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 ....