RV ALASKA - Boat Nerds in Paradise

After looking through our photos and notes, I’m thinking that it will take three, not two, posts to cover our 10 days of adventure in Seward.  So, let’s get right to #2.

Alan and I are boat nerds.  We have a small power boat, we love being out on the water and we love seeing other boats of any size out on the water.  Generally speaking, it doesn’t take much to make us happy.  When it comes to boats, it takes even less.  From the comfort of our recliners or camp chairs, we spent hours intrigued by the activity going on in the Port of Seward and on Resurrection Bay.

Date(s) – July 26th – August 4th   

Total Miles Traveled to Date – 12,036

Wildlife Sightings to Date – Here’s the tally of wildlife sightings for the entire 10 days we were in Seward: 2 swans, 13 seals, 5 sea lions, 15 otters and 31 eagles.

So, our current count for wildlife sightings is: 93 eagles (including 2 fledglings); 4 seagull chicks; 10 swans (including 2 fuzzy cygnets); 8 sea lions; 26 seals; 17 sea otters; 3 cow moose; 1 bull moose; 1 grizzly sow with 2 cubs; 1 back end of a grizzly bear; 6 black bears; 1 coyote; 1 snowshoe hare; 3 rabbits (including one very fast bunny that just managed to cross the road safely); several small herds of bison with at least 2 dozen young calves; 9 deer (2 of them bucks with their racks covered in velvet); 9 mountain goats (including 3 tiny and adorable kids); 23 bighorn sheep; 62 elk (including 7 calves that hadn’t yet lost their spots and a number of bull elk with full racks covered in velvet); several small herds of pronghorn antelope (including 2 mamas with 3 newborn fawns between them); 3 great blue herons; dozens of American white pelicans; at least a half dozen families of adult geese with goslings; and several dozen ducks (with lots of little ducklings).

Highlights – One of the fishing boats docked in the harbor at Seward belonged to one of our next-door neighbors.  He and his family lived in Anchorage, and they were in town camping and fishing over the weekend.  It was a last hurrah for the summer, as their daughters would be leaving soon for college.  Our neighbor was exceptionally friendly, and gifted us with a large salmon fillet that he had caught and vacuum-sealed the week before.  We cooked it very simply, and that salmon just about melted in our mouths.  So fresh and so full of flavor!  I didn’t think to ask what type of salmon it was, but we’ve become a tiny bit educated about fish and fishing on this trip, and I’m pretty sure it was sockeye.  My mouth is watering just thinking about the excellent meal we had.  When the family went out fishing on Saturday, and our neighbor tooted his boat horn as they passed our campsite, we gave a big wave as both a thank you and a farewell.  They packed up and headed for home before we were out and about on Sunday morning.  Gifting us with fresh-caught salmon, despite the fact that our paths crossed for only a moment in time, signaled a kindness and generosity that appears to be common among Alaskans.

Seward and Whittier are the two ports in Alaska used most often by cruise lines as the starting or ending points of a cruise up or down the Inside Passage.  We saw three or four cruise ships in port during the time we spent in Seward.  Because Alan was able to access the port schedule online (I told you we were boat nerds!), we knew when each ship was arriving and departing.  As we sat facing the bay, the port and harbor were to our left, the open water of the Gulf of Alaska 18 miles away to our right.  When a cruise ship arrived in port, the captain would pull straight in to the dock.  When the ship departed, the captain needed to back the ship away from the dock, into the bay, and actually turn it around there before they were able to head out to the Gulf of Alaska.  Marine regulations require that ships have pilots aboard who are certified for a particular port and/or body of water.  That’s not just an Alaskan regulation.  Due to the changing depth of channels, obscured underwater hazards, rocky shoals and any other challenges related to a particular port or body of water, you need to have someone who knows those waters well on hand to guide the captain in and out – no matter how many times that captain has visited the port.  So, how do the pilots get on the ships to help guide them into port?  A pilot boat based in the port city brings the pilot out to the ship as the ship is entering the pilot’s jurisdiction.  Most often, a ladder is lowered off the side of the ship and the pilot climbs aboard that way.  Some ships have an entry door low on the side of the ship, and the pilot boat will deliver the pilot to that location.  Once the ship is docked, the pilot simply disembarks and heads home.  When a ship is leaving a port, the pilot boards at the dock, and the pilot boat waits at the point where the pilot’s jurisdiction ends.  Once the pilot boat has picked up the pilot from the ship, they head back to port, and the cruise line gets a bill for the pilot’s services.  And the port fees.  And the per passenger charges.  If you’ve ever taken a cruise, you’ve probably seen “port fees” included on your invoice.  That’s because you, my friends, help to pay the pilot, the pilot boat’s captain, and the dockworkers’ salaries.  How do I know this?  Because that’s what two boat nerds research when they’re wondering how much a cruise line has to pay a port to dock its ships there.  For one of the ships, we calculated total port charges to be about $67,000.00 based on the size of the ship (tonnage) and the number of passengers.  Next question: What do boat nerds do when they come across the fascinating process of docking a cruise ship?  We immerse ourselves in it!  On the morning the Norwegian Jewel was due to arrive, we got up at 4:00 a.m., turned on the marine radio to follow communications between the cruise ship and pilot boat, and watched the huge ship cruise silently up to the dock well before dawn.  Against the dark sky, the ship’s lights glowed like a Disney display at Christmas, and we watched as lights in the passenger cabins blinked on, one by one.  It really was magical!  At the time of a ship’s departure, usually in the early evening, we watched as the captain of the huge ship backed away from the dock and performed a 180 degree turn in the bay just about right in front of us.  Once the cruise ship had straightened out and was headed out toward the Gulf of Alaska, the pilot boat circled around to the ship’s port (left) side; shortly after that, the pilot boat would come zipping back into the harbor – with the pilot aboard, no doubt.  Yet another subculture about which we know next to nothing!  So fascinating!

