Sixth Day of the Cruise

As we started heading south, the sun rose a little later and set a little bit earlier.  At our northern most point in our journey sunrise was about 4:30 and sunset was a little after 11:00pm.

Today we entered the port city of Kitchikan on Revillagigedo Island.  Kitchikan is the fourth largest city in Alaska and has as its main industries logging, fishing and of course tourism.  Kitchikan proclaims itself to be the Salmon Capital of the World.  It has several fish packing factories.  Along the Tongass Narrows which leads into the harbour you can spot multiple bald eagles, which nest here because of the plentiful fish in the waters. It is also the rainiest city in North America with an annual rainfall in the 12 to 14 feet range.

Years ago it was mainly a male dominated city and had a thriving red light district along the creek. Now the brightly coloured brothels are boutiques. It is now one of the top tourist attractions in the city.

Marg, her dad and Wendy went on crab fishing boat.  It was one of the boats which was seen in the first season of the TV series “Deadliest Catch.”  The crew showed them how they prepared the traps for the crabs.  They caught block crabs, snow crabs, Alaskan King crabs and Dungeness crabs and a star fish which was about a foot long.  They then brought out an octopus that was 3 feet long and showed it crushing and then devouring a crab.  They also discussed how dangerous it was for the crew.  During one year 14 fishermen died during the crab season.  At the end they put out some crabs for the eagles and the boat was swarmed by these magnificent birds.  When they left the boat everyone shook the captains and first mate's hand, everyone except Marg's dad who want to shake the hand of the female members of the crew.  Still flirting at 90.  Marg, her dad and Wendy truly enjoyed the entire experience.

In the afternoon Rocky, Joan, John and Ellen attended a lumberjack show in town.  It sounded like it was fun as they divided up the audience into two sections and then had them cheering on a different team of lumberjacks as they went through their different competitions.

John, Ellen and myself went on a seaplane ride through the Misty Fjords National Monument.  The plane was a twin Otter and I was lucky enough to be able to sit in the co-pilots chair during the trip.  The plane flew over the rounded mountains and through the U shaped valleys, which had been sculpted by the glaciers 10,000’s of years ago.  The granite cliffs reach heights of over 3,000 feet.  The plane landed on one of the lakes and I was able to go out on the pontoon and take pictures.  It was a little scary standing on a narrow pontoon with 5 other people knowing that one misstep and it would be a very cold bath. One of the interesting features that you can see from the air are the “cirques” or amphitheaters cut into the rocks by the glaciers.  Under Jimmy Carter the area was designated a protected site so that no mining or lumbering is allowed.  The scenery was breathtaking.

During dinner at Sue from London’s request, Marg planted a wet kiss in John’s ear.  He was a little stunned at first but when we told where it came from he had a good laugh.  After dinner, went to a lounge to see a group call Nadia and the HALCats.  We all agreed that the female singer might be one of the worst performers we have ever seen.  It was if they had a Karaoke night and the worst singer became the lead singer for the band.