Ketchican

1200 position 55-18N 131-37W.  Heading south through Tongass Narrows.

Thankful got an early start yesterday morning to get across Clarance Strait and into Ketchican before the winds picked up.  The strait can be a nasty place when it is blowing.  We had a mild crossing with the wind behind us and by 830AM we were making the turn into Tongass Narrows.

The busy metropolis of Ketchican sits in the middle of the ten mile long narrows, and as soon as we made the turn  the traffic picked up.  "Swell", a classic wooden charter boat that we had last seen just outside Ford's Terror, entered the narrows the same time we did.  We powered into Ketchican right behind them.  As we approached the city center we saw three large cruise ships berthed end to end along the waterfront, temporarily increasing the city's population by about seven thousand people.

Ketchican is the southern most city in Alaska, and it is a transportation hub for the southeast part of the state.  Dozens of float planes took off and landed around us, ferrying people and materials to and from remote parts of Alaska.  We dodged the ferry that runs back and forth twice per hour between Ketchican and the city's airport located across the narrows on Gravina Island.

This was Thankful's fifth trip into Ketchican this summer, so Matt and Vicki are very familiar with the city.  We headed in to the southernmost and oldest of the five small boat harbors there, Thomas Basin.

Lori and I headed out to play tourist after we got secured and cleaned up.  We spent the day making the recommended self guided historical walk through the city and visited the museum and a few other interesting spots.  Salmon were migrating up the small river that runs right throught the middle for old town and into Thomas Harbor.  It was fun to watch thousands of fish struggling upstream over the rapids.  There were even a couple of sea lions at the bottom of the stream feeding.  I think we walked about five miles.

We had a farewell dinner out at the New York Cafe next to the harbor, and finished the evening with a couple of games of cribbage in Thankful's salon.

Yankee Maid, the seiner we partied with in Auke Bay, pulled in to a slip on the pier next to ours this morning, and we went over to catch up with them.  They are done fishing for the year and are heading back to Seattle.  They have been suffering a bit lately after one of their crew members broke his wrist recently in a bar fight.

Matt and I departed Thomas Harbor at 1130 this morning after kissing our wives goodby as they headed for the airport.  Vicki is flying home to Gig Harbor for a few days to check on her business, and Lori is flying to Portland to spend time with family and friends.  We miss our sweeties already.

Thankful is headed for Cordova Bay on the south end of Prince of Wales Island.  This large bay is choked with small islands and inlets.  There should be lots of places to explore, fish, and relax, before we head back to Ketchican to pick Vicki up in five days.

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