Alaska Journal - Day 9

Our day today will be different than any of our other days.  We were informed last night that there will only be an early morning breakfast at 6:30.  The early morning breakfast was typically cereal, pastries and toast.  We would have the morning to kayak until about 10 a.m. then we would pull up anchor and head to Wrangell.  While sailing, the chef was planning a huge brunch.

It rained lightly all morning but that didn’t stop us from grabbing a kayak and heading out about 7:30 a.m.  We needed to be back on board by 10:00 but that was plenty of time to see Minks, Harbor Seals, Bald Eagles, and other birds.

Bald Eagles

Common Murre

Brunch was huge, as promised.  We set sail for the town of Wrangell.  Once we disembarked in Wrangell we only had a couple of hours to explore the town.  We opted to go to the Wrangell Museum.  It is a well-done museum and we enjoyed it.

While walking around Wrangell we saw a few birds including a Black-legged Kittiwake and Bonapart Gull.

Black-legged Kittiwake

Black-legged Kittiwake

At 4:00 p.m. we followed several of the crew and most of the passengers to the Chief Shakes Cultural Center where a few of the native people put on a presentation for us.  It was poorly organized and amateurish.  We were glad it only lasted 40 minutes!

Pictures taken by the crew:

We were in for a big surprise when we returned to the ship. The tide had dropped over 20 feet while we were away, and we were not able to use the gangway. So the ship launched their inflatable skiffs and we had to use them to get back aboard.

In the picture below you can see the angle of the ramp down to the water. It was so steep that we had trouble safely walking down. Combined with wind and rough seas it was by far our most adventurous outing of the trip!

Next time: Our very first glacier.
Teri