Not an eagle
First thing in the morning we enter the Wrangell Narrows under sunny skies. We are talking narrow here. Tacoma Narrows has nothing on this. The red and green channel markers are so close together that it feels more like an Olympic slalom course. It is low tide and the channel is only 18 feet deep at its shallowest point. Fortunately the ship only draws nine feet. It is quite a long channel and many of the numerous channel markers are claimed by a solo bald eagle. The novelty of seeing a bald eagle soon wears off. Seeing a cormorant on a marker becomes the novelty.
Cormorants on a channel marker
Eagle not on a marker
Birds
More birds
Deer
On the way
Who IS that guy?
Finally the channel widens and Petersburg appears around the corner, set against the backdrop of snowy mountains and fronted by several docks of active fishing boats. We are quickly moored and get the all clear to head into town. Woohoo! You’d think we were a bunch of sailors with shore leave after months at sea! It’s just fun to stop at a town that is rarely on the beaten Alaskan tourist path and we have hours until lunch.
Cannery on the docks
Across the channel
Petersburg is a town of 3000 people with a strong Norwegian heritage that calls itself Little Norway. Between that and the fishing fleet, we practically felt like we were back in Ballard. But we saw no hipsters and most people were wearing Sitka Sneakers (XtraTuf rubber boots) and seemed to know everyone else, so we were clearly in small town Alaska. First off we walked by a great independent bookstore so we had to stop and support the local economy. We then went by the fellow sprucing up the paint on the small Viking ship outside the Sons of Norway lodge in preparation for the pending blessing of the fleet. Maybe we really were transported back to Ballard?
Sons of Norway hall
Getting ready for the parade
Keenan – they spelled it wrong!
We had to stop in the drugstore for more sunscreen (what???) and continued to meander until returning to the ship for lunch. During lunch we saw a humpback swimming along out of one set of windows while a couple of Stellar sea lions were fending off seagulls while they munched on herring out of the other set of windows. We were in a quandary trying to decide between lunch, whale, or sea lions? Well, none of us went hungry.
Sea Lion
Lunch was followed by a talk on the docks about all types of fishing boats out of Petersburg and details on the local fishing fleet. It was curious that our guide referred to the various boats as “he” rather than “she”. He had worked as a local fisheries biologist for thirty years. He told us how each fishing boat is required to have an observer onboard. However the observers were usually young newbie biologists who were NOT prescreened for susceptibility to seasickness, which sometimes led to them being less than observant. Those problems have led to them beginning to replace observers with cameras.
Just like Skookum Law Group!!
Tubs of long line
Puppies!
Heading out
We were then passed off to a second guide for our town tour. Tami took offense at her disparaging remarks about both Swedes and people from Seattle (as absentee owners). The two main industries in Petersburg have been fishing and canning fish. It was fun seeing the rosemaling (traditional Norwegian flowery decorative painting, not sure if I spelled it correctly) on various houses and buildings.
Outside the federal building
Our guide told us that this is such a sleepy little town that one time someone called the police about one of her tours because “there are people walking in the street”.
After the tour we parked ourselves near the fireplace in the local library to take advantage of the WiFi. Many of the crew were in there doing the same thing. We were very pleased to get three blog posts up before we had to head back for dinner (we cannot afford to miss any food, given how skimpy the portions have been – we DO need to put on our winter pounds before the upcoming hibernation).
