Friday, May 28 – Saturday, May 29
Prior to purchasing our boat and renaming it Engelenbak, a boat name that has been in Roland’s family for close to 50 years (see our website for the history of the Engelenbak), this boat was named Alyeska and it was docked in Ketchikan. We thought little about this as we called in to the harbormaster in Ketchikan and, based on the size of our boat, he directed us to dock in one of the three marinas available for transient boats -- Bar Harbor Marina, a little over a mile north of town, in Dock 10, Slip 10. But Alyeska definitely came back to haunt us as we pulled into the slip … we lost ALL electrical power. Not good.
Here’s where it gets really eerie. As we disembarked the boat, there was a nameplate at the head of our slip that said … you guessed it ... ALYESKA!!! Out of all the marinas and slips in Ketchikan (and there are MANY), somehow we had been assigned to the same slip where our boat used to dock with its previous owner.
Our one night stay in Ketchikan turned into 2 nights, as we had to hire an electrician to help Roland figure out what happened to our power. Luckily, it was just a blown 300 amp fuse … and by Sunday morning we were on our way.
In the meantime, there are worse places to be stranded. Ketchikan is a small town of about 8,000 (actually large by Alaskan standards), on Revillagigedo Island along Tongass Narrows. It exists primarily for the cruise ship industry, which dumps about 800,000 tourists into the town annually. There were 3 cruise ships docked at the downtown docks when we arrived … under sunny skies and weather warm enough for shorts. Seaplanes were buzzing over our bow as we cruised along the Narrows toward the harbor, providing tourists an opportunity to see the town from air. They even have land/sea Duckie tours.
On Saturday, while Roland spent the day on the boat with the electrician, Sharon, Jim and I walked into town to buy some fishing supplies, find an Internet connection and see the downtown area. What a difference a day makes. It was downright cold and threatening rain (Ketchikan gets 160 inches of “liquid sunshine” a year). We could tell we were near the cruise ships when t-shirt shops, gift shops, jewelry stores and a whole shopping district that catered to tourists surrounded us. Sharon and I continued on to Creek Street, an historic district that used to house the town’s brothels but is now filled with cute gift shops and bookstores. I wanted to visit Parnussus, a bookstore reportedly with the largest collection of books about Alaska in Alaska. It was worth the visit!
That evening, to celebrate the boat being fixed, we all had a delightful dinner of salmon at Bar Harbor Restaurant next to the marina. If you’re ever in Ketchikan this is the place to eat! We had drinks and appetizers out on the deck over the water, with eagles perched around us on rooftops and masts like the seagulls in Lake Erie …. Amazing. Great food, wonderful ambiance, and the owner/chef Martin and his wife, were delightful hosts. She even dug up some mint from her herb garden out on the deck for me to transplant to my planters on the boat … so a little bit of Bar Harbor Restaurant will be continuing on with us, spicing up the rest of our journeys in Alaska.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment