Tom tries to kill me in a Sea Kayak

Sitka is also a temperate rain forest, receiving 90 inches of rain annually. The change agent is wind.  Our kayaking guide was from Maryland and is 24 years old. Typical of other Alaskans we have met, he holds at least three jobs!  Alaskans are Northern Jamaicans!

I don't know why I thought sea kayaking would be a good idea. Tom and I tried canoeing together once, and it ended with me crossing my arms and sitting in the bow of the boat after tiring of having Tom alternate and overpower my strokes. We looked like a drunken snake on the water.  Apparently I had some vision that being in a two person kayak in the sea would be easier?

The Kayak tour guides complimented us on our gear and said Cruise West people are always properly prepared. We wore our rain gear, as had been suggested.

We had a brief safety speech which immediately set off bells and whistles for me. First, getting in the darned thing requires a contortionist.  You have to balance on the back of the seat, extend your legs and then lift your butt over the seat back while at the same time keeping the spray skirt clear, and slide in.  Don't bend your knees or you will be left with a knee to your chest and no way to free yourself. Eventually heavy equipment will arrive and between that and a tub of butter, will pop you out.

But I digress. The safety briefing magnified my anxiety.  You are instructed to pull the skirt taut around the lips of the kayak around you.  If you capsize, the guide told us, pull the web handle at the front of the skirt.  Okay, I can do this! But then he adds, "... and if that doesn't work..." WHAT?? What do you mean "if that doesn't work?!"  If I am abruptly flipped into icy water I want to know that my life saving maneuver will work!  So the guide continues, "if the handle pull doesn't free you, grasp the skirt with both hands and pull up."  But wait! As Ron Popeil says: there's more! If that doesn't work, and you are by this time upside down in the water, push yourself out and the difference of your weight in the water will pop you free.  After all that and the guide, David, had the balls to add "don't panic."  To which I say, "not very likely!"

One funny moment occurred when David was adjusting Tom's spray skirt and Tom said "I can't say I've ever had a man look under my skirt before!"  That was to be the last time I laughed for the next several hours of my life.

So, off we went into the water and I was immediately terrified.  I absolutely hated the feeling of being secured to a vessel that could flip over.  The skirt also made it impossible to twist around and see what your partner, or anyone else, was doing. I could only look forward. And forward of me was nothing but water.  I didn't like it one bit. I started out advising Tom of rocks and ships and such but each time he said, "I know, I see it" and ultimately I gave up and decided to allow him to guide us to certain death.

Shortly after we began, an older couple began to struggle and the man lost his pedals for the rudder so David towed hem for the remainder of the trip. That meant that for the entire trip, they were far behind and we did not have the benefit of hearing the narrative.  It also meant his statement that if the other safety mechanisms didn't work he would be near enough to see we were in trouble was a flat out lie.  That was extremely worrisome to me. I like to know where we are going, where we are supposed to be. Is being out here in this open channel with a large boat approaching a good thing?

Tom was having his own struggles with rudder pedals out of sync.  He claims now that he was not intentionally torturing me.  Shortly after shoving off, he saw a sea lion and when he mentioned it later, I thought it was sitting on a rock. He said it was big as a black bear and he didn't point it out for fearing of frightening me.  That was probably a good decision, as I was in DefComIII at that moment. However, when he later clarified that it was in the water and had popped its head up for a look-see, I was very glad he hadn't told me!

I was sure I was going to die, sure we would roll over and be trapped and no one would know.  And I especially did not like that Tom and I repeatedly ended up way out in open water, away from the others, who were hugging the shore.  I wanted to be with them!! Tom told me we were being swept out to sea.  Every time I saw a boat approaching the fright would rise up in me again.

