Day 21 (30th August) Ketchikan

The alarm went off at 6.30am as we wanted to be up ready for when we docked at 7.00am. Problem was the digital clocks in our phones had not updated as should have happened. So it was actually 5.30am. Vince got up, showered and went for a walk. Margaret stayed in bed but did not really go back to sleep.

We ate breakfast at 7.00am looking down on Ketchikan's Front Street in overcast intermittent showery weather. We firstly went upstairs to the open deck to take photos of the town. Next we went back downstairs to go ashore. We had around 45 minutes to walk around the township before our float plane adventure.

We met the van from Island Wings Adventures in front of the ship. It was still drizzling but we hoped that the flight would not be cancelled due to poor visibility as the pilot does not fly on instruments. We boarded the van and headed to where the float plane docked. This is yet another bucket list item. There was still low lying cloud around when we took off but it appeared to be lifting so we hoped the scattered cloud would enhance the view and photographs.

Michelle, our pilot, pointed out various points of interest. Ketchikan is actually on an island, one of 5000 islands that create the archipelago of the Inside Passage. The mountains that surround the fjords are around 3000 feet high and the depth of the water in the fjords is just as deep. Tides in this area are very dramatic as they can vary from 12-24 feet between low to high tide.

We landed at the head of Rudyard Fjord and went ashore for around 20 minutes. Whilst there we saw a number of Bald Eagles and a couple of seals swimming in the fjord. There was a rather sick salmon swimming by in the shallows. Michelle said it would have spawned so was not long for this world.

Michelle then took photos of each of the couples standing near the plane (There were three coupes in total). Michelle is an expert with a number of cameras (given the number of people who have had their photo taken in the past) so she took multiple photos of each couple from different distances to make the most of the beautiful surroundings. Back on the plane we took a slightly different course back to the dock. Both take-off and landing were very smooth. I was difficult to tell the exact moment when you were in the water or in the air.

Arriving back, we went aboard to have some lunch and then back out for some more sightseeing. All of these towns (in the Inside Passage) rely heavily on tourism. During the summer months the township swells to around 11,000 and drops down to around 8500 in the winter months. Other than the general souvenir shops with the normal tourist fare- t-shirts, caps etc, there are a large number of jewellery stores selling diamond, tanzanite and other precious stones. The jewellery shops were a surprise give the fact that it was gold, not diamonds or other precious stones, that were mined in the area.

FYI Ketchikan is the home of salmon fishing. It also has one of the highest annual rainfalls (around 180 - 210 inches per annum).

As we set sail in the afternoon we attended another Digital Workshop. This time learning about the use of Photo Gallery and how to Collage, make panoramas and other forms of editing. This is yet another program available in Windows 10.

After another lovely dinner we did our one mile walk around the promenade deck before calling it a night.