before we dock in Vancouver.  Tomorrow is a full day of sailing and relaxing so for the second last time we order ‘Balcony Tea’ and sit in the still night air listening to the water lap the sides of the boat as we glide back home.

Highlight of the day: Our Ketchikan boat tour