I think it would have been pleasant if the guide would have been with us, or if Tom ever steered us to the shoreline. As it was, I was never sure if we were in a safe place.  With each stroke I said "I hate this, I hate this" and my only goal was to survive.  What I hated was the absolute loss of control. I couldn't steer and I didn't know if where we were was a good place and I didn't know where we were going.  On the way back, I repeatedly asked where we were going, what to aim toward as a goal. Tom was frustrated and said "the same way we came."  The problem was that on the way out I was so single mindedly focused on Point A to Point B that I didn't have a big picture of what "the same way " was.

I did relax a little on the way back and we floated awhile as we drank our water and at the cookies they provided.  I also took a few photos, including the traditional "front of kayak" view.  I even enjoyed the wake. A little.

That ended with having to race the boats across the channel.  The time of day our sea kayaking tour was had scheduled was badly timed for the return of the fishing vessels.

In hindsight, I would be willing to try a single kayak in the future. Just not in a shipping lane in the ocean!

Sitka, August 22

We saw several boats with seine circle nets out, and a fleet heading out with their seine boats, and 440 hp engines, towing behind.  The housing of Sitka appears to be built long and narrow, extending only a couple blocks. Most are on the water or, if not, built up high enough to see the water.  I did see the Sitka mobile home park!  There is a big boat moored here, the "Blue Moon" out of George Town, carrying a British flag.  I saw several landslide scars and wonder if they worry about being swept away?

We ate breakfast with a couple from Australia and the woman was wearing a sweater of possum and merino! It was very soft, like cashmere.  They use possum fur in garments there. I don't recall ever seeing it used here, or people proudly saying "feel my possum sweater!"  Maybe possum is the great overlooked resource!

Sitka is incredible! We got a later start to the day, debarking at 10.  Every time you leave the ship you have to move your room number over and upon return you must show your photo ID to re board the ship, and move your number back.  Jokingly, I mentioned TSA's fascination with my suitcases and so KC teases me every time I board!  I'm getting paranoid, thinking I must be on their watch list or something! I was checked both directions on my flight to Germany, and on two legs of my journey here!  Next time, I am going to lay out some giant, stinky underwear on top for them to sort through! Take that!

Arriving in Sitka was interesting, watching the fishing vessels unloading.  The first thing we did was to watch a Native dance presentation.  They were very good and I was happy that there were no warnings against taking photos or video. However, at the end they announced that we were asked not to publish them on the internet!  The last dance invited people from the audience to go down to the floor and participate with the dancers.  Well, I couldn't pass that by! It was great fun!  Tom stayed in his seat, preferring to be the photographer.  I did learn a valuable new phrase in Tlingit:  it is pronounced "E shawn" and you drop your voice on the shawn part.  It means "poor baby".

The historic walk was filled so we opted to stay in town and wander around. Sitka is a nice place to shop. There are many little shops, not kitschy, and they are locally owned.  There were more places to visit than we had time for.  We shopped and then had lunch at Victoria's, which, we were told, is where the fishermen go when they come in to eat.  We had the halibut fish n chips dinner for $18.95.  Nothing is cheap here, though you would expect the fish would be. On the other hand, maybe they recognize that the way to earn a living is to pay what their product is truly worth. 

I walked up the hill to the Russian Cemetery while Tom scooted back to the ship with our bags.  The Russian cemetery was eerie. It was up the hill where the street dead-ends but with no formal entrance, just a sign listing cemetery rules and a Russian cross leaning against it. I didn't go far as we didn't have time.  The graves were old and covered in moss, untended. I felt like an interloper.

August 21

Oh my gosh!  The humpbacks were going crazy!  They were blowing and breaching and tail flipping!  There was quite a large group of them and everyone was on deck, taking pictures!  One blew out of his spout and made a noise so close to the ship that it startled me!  Such a sight!  It's funny, though, because initially we were thrilled to see a tail flip from half a mile away but now we're jaded and demand they breach next to the ship!

