Friday June 1. Off to Ketchikan this morning on a 10:30 flight on Alaskan Air. We arrived at KTN at 11:30am local time (Alaska is 1 hour behind the west coast). Ketchikan airport is totally "Podunk" - it is on an island about 200m offshore and once you collect your luggage you must make you way to the ferry dock and pay $5 pp to get across to the mainland. When we landed it was cold (7C) and raining and the walk to the ferry wharf is only partly undercover. The boarding on this pisspot ferry was haphazard at best - people disembarking had to pay at the same counter as the outbound passengers - it was complete bedlam. Anyway we made it to the mainland only to find our rental-car company did not have an office as promised. I stood undercover in the bus shelter while Dieter tired to find the hire-car office - he ended up in a pizza place who said they had never heard of the company. A customer and very much a good samaritan offer to drive us to "a" (i.e. not ours) hire-car company "about a mile up the road". Of course Dieter took up his offer and they circled back to the bus shelter to pick me and our luggage up - fortunately our new found friend had a pickup truck so everything fit in. The hire car company up the road was not the right one - and they had never heard of our company either - so our new friend drove us to our hotel, the Fox Lodge. He was so incredibly generous (particularly considering they he had already ordered a pizza and told Dieter not to worry as they would keep it warm for him). We also found out that he worked for the "Alaskan Park and Wildlife" during the summer months and last Alaskan winter he had worked in Antarctica at an American base and on he way home had visited both NZ and Sydney --- small world. We felt really bad afterwards that we had not given his our card and invited him to visit us on his next visit Down Under.
Anyway - we checked-in to the Fox Glacier Lodge around 1:00 PM - called our "phantom" hire car company which we eventually tracked down to find out that they did not have an office at the airport but had planned to meet us at the ferry but had gotten the time wrong. They brought the car around to our hotel. We had lunch at the hotel and a bit of a rest before heading off to Harquan Air where we had pre-booked the Misty Glacier flight tour at 4:30pm - it was great fun taking off in 50-year old float planes for a scenic local tour - of course it would have been even better if the weather would have been clear. We arrived back at our hotel at 6:30pm - changed and went for an early dinner which was nothing to write home about.
Saturday June 2. Blast off today - we awoke to a cool and partly cloudy and rainy day. After a mediocre breakfast at the Cape Fox Lodge we packed up and deposited our luggage at the InnerSeas Discovery hospitality room. We then drove around to see the sights of the surrounding area - the road only goes about 20k's in each direction. We had trouble finding our first destination - a wilderness reserve (highly recommended on Trip Advisor) - as it did not have any sign on the main road. We eventually found it at about 11:00 AM only to find out that they only did guided walks and there were no more walks scheduled for the day (due apparently to the fact the only cruise ship in town that day had already had their scheduled tours). So we headed north to a totem park was was mildly interesting - at this stage it had started pouring so we decided not do a one of the short walks in the area and headed back to town to find something for lunch. After checking out every place in town, none of which looked very promising, we settled on Annabelle's Keg and Chowder House which was OK. We headed back to the lodge for the 3pm kickoff to our cruise. We were a bit early so we chatted with some of our fellow guests (Ellen and Ian from Canberra) in the lobby. From 3-4pm there was a cultural talk about one of the Indian tribes which was quite entertaining then a very brief introduction from the cruise's activities director. Then it was off by bus to our boat - the Wilderness Adventurer. It is certainly not the Prince Albert II (Silversea) but it's probably only been through 25 (as opposed to 50) cyclones. Our cabin, 309, was on the upper-deck and was very small - twin beds, a yacht style combo toilet/shower with a tiny wash basin in the cabin itself + a few shelves for storing all our gear. After a frenzy of unpacking and safety drills we all met in the lounge/bar/dining room for pre-dinner drinks (pay as you go) and dinner. Dinner was served buffet style and wasn't too bad - fish and steak, lots of veggies and rice - all a bit lukewarm but then we were the last to the table so to say. After dinner there was a somewhat sketchy briefing on the following day's activities which included a long day kayak tour, zodiac cruise to some caves, and free-for-all kayaking. We signed up for the first (9am-12:30pm) zodiac cruise with cave tour.
