Ketch Me If You Kan!

After a nice relaxing day sailing along the inside passage, our first port of call was Ketchikan.  They get a ton of rain here every year, but today was super sunny and super warm!  Well, warm for Alaska standards.

Here's the sunrise that developed as I did my morning laps around the ship. 

The little town of Ketchikan.

Heading up by Creek Street.  The salmon jump up this creek at the end of their life cycles.

I surprised Adrienne with a pre-booked HAL tour that was called Backcountry Zodiac.  There were 8 of us signed up for the 3 hour trip.  We met our van driver at the dock and she whisked us off through the back part of town, giving us a quick little tour past the cemetery, a couple of churches, and even by her house, on the way to where the zodiacs were tied up at a little dock not far from the cruise pier.

This excursion is designed to let you actually "drive" the zodiac if you are old enough (check), know how to drive (check), and want to be the captain of your boat for awhile (check check).  A family of 4 shared one zodiac and Adrienne and I shared the other one with a German passenger (he spoke basically no English and understood even less), and one of the ship's entertainer singers, Avery.  I immediately volunteered to want to drive so I got to go first.  The German also wanted to drive, as did Avery.  Adrienne was a firm "no thanks." 

We got into rubber rain gear and boots and toddled on down to the little dock and got into the zodiac.  After a VERY brief (and hard to follow) lesson on how to drive the zodiac, they untied us and the guide got into his zodiac and waved us to follow.  The zodiac with the family in it zipped on out and I took up the rear.  There is a little lead time in getting to be comfortable driving it.  It's really easy, but at first I was nervous.  After maybe about 10 minutes or so, I got the hang of it and was able to speed up some.  But not before the guide zipped back and had me move into the number 2 position.  Apparently my comfort level with speed had not improved fast enough for him.  Anyway, I got better and faster and we settled into a nice rhythm out into the bay. 

 The guide giving us instructions.

I'm the captain!!

Snort is having a good time!

The German man piloting.  He did something wacky with the trim and the nose of the zodiac started going up and up and......we nearly flipped over in the water and would have died for sure.  Ha!

Not only can Avery sing well, she also drives a mean zodiac!




We stopped to see an eagle's nest and to try to coax one out with some free fish.

Coming in to grab the fish.  This was the best I could muster with my iPhone.

The nest

Some sea lions lazing about