On the Water

Robert, Saturday, May 31
Ketchikan gets something like 13 feet of rain a year! That means if you visit here you need to bring rain gear. Since we got here it has been cloudy every day (but no rain yet). Today was different; the sun was out, the sky was blue, and the temperature was warm–even hot in the sun. We had talked about taking a float plane trip to an area about 40 miles to the northeast to see something called Misty Fiords. The reason for going there is to see waterfalls, wildlife, and beautiful scenery. However, the cost would have been almost $500 for the two of us and seems just too pricy. So, we asked about renting a small boat where we are staying. The price was right so that is what we did. We went out for about 4 hours and saw waterfalls and beautiful scenery. The only wildlife we saw were bald eagles. We probably saw 50 or so. About 10 miles to the northwest of here, there is a submarine base. We checked that out although the local advice is that if you get too close, the Coast Guard arrives and tells you to leave. We didn’t see the Coast Guard so I guess they were either asleep, the local information is wrong, or we didn’t get too close. After our boat ride, we went into town to buy some more fresh fish–halibut this time. When we bought the salmon, we asked about king crab. We were told that they had none and the chances of getting any was slim. Well, we asked again and this time the word was that they were getting 6 on Monday. These will be live crabs; not frozen. We asked how many pounds of crab you get from one crab. The answer was a crab weighs about 10 pounds and you get about 8 pounds of crab meat. We got our name on a list for one. We asked about cooking it as we don’t have a huge pot with us to boil the meat. The response we got was to wrap each leg in aluminum foil, add a little garlic and butter and then put it on the grill. When we pick the crab up on Monday we need to ask how long it should be grilled. After we got the fish, we eat dinner at one of the recommended restaurants in town. The food was good and we both get fish. After dinner we parked across the street from the Best Western and used their Wifi. We bought an inverter before we left home and it was enough to power both laptops at the same time. The inverter is rated for 400 watts and it has a readout showing how much power is being used. With both laptops running it read 80 watts. We posted to the blog, got our email, and I downloaded software for our Garmin GPS. I suppose people seeing us sitting in the truck in the parking lot for an hour and a half wondered what we were doing but so what? If you are reading this post, it will probably be via Best Western’s wifi. (Well I was wrong. We are doing laundry and the laundromat has wifi!)