Dinner was incredible!  I tried the salmon soup and it was surprisingly delicious!  The dungeness crab was so fresh, apparently picked up when we stopped in Petersberg.  Remember that I am not--or was not-- a fish lover.  The fish I've eaten on this trip has been so incredibly fresh and delicious that I've been converted!  I'm not sure that means I'm ready to embrace the Friday Fish Fry, but at least I'm open to a good piece of halibut.

...the dining room was evacuated in favor of watching seven or eight black bears on the short, fishing salmon from a small stream inlet.  It was too dark and too far away for my camera.

We were so blessed to have two wonderful naturalists on board for the duration of the voyage.  They added another dimension of knowledge.  (from the Cruise West booklet)  Janine Kuehn moved to Alaska when she was 14 years old and earned an undergraduate degree in biochemistry. She used her scientific education as an employee with the U.S. Forest Service collecting field data and spending time in the Colville National Forest in Eastern Washington.  After earning a Masters degree in Natural Resources from the University of Idaho, she returned to eastern Washington to investigate the environmental impacts of dam removal on riverine ecosystems.

JD Trebec worked as a naturalist while attending Texas A&M and New Mexico State University for his undergrad and graduate degrees in Geography. He served as an interpretive ranger for the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, a guide for the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, AZ (hey! I've been there!) and his passion is ethnobotany-- the study of the relationships between people and plants and the traditional use of plants. 

The naturalists on-board and the guides throughout the trip were all extremely knowledgable and contributed hugely to the flavor.  This is what I was searching for when I knew I did not want the Big-Box, Floating City cruise.  They were very inspirational, as well, and all so in love with what they do.  If they weren't, they did a convincing job of faking it!

JD gave the evening talk on August 21.  I learned that black bears are found in all states but Hawaii.  Frederick Sound separates the north and south regions.  In the south, red cedar is dominant and so is the black bear.  In the north, it is yellow cedar and brown bears.  The island of AnAn, where we saw the bears, has the highest density in the world!

There is one brown bear per acre on the Admiralty Islands (ABC Islands) which we are circumnavigating now.  Brown bears run off the smaller black bear where they exist.  Look for the large hump on the shoulders of the brown bear.  Grizzly bears are the same animal but are called brown bears on the coast.  The bears on the coast are well fed with salmon, while the interior bears struggle to find food and to the joke was that Grizzlys are scrawny, hungry brown bears with a bad attitude!  They spend alot of time digging, so they have a scoop face with a stop, like a labrador and a hump; black bears have a roman nose.  Brown bears live in more open areas. 

Salmon have to change entirely when they head out to the ocean.  Who knew? Certainly not me!  They have to change from a freshwater fish to a saltwater fish, which is called smoltification. In the ocean they absorb Nitrogen 15 while they eat.  They find their way back not only to their own stream, but the same place they were hatched, and then transform themselves again!  Once they reach the home stream, they do not eat again. Their only goal is to breed and spawn. Well, if you're going to breed, you want to look as attractive as possible, so the males develop a hump back, a hook nose and jagged teeth! Clearly, it's a salmon thang! Their bodies are starting to fall apart, with no fuel coming in and everything being expended to their final quest. Pacific salmon breed only once.  But as the bears, eagles, and seals eat the salmon and discard them or expel them in scat, the Nitrogen 15 is being redeposited.  Salmon need cold, clear water shaded by trees in order to spawn... and the trees are fed by Nitrogen 15.  It's the circle of life, Simba!

Remember the salmon names by thinking of your hand:

Chum-   sounds like thumb
Sockeye-     you can sock someone in the eye with index finger
King-  the middle finger is the biggest, the King
Silver- you might wear a silver ring
Pink- pinky finger
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But then it gets more complicated! Salmon have two names!  This is how to remember their nicknames:

Chum-  who is man's best friend? a DOG
Sockeye-  if you sock someone in the eye it turns RED
King- is called the CHINOOK because a King can have quite an attitude and be a schnook
Silver-  the lone ranger says COHO silver, away!
Pink- if you bend your pinky over it has a hump... HUMPIES
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Salmon are Anadromous, meaning they have the ability to live in the two environments, salt and fresh water.
Aelvin are eggs and fry or parr are the baby fish.

