Come Go With Us...

Day 42 of the Alaskan Journey
Monday, July 14

The tide was out as we searched for our boat and crew.

We celebrated our second wedding anniversary by taking a "cruise"! We got to the port in Homer about 9 am to get our tickets and look around before our trip to the port of Seldovia on the Rainbow Connection started at 10:30. The boat was not full.

Our boat was the "Rainbow Connection."

Notice the tall telephone docking post height.

The first mate, a woman, welcomed us aboard and showed us to our seating area. It was just one level below the bar, which was tended by a tall, salty woman who claimed to make the best dockside Bloody Mary in Alaska. While we were each sipping one, the skipper came on board with her very young baby girl. At a later point on the trip, she breast fed the baby while steering the boat. Skillful multitasking!

Captains Chair and nursery

The skipper greeted us with a broad smile and declared that the calm water and clear skies were a prelude to the great trip that was in store for us. As we took our seats, the boat's interpreter ran through the safety and shipboard instructions. She was a marine biologist and kept us apprised of what we were seeing and experiencing.

We had an all female, all Alaskan born crew. There was even a crew dog on board. Guess what its gender was!

Notice the calm water.

Our first stop was Gull Island.

The white colorings are birds and poop!

There we drifted around slowly and saw puffins, guillemot, gulls, murres, kittiwakes, and sea otters.

Sea otters are just too darn cute.

Common murre duck

Tufted puffin

We made a few drifting circuits around the island, listening to the squawks and squeaks of the island residents as they cavorted in our boat's wake. After 20 minutes our skipper advised us to hold on as she pointed the bow toward Seldovia Bay and advanced the throttle.

We had a nice run with quiet waters and observed amazing scenery on our way.

At one point the skipper advised us that she was diverting our current heading and motoring towar a humpback whale that had been sighted and that we should be alert--we might get lucky.

We got lucky!

"Thar she blows!"

We had five separate encounters with humpback whales that day before we returned to the Homer port.

Our official greeter

Soon we entered the Alaskan port of Seldovia and tied up.

Notice the steep angle of the shore floating dock ramp.

The first thing on the agenda was lunch of course. There were about three places in the tiny seaside village that might be open. By this time I had a good relationship with the bartender and she told me her favorite and what to order.

Smoked salmon chowder

Harbor view from our dining table at the Boardwalk Hotel

Rockfish sandwich

After lunch we walked around the town seeing the quaint buildings, some old and some new designed to look old.

The old Russian Orthodox church was in bad shape. Yet it was one of those building that I knew had stories to tell. I could almost feel the bell tower yearning to ring out its calls to worship and warnings of bad weather.