MAY 18, 2022 - KETCHIKAN

No rain for a change! And no wind! Such a blessing. Life in Ketchikan is a hard life for some. There is one couple that arrives at our dock every morning in a beat-up little runabout maybe 16’ long, and we watch as they struggle to get off their boat each day, clearly having some mobility issues. They must have jobs here in town because they arrive like clockwork each morning, and then depart at the end of the day. We’ve seen the effects of drug addiction and homelessness as well, while walking around town. Ketchikan relies heavily on tourism for its economy, and each day there are two to four cruise ships in town. The town has all the requisite tchotchke shops, along with furs, jewelry, and art, all clustered downtown within several blocks. There seems to be a plethora of jewelry stores selling Tanzanites, Diamonds, Gold Nuggets and such, as it seems to be popular with the cruisers. We scratch our heads wondering who comes to Ketchikan to buy a (South African) Tanzanite but to each his own. Mostly people seem happy and friendly here and I won’t pretend to know a day in the life of the average Ketchikan resident, but clearly there are jobs here in the fishing, commercial vessel industry, the airport, shipbuilding, utilities, and of course tourism. Like everywhere, due the pandemic, there are more jobs than people willing to work.

Today was provisioning day and preparation for the next 10 days on the water. First up was fueling the beast so we left the dock first thing this morning and motored down to the fuel dock to quench the thirst of our 2/3 empty tanks. 640 gallons later, the wind had picked up and had shifted to come out of north. Nothing serious but still made it a little challenging to get back on the dock after we fueled up. Logs are EVERYWHERE in this channel and one ALMOST got us this morning. It was one of those that was mostly sunken, just briefly popping up and being exposed with the light waves. John glimpsed it at the last minute, immediately slammed the boat into neutral and backed up immediately – thankfully we weren’t towing the whaler – it was a shaft-damaging size log. Dodged that bullet! The tide swings are so dramatic right now, there is a 20+ difference between. The super high tides are picking up the logs off the beach and the waves and wind are launching them out into the channel. In fact there is a guy that comes down each morning to clear the logs away just around the few docks that surround us. Anyway, after fueling I did the grocery run. There are 2 major grocery stores here, one is Safeway which has to be the biggest Safeway I’ve ever seen, and the other is A&P (Alaskan & Proud). I chose the latter because it has better produce but it’s also like shopping at Haggen vs. Safeway, the prices are way higher. So my grocery run – without any meat – was nearly $400. Yikes. After stowing everything away John and I decided to go on a drive up into the mountains and see what we could find, which wasn’t much to be honest. We were hoping to drive up to the snow just for fun but ended up on a road that seemingly went on forever with no real scenery or viewpoints and lots of potholes. We made our way back out to the main highway then drove south to where the road ended at Beaver Creek where the hydro-power substation churns out power for the city. No bears again today except a stuffed black bear at Cape Fox Lodge, where we had dinner again tonight. I know we will see them, just a matter of when. 

Our typical view this past few days

People mover hovercraft in the front and AK Airlines in the distance

Seaplanes take off frequently when cruise ships are in town

Ketchikan waterfront near our dock

Best store ever!

View from Cape Fox Lodge, nice restaurant