The average farmed salmon steak is nearly 10x higher in PCBs than the wild ones because the pellets they are fed accumulate those toxins.  The feedlots destroy sea beds, spread sickness to the wild population such as sea lice, as they pass through that area.  Farm fish have a grey colored meat so it is DYED pink to make it look palatable.  Alaska salmon, on the other hand, is a sustainable resource.

FRIENDS DON'T LET FRIENDS EAT FARM FISH!!!!

lesson with Sean O'Connor

We were invited to bring our cameras to the on-board photographer, Sean O'Connor, to review so that he could give us critiques or suggestions.  He pronounced my photos as having "good composition." He pointed out that I should look for the flashing white or black areas in my photo and consider it a "hole in the frame.'  Also, watch for camera shake.  Since I don't have a tripod or monopod, providing a stable platform needs to be a consideration.  

 Sean liked one particular photograph of what he called a "foss helibore" , which means "wind twisted wood."  I just knew I liked the way it looked!  Those helibores are exposed to the wind, often above the tree line.  Sean suggested that I should leave a 30% outside edge for cropping, so that I don't lose important parts of the image.  Instead, I filled the frame with exactly the photo I wanted to see, with no border.

In the areas we walked in with many trees, where everything is green, underexposre by approximately 2/3 stop using the +/- button.  Moving the wheel to the right is under-exposed, and to the left, over-exposed.  3 turns on the wheel is 1 stop.  For the aperature and shutter, under-expose "hotter" colors.

Later in the trip, I spoke with several other guests regarding their opinion of Sean and the photography option.  One gentleman was very generous and said that he did not view this as an instructional cruise (which had been my opinion) but that there would be many photographers on board, with whom he could compare notes on technique and equipment.  The advertisement for the water portion of the trip was billed as a "photography cruise" and said that a Pentax representative would be on board for seminars and instruction, and that we could use that equipment or our own.  This was not the case. 

Another man was much more critical.  He was a more experienced photographer than myself, and was very unhappy over what he felt was a representation of what was promised.  He felt that Sean was unprepared for this type of instruction and did not satisfy even the most basic rules in presentation, which is to ensure your audio-visual equipment works!  The seminars did not address the needs of the group and were instead a self-promotion:  hire me, see my projects, buy the equipment I'm promoting.  He made sure to tell of his dissatisfaction in his review of the trip.

In my opinion, it did not deliver the promised product.  Tom noted that while there were a number of folks with the mega-lens, etc, there were also quite a few SLR folks.  He thought it would have been more helpful to offer different seminars geared to those needs.  For the SLR folks, how to frame a photo and work with basic exposures, etc would have been helpful.  We never did receive information on photo storage and other programs which was promised.  Sean was very disorganized in his presentation, from the AV failure to a simple lack of focus in his speaking.  He clearly has an artistic skill and is excited about his projects, but seeing them did not improve my photography skills.

Being the total auto-focus geek I am, I did learn to step outside the "green zone", however, and that was a good thing for me.  I learned a couple new tricks and tried them out with success, so it was not a total failure; it just could have been much better.

BridgeTour, 8/21

We were offered the chance to get a tour of the Bridge. I wasn't sure I was terribly interested but I hated not to take advantage of anything that was offered, so I went.  I'm glad I did. I learned that the mates are also Captains-- they all have a Captain's license.  Beth was a coastal researcher, K.C. came from NOAH, Louis ran fishing boats and the absent one worked tall ships. K.C. has captained yachts and owns a ship in San Francisco. The ships have AIS and can identify and call out to them by radio to determine which side to pass on. They said it is much more difficult with fishing vessles without AIS as they all have huge sodium lights that create night blindness and it makes it hard to determine their distance.