Do you remember in a previous post on our visit to Homer, I described the operation aboard the Helenka B, a local freighter that moved goods and people back and forth from the outer islands to Homer?  We saw a similar operation in Seward, but this was a loaded barge being handled by a tug boat.  (The tugs were in and out of Seward so frequently that we quickly became familiar with their names, thanks to marinetraffic.com.)  I don’t recall where the barge had come from, but it had all kinds of, uh, “stuff” on it – shipping containers, a travel trailer, parts of a crane, at least two trucks, a couple of different kinds of tanks and large flatbed trailers that would be hauled by a tractor trailer.  Not only did we watch the tug maneuver the heavily loaded barge into port, but Alan watched with binoculars as the dock workers unloaded the amazing amount and assortment of “stuff.”  (He’s obviously more of a boat nerd than I am.)

Every morning, rain or shine, a parade of fishing boats and charters would begin leaving the harbor at 6:00 a.m.  At 8:00 a.m., the tour boats would begin their departures.  Want to guess what two boat nerds do about all those boats?  We count ‘em.  Then we average them out.  In the port town of Seward (population: 2,851), an average of 20 boats leave the harbor every hour between 6:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m.  Every three minutes, for three solid hours, a fishing boat or tour boat motored past our campsite.  And still, there were a lot of boats left in the harbor.  Now if we could only find out how much commercial fishing, fishing charters and tour boats generate in income . . .

Waking up to a magnificent view of Resurrection Bay and the mountains beyond was an extraordinary pleasure for Alan and me.  Enjoying so much entertaining activity on the stage before us made this stop on our itinerary one of sheer delight.  In the opinion of these two boat nerds, Seward deserves a gold star – or maybe a golden anchor.

Lowlight(s) – Canned vegetables.  At home, we usually eat fresh or frozen veggies.  Needing freezer space for several Tillamook ice cream flavors we hadn’t seen at home, I turned to canned vegetables to supplement our meals.  (A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.)  Those tiny green spheres might have been fresh peas when they went into the can, but they sure weren’t when they came out.

Badly behaving neighbors.  When we decided to add three extra nights to our stay in Seward, I had to reserve another campsite for the Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights prior to the start of our seven day reservation.  At that first, three day site, there was a group of campers with at least two, and maybe three, rigs on our dinette side.  They seemed to be out all day, working or playing, but they gathered around the firepit on Friday and Saturday evening, and carried on well past the start of quiet hours.  (The only thing that saved us on Sunday night was a steady rain that kept everyone indoors.)  Alan and I often hit the hay even before quiet hours kick in, but we can’t really complain about the noise before that.  This crowd made it difficult to sleep, and we couldn’t have been happier when Monday morning rolled around and we were able to move down the line from site 837 to site 816, well away from our inconsiderate neighbors.

Campground(s) – We were blessed with seven wonderful nights on site 816.  That’s the one that’s in the running for the Campsite of the Year Award.  We were the last back-in site in the Marathon Campground (yes, I did plan it that way), just before the start of maybe eight to ten sites that were parallel parking only – perfectly sized for Class B and C motorhomes.  In between our site and the parallel parking sites was the Camp Host’s site – and there never was a host (or even his or her rig) present during our stay.  So, we had no neighbors on the side with our sofa and dinette windows, giving us a lovely view up the bay.  On our door side, where we have only two windows, we had a rotating cast of characters for neighbors – some delightful and others not so much.  The empty Camp Host site gave us quite a bit of breathing room, and we were only approached with a Camp Host question once.  That’s okay, though, because I was easily able to answer the question, and my fellow camper continued on her merry way well-satisfied with the information I had provided.  I don’t think I could be a Campground Host.  You have to be too nice to too many people for too many hours in a day.  I think I’ll pass.

Pic(s) of the Day

Fresh and tasty salmon!

The Regent Seven Seas Explorer - about to turn around and head for the Gulf of Alaska

The Norwegian Jewel - approaching the dock at o'dark thirty

The Jewel later in the afternoon, under threatening skies

The trusty little Pilot boat resting at the dock

One of the busy tugboats heading out to get his barge

THAT is a LOT of stuff!

How could I not include a photo of a Fishing Vessel named "Otter?"

These last five photos reflect a few of Resurrection Bay’s many moods.

 

Up Next – I think one more post about our adventures in Seward should just about do it.  Coming up, our activities in and around town.