Ketchikan

 En route to Ketchikan from Brundige, Cam had a nice radio chat with a fellow on m/v WESTWARD.

WESTWARD is an 86' yacht and was built in 1924.  It has been running charter tours of the Alaska coast and down to Mexico since then.  

It has a 4 cylinder Atlas engine with external rocker valves (he has to go down and oil them every couple of hours !!).   It has around 70,000 hours on the engine.  

Its home port is Friday Harbor, WA.  She is listed on the US National Register of Historic Places.  

WESTWARD was being taken up to Juneau for the summer where she may meet up with her identical sister ship based out of Skagway.  We will watch for them both ....

She is a beautiful old girl ....

We arrived in Ketchikan to sunshine and cruise ships ....

RADIANCE OF THE SEA was in port while we were there....  

 a special cruise ship because, 20 years ago, it was the, then new, cruise ship my family took to Alaska.  Lots of great memories ....

We were SO lucky with the weather while we were there.  Sunshine is a rare commodity in Ketchikan .... it rains about 12' a year and thankfully we had NO rain, only sunshine !! The nicer weather allowed us to get out for lots of walks, enjoy the sights, check out the cruise ships and the many souvenir shops and do some provisioning.

Ketchikan is tucked in a beautiful setting and has a colorful history.  Creek Street was the town's red light district "back in the day", but today is a charming boardwalk ....

We walked into the town center early one morning to watch one of the cruise ships docking ...

Oh they make it look SO easy but I cannot imagine trying to do that in a big wind ....

No wind this day however.

On the walk back to the marina....

Whaaaa ?????

The eagles are numerous ... especially at the marina when fishermen come in and start cleaning their catch ...

And a beautiful end to a good visit to Ketchikan as the sun sets over the marina ....

En route from Pt McNeil

The weather so far has been WET and COLD.  

This squall was typical of what we seemed to be motoring into.  

We head towards our anchorage in  Wellbrook Cove.

The following day however, was sunny (still cold) and we were off to Pruth Bay (a favorite stop). 

Its still early  in the season so we were the only boat in Pruth Bay (where the Hakai Beach Institute is located.)

We packed a picnic lunch and hiked the half mile across Calvert Island (Pruth Bay) to West Beach.

Its one of the most spectacular beaches on the coast of BC with an expansive white sand beach ... gorgeous.

Then on to another favorite stop .... Shearwater (again, almost no one there !)

We have noticed a lot of large logs / wood in the water.  LUCKILY there are "log markers" which make them easier to spot ... and avoid !

What a difference a day can make weatherwise.  Most of the days have been grey ....

but then we get a day like this .....

Definitely prefer THIS !!!!

Prince Rupert was our next stop and its a fun town.... nice waterfront walk and some great little shops.  Provisioning was very near by ... Safeway, BCLC and Sea Sport Marine !!  What more does one need ?

Cow Bay, where our marina was, has some very quaint gift stores and coffee shops ....

We had a LOT of rain and wind initally ....

but thankfully, the weather settled down and we managed some sunshine (much more pleasant to walk around the town in !)  After a few days in PR, we carried on to a beautiful anchorage called Brundige Inlet for an overnite before we crossed the border (with NO issues - just a phone interview) and pulled in to Ketchikan.

 

Yes, we are still alive!

I'm feeling bad that we have not posted anything yet on the blog but here goes;

Were just over two weeks into the trip and all is going well.
We're in Prince Rupert and will be heading north for Ketchikan this afternoon.
Part of the reason for the delay in posting is that for the first number of days there wasn't that much to report and once there was we had to wait until we had decent connectivity to upload our updates. 

The boat is running well and the weather, although extremely wet, has been cooperating with respect to light winds and flat seas on our travel days.

Here's a video of our trip up Fitzhugh Sound. They haven't all been this flat but generally our travel days have been pretty easy.

We stopped in Port McNeill and then took a ferry over to Alert Bay to visit the First Nations museum there which was very well done. Along the way in our walk from the ferry dock to the museum there were these cool lookout points which were decorated in native motif.

On one particularly wet rainy afternoon we passed this unusual tow which appear to be fishing lodge accommodations enroute back to their summer location.

We've also passed a number of beautiful waterfalls such as this one;

We haven't seen a lot of wildlife yet other than this raven which was trying to hitch a ride whom Kim decided to feed some bread to.

We did have a humpback whale pass directly under the boat. It came at us from the side and I didn't even notice it until it surfaced immediately adjacent to the boat. 

I could have touched it with a dock pole! 

It then immediately sounded again so I was not able to get a picture of it.

When we get to Ketchikan we will post some more photos and videos.
Cam and Kim