At night a deckhand is on the bridge with binoculars, looking for logs, etc, as all the computer screes take the Captain's night vision.  They work 4 hour shifts.  Beth said she works midnight-4 and was the one who took us through the Wrangell Narrows at night.  I had gotten up to see "Christmas Tree Lane' but it was so foggy I could barely see one marker light at a time, but I saw how carefully and slowly we were moving and how narrow it really was.  They have no steering wheel; there is a joystick!  Beth said that Captain Louis sits behind directs them, or cracks jokes!  While not really a breath-taking event for anyone who doesn't own a boat, it was still interesting to see the view from the Bridge.

Walking with Dinosaurs, 8/21

We participated in another Rain Forest walk, this time along the Ohmer Creek Trail.  The rainforest is on such a grand scale, you can imagine Dinosaurs walking there.  With the giant skunk cabbage leaves and overturned trees with root systems larger than a car, everything green with moss, you think that if you were still and listened carefully you might catch a glimpse of a prehistoric beast moving through the forest.  We nibbled on a variety of berries.  I'm beginning to recognize the edible from the poisonous without assistance, but still wait to be told something is safe before popping it in my mouth.  Except the blueberries. Those I eat whereever I find them!

Ohmer Creek is a temperate rain forest.  We followed a wooden boardwalk across the muskeg.  Muskeg is the spaghum moss and is very absorbent. We also saw an interesting plant called  "sun dew", with lovely pink flowers, down in the peat and the muskeg.  This deceptive little darling acts like a venus fly trap!  People in this area pick them and put them in their kitchens because the plant eats fruit flies!

As always, I dawdle along, photographing and listing the plants I see so that I can look them up later.  On this walk we saw: deer heart (false lily of the valley), skunk cabbage, splash cup fungus, devil's club, elderberry, huckleberry, blueberry, watermelon berry (twisted stalk), bunch berry, dogwood, and currant.

On our drive to the rainforest walk, we saw a Sitka deer and a porcupine alongside the road. Our driver came there to work in the cannery.  There were 7 men to 1 woman and that sounded pretty good until she learned that quantity didn't equal quality!!  She was just about to leave when she met her husband, a local boy. 

There is an area of the highway they call the Big Dipper, where each year's graduating class paints their names on the road.  They can still use studded tires there, too, so the names get worn off.  Petersburg gets around 90 inches of snow and about 110 inches of rain annually, so there ends up being alot of slush!  All the kids in the town learn to swim since they are surrounded by water, and they have a large pool facility. They have never had an accidental drowning.

The Petersburg industry is fishing.  The town has approximately 1000 people.  The big cruise ships can't go there, as they can't fit through the Wrangell Narrows. There is no mill in Petersburg and the one in Wrangell closed, so you have to send wood out to be planed.  Residents can harvest a certain amount of wood for firewood or building. Selective logging is done, taking trees here and there, but no clear-cutting.  They don't have to plant, as the trees re-seed themselves. Homes outside the town are served with electricity but not water; those people must collect it or have it delivered.  The water wagon seems to be a symbol of life in many parts of Alaska. 

For kids who go to school in Petersburg, gym is alternated with "wet" and "dry" months, meaning one month you work in the pool and the next you do land sports.  Those who play sports have to travel 8 hours to Juneau, stay in the homes of their competitors, then ferry 8 hours back! The road in Petersburg is 38 miles long and dead-ends.  The only way in is boat or plane.

Sons of Norway, August 8/21

Oh, I so wish I had videotaped this!  We visited the Sons of Norway Hall as our first stop of the day and were greeted by children in traditional Norwegian costume.  After we were seated, pairs of children were dispatched to visit with our tables and we had the most adorable little blond girl and her cousin. This group celebrates Norway's freedom from Sweden and their Independence Day is in May.  In the early days, no Swedes were allowed in the Hall! Now the dancing is open to all the children there.  We were served lefse, almond puff and scorpa and I bought a Norwegian cookbook so perhaps I can surprise my father someday with a recipe or two.