We arrived in Ketchikan to get our first glimpse of the impact of the large cruise ships. There were 4 in port at the same time which essentially doubles the population of the town. The channel in front of Ketchikan was as busy as a highway with fishing boats, pleasure boats, cruise ships, and float planes by the dozens. The airport is across the channel and you have to get there by ferry, dinghy or float plane. We spent yesterday doing all our errands – grocery shopping, marine supply store, laundry, cleaning. It all takes on a new meaning when you don’t have a car and you don’t know the area, but it also makes it exciting to see new places not just as a tourist, but as if we lived here.

Our first stop in Alaska! We left Prince Rupert and crossed the Dixon Entrance into Alaska the final frontier. It sure feels like we have come a long way from San Francisco. We passed by a remote lighthouse and threaded our way through a large group of fishing boats to the small anchorage of Foggy Bay. It was a peaceful stop and I took a long sunset paddle at 10pm. The reflections at dusk when the water is still and the light warm are beautiful.

We’ve covered a lot of ground since I last blogged. Internet has been spotty and slow at best so not at all conducive to posting. Our days have been filled with exciting adventures and new discoveries. We have headed north along the inside passage to the top of British Columbia and will be leaving tomorrow for Alaska. We had a fabulous visit with our friends Thomas and Petra from Germany and appropriately spent the last night of their visit in Farewell Cove on Berry Island.

The wildlife has been amazing and we saw our first grizzly bear ambling along the shore across from one or our moorages. We were able to parallel him in our dinghy (from a very safe distance of course!) for almost 1/2 a mile and he never even noticed we were there. We saw a mother minke whale and her baby feeding along the shore and a large dolphin pod played just off to the side of our boat. Everywhere I kayak, sea otters pop up to check out who I am and then will often follow me on my paddles.

I have updated the photos page to give you a taste of what we have been seeing and experiencing and will fill in with more details soon.

I just got back to the boat from a 2 hour kayak. My neck is so sore I can hardly move it because I have been looking straight up at the cliffs surrounding us trying to trace the start of the over 20 waterfalls that are tumbling down the rock faces to the water below. Did you know that waterfalls have personalities? Each one is unique. Some fall gently and smell so sweet, others race to the bottom with so much force that they explode into the water below. Another followed a crevice down with baskets of ferns hanging from the walls. Fir trees grow in impossible places on the face of a 3000’ cliff and birds nest in crevices left from the force of thousands of years of wind and water. My friend Petra and I hardly spoke as we paddled – there were no words for what we were experiencing.

Princess Louis Inlet has been said to be the Holy Grail for cruisers.  If you don’t know where to look for the entry it would be impossible to find. It is a narrow channel called Malibu Rapids and you have to enter at slack tide – the pause between the tides when there is no current- or else you can be tossed onto the rocks on either side. The inlet is 4 miles long and surrounded by 3-6000-foot mountains that drop almost vertically to 600-foot depths below.

Bill says: If you have ever been to Yosemite, imagine it flooded with water so you can take your boat right up to the bottom of Yosemite Falls or kayak up to the base of Half Dome and there are only 6 boats in the entire basin. That is what Princess Louisa Inlet is like.

Check the photos page for more waterfall pictures!

Who wants to make an appointment? We are wide open!

Egmont British Columbia – From the shrimp boat to the table – the best prawns I have ever eaten!

They tasted just like lobster!

We have left the US for Canadian waters and are exploring the Gulf Islands on our way north. They are a set of beautiful islands scattered along the eastern coast of Vancouver Island. We stopped last night in the cove of a Marine State Park where we kayaked and hiked. The days are so long that we were sitting out back at 10:00pm enjoying the last rays of the sunset playing cards with our friends Thomas and Petra who are visiting us from Germany for two weeks.

Check out the updated photos on our photo page!

It is early morning and I am sitting looking out across the harbor in Victoria, British Columbia. The sea plane terminal is right next to us and there are 3 planes getting ready for the first flights of the day. The first ferry from Vancouver should be here shortly and the working tugs are already bustling about the bay. The parliament building is just across from us and the majestic Empress Hotel sits next to it. Victoria is a little gem that sits at the southeast corner of Vancouver Island.

The best part about Canada so far is the people. Not only are they warm and kind, but they are also generous. We met a family from Victoria on their boat two weeks ago while we were in the San Juan Islands and we emailed them to get together for lunch. After having met us only once before, they insisted on lending us their car so we could go to Costco for a big shop and to visit Butchart Gardens – that is hospitality!