Ketchikan is a town of ~8000 thousand people that is visited by a million or more tourists each year. Most visitors arrive via large cruise ships. The town started as a rough and tumble logging and fishing village. Now tourism, driven by the 4 cruise ship berths keeps the economy humming. This being our third visit to Ketchikan meant we weren’t driven to “see the sights”. A visit the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center offered a nice movie about the logging history of the area.
Phase III was docked in the Bar Harbor North marina about 1 mile north of downtown. Our trusty bikes served us well on our trips downtown. Town was nice and quiet on the day with no cruise ships. The locals use days like that to power wash sidewalks and clean up for the next wave of tourists. Of course, all the diamond and fur stores were shuttered.
Ketchikan welcomes visitors … …and separates them from their money
We used our 3 days in Ketchikan to regain our land legs, grocery shop, and do laundry. The Safeway store about a half mile from the marina became our second home. We went there to shop, but more importantly we went to use the wifi in their deli area. On Tuesdays they even treat the customers to free coffee and cookies as well as offer a 10% discount to seniors. How cool was that?
Coming to Alaska brings out the “pioneer” in us. We are compelled to want to live off the land or in this case the water. The night before arriving in Ketchikan, David put the crab pot down and caught two nice crabs. Later we had a crab cake feast with Earl from Hey You.
During the move from Saltery Cove (our anchorage after leaving Ketchikan) David stopped to do a little fishing. I no time he hooked a nice 42” halibut. David had the fish caught, landed, filleted and in the freezer in 45 minutes. I was the assistant, pouring buckets of sea water on the deck to rinse the fish blood off; all the while trying not to gag.
“Dang, I knew I shouldn’t go for that pink thing”!
Saltery Cove was a lovely anchorage with lovely weather. We enjoyed kayaking the shore and saw a black bear, mink and river otter along with a variety of birds.
Bear grazing on the grass
Can you see the mink on the rocks?
Saltery Cove was followed by anchorages in Stone Island then Berg Bay. In Berg Bay we found fellow yacht club members Barb & Rob on their Nordic Tug, Harmony Bay. While we enjoyed the anchorages and the whale, sea otters and dolphins that we have seen, it was time to head to “town”. On the way David spotted a grizzley bear along the shore.
If you like to see some motion, check the video out: https://youtu.be/1uoZU3dn6h8
Wrangell is a town of ~2400. It is not visited by the big cruise ships, thus is more authentic. They have a great museum, two grocery stores, a few restaurants/bars, and a nice library with wifi. The Anacortes boats Carlinda and Tonic were docked in Wrangell when we arrived. They were planning a jet boat trip to the Le Conte glacier on Wednesday the 13th. Rather than spend the night in Wrangell we and Hey You went to Keene Point to make it easier to get to Petersburg on the 12th at slack current. For those of you traveling vicariously with us, this was the view off the back of the boat.
By the morning of May 13th we had 6 boats from Anacortes in Petersburg: Carlinda, Tonic, Dolphin, Harmony Bay, Hey You and Phase III. At 1pm ten of us went up to the Petersburg Pilot to meet Captain Ron for the trip to the Le Conte glacier. 
As we sped across Frederick Sound we were treated to a show by some juvenile orcas practicing their hunting skills. They jumped and slapped and came closer to our boat than they were supposed to.
If you would like to see them in action check out the video: https://youtu.be/FyC6ynqSak4
We saw chunks of ice even before we turned up into Le Conte Bay. As we went further in there were more burg chunks. They came in all shapes and sizes. I loved the deep blue colors of some of the burgs. Near the face of the glacier we were bumping our way through the ice, but we were rewarded with sightings of the seals that come up to the ice to deliver their pups. Captain Ron treated us to hot chocolate and cookies and a view that was just amazing. Earl spotted us a mountain goat high up on the rock face. The day couldn’t have been better. Later down on the dock we all relived the trip over drinks cooled with 1000 year old ice from the La Conte glacier.
Cheers to you all!
Wow! Love the bears! You are really having a fantastic trip and thanks for sharing your adventures with us armchair folk.
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