North To Alaska.

We joined the ship on Saturday, today is Monday, and we are in Ketchikan, our first stop. It has been pretty uneventful so far, very calm seas along some very narrow waterways, little to see except forest and water, occasional villages along the shore. In fact if we didn’t know we were on a ship we couldn’t tell without looking over our balcony.

They say it rains here more than 300 days a year, they have a rain gauge which measures not in inches but feet. The fish near the top is over fifteen feet up, that was the last year! As it says, it went over the top in 1949! But we were lucky- it stayed dry for us. Let's hope that continues!

As it says above, this is the salmon capital of the world. Most of the population is involved in the fishing industry, if not salmon then crab, lobster, they rely on the sea entirely. It is just the end of the Salmon running season, when they come up the creeks and rivers to spawn, then die. We saw dozens of them making their way through the shallows upstream, we also saw many dead lying in the water and the shallows.

I said, they rely on the sea entirely. That is, until the ships come in. Today there are just three, around seven or eight thousand tourists, which rather swamps the local population of seven thousand. This is ours, the Coral Princess.

We are told the town hasn’t changed much in a century and a half, but most of the buildings on the main street are very tidy, and well maintained. We were the first ship in this morning, so not too many tourists when we walked ashore quite early.

Alaska is also famous for its Bald Eagles, they feed on the salmon at this time of year as they go up river, we spotted this one on the top of a harbour light.

Ketchikan was also famous for Creek Street, where the salmon and the men came to spawn. The loggers, miners and fishermen came into town to spend their money, and Creek Street was where they were entertained in bordellos and illegal drinking houses until the 1950s, when the town spoilers stopped it. This is Dolly’s house, one of the most famous.

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We had a great time at a Lumberjack Show, where we witnessed a competition between two teams, one Canadian and the other Alaskan. As we sat on the American side we had to cheer for them but secretly I was glad when the Canadians won by a whisker. They had to chop logs, standing on them, we could have seen a couple of toes flying but these boys are good!

They also raced up and down 50ft poles. The best can do it in seven seconds, these boys took about nine, a dead heat first time, the second the Canadians won by a whisker. This is what they do when they are topping a tree, and having chopped the top off, it causes the tree they are on to swing wildly!

Then we had the log rolling- one from each team trying to dislodge the other, even kicking water in their faces to put them off. Not very sporting, but great fun.

We’re on our way now to Juneau, a full day there tomorrow, on the way we expect to see whales, hopefully to get some good pictures.

Dolly's bed has seen some action!