Day 23 - Ketchikan

We arrived in Ketchikan at about 6am and we had an early breakfast and went into town at about 7:45am; yes we can do an early start when we have to! The boats dock right in the town and the big cruise ships really dominate the skyline; our boat looks puny in comparison.

We walked down to Creek St., the old red light district of Ketchikan. The street is really a boardwalk built at the side of the creek and the houses are built on stilts. The creek is also home to spawning salmon and the sign at the entrance says “Where fish and fishermen come to spawn”.

Then off to a lumberjack show which was very entertaining; axes, chainsaws, pole climbing, and log rolling just like you see on ESPN.

Then onto the Saxman Totem Village. The Reverend Saxman wanted to promote closer ties with the native Indians so invited two tribes to move closer to Ketchikan and this is where they settled. There is a large collection of totems from around the area and they continue to make totems to this day.

Then back to Ketchikan for our last chance to shop for Alaskan souvenirs; a task successfully performed by Jill as I walked the town looking for that perfect photo opportunity.

We left Ketchikan at 1pm and made our way to the Misty Fjords National Monument. 2 other cruise ships also left Ketchikan at the same time, but that are too large for the Misty Fjords so they carried on their way back to either Vancouver or Seattle.

We went into Rudyerd Bay, a fjord off the Behm Canal; very similar to Milford Sound in New Zealand with cliffs 3000’ tall plunging straight into the fjord. We cruised through Punchbowl Cove and then Owl Narrows; this was the first time that the EON has navigated these narrow, at some points we were only 50’ from the banks on both sides of the boat!

Tomorrow we enter Canadian waters for the long 2 day cruise to Vancouver, Victoria and Seattle. At Ketchikan we took on board 2 Canadian pilots to assist our passage through the Canadian waters.