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Saturday May 26, 2012 Ketchikan After posting a blog at Safeway we walked South to the "downtown" area of Ketchikan where the cruise ships tie up. There were four more in today and I hear they come in everyday all summer - in in the morning and out in the afternoon. We mingled with the passengers along streets full of gift shops, jewelry shops with hawkers at every door inviting us in. A boardwalk lined with shops was built out over a tumbling river where people can watch salmon spawning and bears eating them in season. We ate lunch at Annabelle's, which had a 19th century boom town atmosphere and good food. It's raining and blowing pretty hard so not many people are going in or out for the local fishing derby.
Sunday May 27, 2012 Ketchikan I got the Bullfrog down early and toured the waterfront and was back in time for church at the local Presbyterian Church at the head of our dock. It took me two days to notice it because it is built like the other buildings, in town, which are built on the steep hillside, wood frame, boxlike with windows facing out over the
boardwalk in Ketchikan
Shops line this river and people watch salmon and bears here during spawning season. narrows. Also like most of the other churches it has no steeple. We enjoyed worship with about thirty people in the congregation. Of interest were two couples, one native, that were from the Luthern Mission ship "Christian." I talked to Dennis Jack who will be taking over the mission as well as the captaincy of "Christian." They go to various native villages in SE Alaska ministering to mostly kids although they are developing a ministry to adults as well. I understood that Dennis will be the first native American to captian a missionary ship like this. It's a sixty-one foot steel hulled trawler.
We met a couple, Paula and Doug in the laundry this morning and again on the dock so they invited us over for appys. They gave us suggestions on where to find good places to stop north of here. They are liveaboards on the "LaRose," a motor sailor. I believe it's a ketch.
Monday May 28, 2012 Ketchikan Sean and I took out the
Little Liza to go fishing today while BJ toured Ketchikan with our new friends Doug and Paula. Sean's (the guy who will be watching our boat) favorite hole is across
Ketchikan
Alaska sneakers. This is how you distinguish a local from a tourist. Clarence Strait and along a point on the mainland. The Straits are open to the ocean and they were rolling pretty good when we anchored in out of the wind. There was still a little swell but I just put out lots of rode and we put downriggers on the Bullfrog and went bobbing out into the fishing grounds. Sean caught a rock cod which he fed to the eagles but that was all the action we had. Well, not all the action. On the way back across Clarence Strait we got into some six foot swells which gave Little Liza a fresh coat of salt. I just mention this to point out the difficult, dangerous life of the hunter-gatherer.
Meanwhile BJ enjoyed a driving tour of town and lunch with Paula along with inside information on all the good galleries, restaurants, including Totem Park and Cape Fox Lodge. I just mention this to point out the difficult life of the hunter-gatherer's woman. We are moored at the head of the docks and thus meet lots of people, some noticing that we're from Yakima and wondering if we know relatives who live (or lived) there. They are friendly and
Ketchikan
Buildings that are not on mainstreet are built on the hillsides above town. Everybody's got a view. we get lots of good information on what to do and what life is like in Ketchikan. This afternoon I was washing the boat in the rain and a couple stopped and asked if we knew their son who lived in Tieton. He lived by an orchard they said, but they didn't like the Yakima Valley there becasue it was too hot. I welcomed them aboard where they showed us their favorite halibut grounds on our charts. We then raced over to help a fisherman in who had lost his main engine and was running on his trolling motor.
We are flying home for several weeks returning on June 15th.
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