Day 8: Thursday May 12th, 2005 View Photos for This Day
It was a rough night on the open seas, and ship was rocking and rolling all night. We were due to arrive in Ketchikan around 1, so it was another lazy, relaxed morning. I was trying conserve my energy for our kayaking expedition that afternoon.
We met our guide, Gillian at about 10 to 2, our on the pier. We walked about 7 minutes to get to their shop on the water. We got all of our equipment—rain jackets, life jackets, dry bags etc, as well as signing the waiver. Our trip began with a ride on motor boat, for about 15 minutes out to Orca's Cove, where we met up with the “mother ship,” a restored wooden boat that served as our launch point. We met the head of the operation, Greg, a transplanted Aussie, like our guide, Gillian. We were suited up with our skirts, and put into a double kayak, using the BMT method (Butt Motion Transfer -- swinging your legs into the kayak then skootching your butt in). I was in the front, with Adam in the back steering. We paddled around while our guides got in their kayaks, and it seemed pretty straight forward.
Our water time took about 2 and half hours. We went around an island and into a cove on another, where there was a black sand beach. We saw a number of eagles, a martin (sort of ferret like) and some small fish jumping out of the water. The highlight for me was seeing a bunch of seals throughout the paddle. We saw about 5 or 6, although some only briefly. In the black sand cove, there were three that were playing around us, though not very close. They were trying to check us out and they were awfully cute. When the paddle was over, we went back to the mother ship for a “picnic” of crackers, ream cheese and smoked salmon. I don't like smoked salmon, but I have only ever had cold smoked, where this was hot smoked, and it was delicious. We sat and chatted and ate for awhile before hopping back into the motor boat to go back to Ketchikan.
We had about an hour before having to get back on the ship, so we took some time to look around Creek Street where “fish and fisherman go up the creek to spawn.” It was the red light district of Ketchikan until the 1950's. They have a little museum “Dolly's House” with some memorabilia from that time, but everything was closed up by the time we got there. I was a little cold (my jeans were still wet from being out on the boat) so we headed back to the ship.
We had a while befor dinner, and I spent much of it in a hot shower! We got dressed and headed up to another great dinner. It was steak and lobster night, which is always a hit. After dinner we went to watch Quest, a wacky scavenger hunt that ended with a whole bunch of grown men topless, wearing bras, holding handbags and wearing lipstick. It was hilarious.