I forgot about the time change and got up at 5:30 (I thought). Jim was not budging, I was worried maybe he was dead. Irritated, he told me it was only 4:30 and he was not getting up until 5. Oopsie.
Our taco bar was a resounding success. The folks from Blue Moon brought kelp pickles. Interesting! We swapped stories, celebrated our crossing with champagne, had a slide show, and discussed the route to Ketchikan.
We left Foggy Bay around 7:30, in (believe it or not) Sunshine!! It has been a while since it has been sunny. We followed a Nordhavn out of the tricky anchorage area littered with rocks. Once out of the protected area, it was a little rolly but very peaceful. We saw two whales. Blue Moon called to the group on the radio that they were breaching, but we were too far away at that point.
About the halfway point it started raining. We don’t mind the rain unless it is hitting our faces, and it was. We headed downstairs and finished the cruise inside.
Once we hit the Ketchikan area, it was like freaking NASCAR. Boats zooming to and fro stirring up serious wakes. Mike warned all of us in the briefing that we had all probably never seen boat traffic like we were going to experience in Ketchikan, but it still surprised me. There were boats everywhere! And they weren’t obeying the don’t go faster than 7 knots rule that we read about in the Waggoner guide that’s for sure!
The Ketchikan marinas do not take reservations. There are three marinas. When you get outside the first one (Thomas Basin) you hail the Harbormaster on the radio requesting a slip assignment. Mike had let them know that we were coming, so they were keeping us all together in Thomas Basin. We readied our lines. The cruise ships line up on the outside of the Thomas Basin Harbor and one gave a big blast that it was leaving. Oh boy. Jim told me to calm down, his lines weren’t even off yet.
We got safely into the marina. The floats were very well marked. Our Waggoner buddies were there to help with the lines, but wait. Someone is in our slip. We hailed the harbormaster. He said we could go into the one next door. Shoot. Now I have to set my lines up for the other side. Meanwhile, the folks in our slip said, no, no, they would move they were just there for a little bit offloading fish. They moved and we docked. They hoped they had moved in time that we hadn’t hailed the harbormaster, he happened to walk by about that time and gave them a dressing down. Sorry guys, we didn’t mean to get you in trouble!
We took a little stroll around Ketchikan. It is adorable here. We stopped by a local Brewery but they only had rootbeer for the na options (there is only so much rootbeer one can drink while trying to drink socially :P), so we just had one and moved on. Our friends from Dancing Bear were at a bar, so we made our way there and had a beer and appetizers with them.
We went out to dinner with some fellow PaNNTOA friends, Greg and Marlene Klevens they have a Nordic Tug 37 Tradition. I followed their Alaska trip last year on their blog and we gleaned so much great information that helped us to prepare. We met up with them in Anacortes to bend their ear as well. It was fun to meet up here – we did it!! We had a wonderful time with them.
Since I managed to get us up at 4:30 am, we were quite drained – we watched a little tv and went to bed early. Someday, it will be nice enough to while away the evening on the flybridge. I’m sure of it 😛
We aren’t leaving until Friday morning. Today we are provisioning, maybe some laundry, more exploring. Tomorrow are all the celebrations – parade, duck race, rootbeer floats and fireworks. I was thinking how ding dong late do you need to stay up to watch those? The sun set at 10:30 pm in Prince Rupert! Ah, the time change though! Last night the sunset was at 9:30 here. The sunrise though, 4 am. I’ll take that. We are morning people.
Probably won’t hear from us til Friday. Enjoy your 4th!
Talk Soon.