Seward


Arrival into Seward is a little ahead of time as we are getting to dock at around 6.30 am. This time around the approach is more cautious, it is not raining, the scenery is stunning and it is very cold.


Approaching our berth (once again we are reversing in)


Maybe someone from Kodiak called ahead, we seem to have extra wharf protection here


Alongside at just after 7 am.

We are sharing our dock finger with the USS Zumwalt, a guided missile destroyer who is visiting the area. It is a relatively new ship, launched in 2016, and designed to give a deceptive radar profile that looks more like a much smaller fishing boat on radar screens.





It is a big ship with a very unusual shape to disguise its radar profile



The wharf is a hive of activity as this is our first visit to the mainland since leaving Hokkaido, and major refueling and re provisioning is under way.



The re provisioning/ refueling took the whole day until 5.30 pm.

Todays plans involve a ship organised tour this afternoon, but we have the morning free, so after breakfast, we layer up and head out into the cold for the few km walk into town. At least it is not raining !!!

There is a massive marina that dominates the waterfront of the town, and is the location for most tourism, as a lot of the sight seeing is water based.


There is a lot of accommodation in town, this is near the marina


View from the walkway in front of the hotel

It is not long before we reach the "town", a long strip of touristy restaurants, accommodation, tour booking offices and the standard multipurpose store that sells just about everything you would need in hardware, clothing, chandlery etc.




Waterfront tour operators




The yacht club has seen better days


The Visitor Centre is closed "for the season"

Once past the main concentration of shops, we wandered down to the marina and had a stroll along a couple of the arms.


There are a lot of yachts here


We can see Viking Orion in the background


The USS Zumwald is apparently open for public viewing, and are amazed when we came back off the ship to await our afternoon excursion, by the length of the queue of people waiting to go on board and inspect the naval boat.




We caught the bus to the Alaska Sealife centre, which is apparently the only aquarium in Alaska. All wildlife featured are native to Alaska, and the centre also has a role as a research organisation and a care centre for injured wildlife.

It is located about 2 miles from the ship and close to the old town of Seward, that we didn't know existed. Anyway, our first priority is to see the sealife centre and if we have some spare time, we will have a look around the old town.


It took a bit over an hour to go through the Sealife centre. The outdoor displays of seals and sea lions were complemented by a see through glass wall on the level below where you could sea them go through their paces under water.


The sea lion was a bit elusive at surface level as it seemed more interested in entertaining those watching through the glass window below




The spotted seal was pretty much the same story.


Salmon are still the main story around here and there was a very good display of the varieties that are common here.



The aquarium is located on the waterfront at Resurrection Bay. There is a great view of the bay from a viewing platform there.


Looking towards the entrance of the bay where we sailed in

There is also a great aviary at the Sealife centre and we get to see a few of the seabirds that frequent the area.




This puffin was too busy grooming to pose for photos




It is time to check out the old town, and head back to the boat. It is literally across the road from the Sealife Centre.



There are plenty of Bars



and Restaurants


and Scenic Public Toilets

The walk through town doesn't take long, so we headed down to the waterfront and thought we might walk part of the way back to the ship, as far as the marina where we can get a shuttle bus. We walked through a massive RV park located along the waterfront with some pretty flash RV's parked there.



There are fire pits everywhere and firewood is for sale at the nearby hardware store


We can see our ship from the RV park

Orion left Seward on time at 6 pm, headed for Valdez.

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