Day 407 In to Ketckikan.

We now in Bar Harbor Marina(55 21.061N 131 41.065W)in Ketchikan.

We left Foggy Bay at 0830 this morning to make the in coming flood tide. The rest of the boats in our group left at 0630. Being power boats, they as affected by the currents as we are. They faced a 2.4 knot ebb tide as they headed out. By the time we left, the tide had gone to zero. Not coming in and not going out. It was about to turn in our favor and push us up the strait and that is exactly what it did. Instead of going just over 6 knots, we got up into the low 7's. Every little bit helps us move along. When we left, there was one boat left in the bay and he zipped past us a few hours later.

The ride up was pleasant with little wind. Of course what there was was straight at us. Heaven forbid us getting a wind that allows us to actually sail some where and save diesel. The waters were calm for most of the trip. There was little wind until we entered the Tongass Narrows where Ketchikan is located. Then it piped up to 20 knots. As we neared the entrance, White Sided Dolphins came by our boat and played with the bow wake for several minutes this afternoon. We've seen dolphins before in our trip, but never this close of for so long. Now that is one of the perks of cruising! One of the other boats that came in before us saw a whale this afternoon as they headed North.

We heard the Coast Guard calling different boats as we came nearer to Ketchikan. They were calling boats and sending one of their inflatables over to inspect different vessels. He asked one fishing boat for registration numbers and if he had his commercial fishing decal. He sort of hemmed and hawed and wasn't sure. He was then asked if he had ever been boarded by the Coast Guard for an inspection. "No, not in the last 20 years I've been out here" was his response. Today, he got boarded. As we neared the start of the narrows, we saw the ship and as we neared her, she passed our bow and circled around our stern and was coming right up behind us. We could see their inflatable talking to another boat off our bow. They eventually reversed course and when the inflatable caught up to them, they headed South.

I called the Harbor Master as we neared Bar Harbor for a slip assignment. He gave me good direction on how to come in and where to tie up. He controls all the ships in the harbor. As we passed down the Narrows, there were four cruise ships tied up to their dock. Princess, Norwegian, Holland-American, Silver Sea were all tied up. As we neared, the Norwegian Sun started coming out into the narrows right in front of us. Now how's that for great timing? The Holland American ship left just a few minutes after we got into the harbor. We squeezed right in between their departures.

Once tied up, I went up to use the pay phone to call US Customs. I put in my money and dialed. Once they picked up, they couldn't hear me. I added more money and they still couldn't hear me. They talked and I talked and eventually they hung up. I, of course, did not get my money back. As I left the booth, the Harbor Master was just coming out and let me use his cell phone. I gave customs all of our information and an agent was going to come and see us shortly to "officially" check up in. He showed us about 15 minutes later. A nice guy. Asked a few questions. Looked at our passports and that was that. We had been told by other boaters that you need to check in with customs at each port you entered along the Alaskan coast. Not so he told us unless you are a foreign flagged vessel. We were officially back in the USA.

Once that was done, we took off for the marina office to get checked in and find out the scoop about Ketchikan. Local restaurants, bus schedules, chandleries, grocery stores, etc we all on our list. We hiked dow the street a few blocks to Safeway for food and I looked for more corks to cram into the Webasto Heater exhaust port. If we took a big wave over the starboard side, water could flood down the port and destroy the heater. Not a piece of equipment I would want to replace. They aren't cheap.

Back to Zephyr with the food and then down to "Oceanview Restaurant for dinner. Great food and all we saw were locals eating there so we knew it was good. The marina manager had told us about it and said it was one of the best places in town. After dinner, we walked down to the where the cruise ships come in to see their docks. As we passed the local wharfs, there were a dozen bald eagles flying over the water like a flock of seagulls. Swooping and splashing in to the water trying to grab fish as the passed. We've never seen so many at one time. What fun!!

We've settled in for the night but made arrangements to go on a tour with the folks from Astarte. We ran into them as we were returning from dinner. I'll be making a side trip to the local Walmart for a few things and to several hardware stores and what ever chandleries I can find. We bought some more charts this afternoon while on the way to Safeway, but they didn't have them all. We also bought another cruising guide books as we only had one for South Alaska and that one doesn't tell us all the information we need as we head North. We already have another boater that will buy all the charts we have used after we return to Port Townsend. He gets a great deal and we get some of our money back for charts we will most likely never use again.

I'm still trying to work out my internet situation with Verizon. As of this afternoon, Ketchikan is the last place they have wifi and telephone service. I know I can get on line at McDonalds down the street so I'll probably go there to up load this post. As to the future of our blog, it could be several days between posting as internet is available only in the bigger cites like Petersburg, Juneau and Sitka. Have patience and I will get them posted as soon as I can. If I can find a place(this marina charges $3.95 hook up fee and $15.95 per day for service!!! Yeow!!) that has wifi, I will get this message out.

As always, there is more to come.