Sunday June 3. (56°09.463'N 133°19.502'W) After a very restless night we got up really early (6:30am) for the early risers breakfast (cooked breakfast was at 7:30am). After a light brekkie we went on deck to admire a wonderful Alaska day - cool but sunny (well only partly cloudy). The boat was still cruising to our first anchorage. We saw bald eagles and many otters - which were incredibly cute. We anchored around 8am - we watched the long day kayakers take off then got ready for our outing. The guides and the description made the cave tour sound very difficult - up nearly 400 steps then scrambling over slippery boulders - I was a bit nervous. The zodiac cruise was really nice - still pretty cool but sunny and scenic. The cave tour turned out to be pretty easy (as I secretly suspected it would be) but we needed helmets and head lamps - fortunately we had our waterproof over-pants on as they got pretty dirty. By the time we finished the boat had made it's way up to where we were so we just had a 2 minute zodiac ride to get back on board just in time for lunch which was good as I was starving. During lunch a whale cruised by which was surprising as we were in a very narrow passage. After lunch we did some free-style kayaking which was excellent way to get acquainted with the kayaking process. Dinner was fine (lamb and crab legs - I got more than my fare share of the crab) - we sat with some Kiwi's who were on their second week of cruising on the Wilderness Adventurer.
Monday June 4. We awoke after a better night's sleep to a bit of a foggy morning which cleared to a cool and sunny day. There were Orcas spotted which brought everyone on deck. We opted for the pre-7:30am continental brekkie. The boat docked around 8:30am at the town of Klawock on Prince of Wales Island. We spent the morning on a guided tour of the town conducted by some of the local indigenous people - the highlight being the totem pole park and visiting the carving shed of one of the locals who is carving re-production poles to replace the old (80 years) ones which had rotted away. We had another lunch on board - sweet and sour soup, stir fried veggies and chicken fried rice. The captain warned us of an upcoming rough crossing of Chatham Straight from about 9:00pm. The afternoon was spent cruising along looking for wild life and of course relaxing. Dinner was salmon and turkey - not the best so far.
Tuesday June 5. (56°37.412' N 134°40.501 W) It was a smooth night - clearly the rough seas which the captain had predicted on our crossing of Chatham Straight did not eventuate - we anchored in a small bay (Patterson Bay on Baronof Island) surrounded by small cliffs with waterfalls running down. We headed out on the 9am zodiac tour around the bay - almost 2 hours. It started raining lightly after about 30 minutes so we all got a bit cold and wet; however, everyone had on their full expedition gear so it was not a problem. Back on the boat we settled into the lounge with a cup of herbal tea waiting for lunch at midday. In the afternoon we did some free-style kayaking around the bay - the sun even threatened to appear for a while. Then it was back on board for showers, fives'es and dinner. The scheduled talk on bears never happened but the yoga teacher did some sort of dance on the back deck which we gave a miss. The tour leader, Marcy, gave her usual confusing announcement of the following day's activities - two of which were walks but the time we got to the signup sheet all the spots were taken so we signed up for the guided kayak tour,
Wednesday, June 6. () Bay of Pillars. Up early again as usual for the early risers breakfast - it was a partly sunny and cool day (the usual 12℃). We started the day with a 3-hour kayak tour in beautiful sunny skies and warm temperature (70+F). After lunch we did the easier of the 2 walks on offer as the harder ones were fully booked - the walk was nice - over a meadow with wild flowers starting to bloom and along a game trail in the forest with a bit of bush bashing. We got was to the boat after 5pm just in time for the polar plunge which we did not participate in. Dinner was fine - fish and chicken with lots of salad and veggies. Dieter put our cabin down for the 4-5am wakeup call if whales were around.
Thursday, June 7. (57°11.503'N 133°37.119W moving to 57°20.376'N 133°33.986' W). So following on from above - Dieter got up at 5am to check out the whales but there were very few and these were off in the distance so I stayed in bed. We had a long breakfast chatting with Gerry and Helga (who is from Stuttgart) - the morning was spent cruising and wild life spotting - a bit on the boring side. There were lots of humpbacks around but they only did a few tail flips - no serious acrobatics. After lunch we anchored at Brother Island and did a zodiac tour to visit some very friendly pack (100's) of male seal lions (the females don't migrate to Alaska but hang out on the northern coast of California waiting for the males to return).
Friday, June 8. (57°56.206' N 133°29.504' W) We got up early to watch our boat navigate up a narrow inlet (Tracey Arm) filled with ice chunks from 2 glaciers. We saw a couple of larger chunks of ice with a mother seal and her pup on them. We stopped (drifting as it was too deep to anchor) near the glacier. After breakfast it was off on a zodiac tour to get close to the glacier which turned out to be quite impressive. Lunch back on board then a lazy afternoon cruising, packing and showering ready for the Captain's dinner and a 8:30am disembarkation on Saturday.