Sitka


It looks like it is going to be another perfect day as we get close to the dock at our next destination, Sitka. We have a the Holland America Eurodam following us closely, so I assume we will end up docking at around the same time.


The shore crew are still securing our lines when Eurodam heads in to take the berth on the other side of the finger wharf we are on.


She carries 2,100 passengers compared to our 930 and makes Orion look pretty small alongside.


Today we are taking a self guided tour of Sitka, catching the shuttle bus into town, which includes a short introductory tour to a spot on an adjoining island where get a good view of Sitka town. Sitka is another fishing and tourism town, with a good sized fishing fleet but tiny by the scale we saw in the Aleutian Islands.

Not much of the town is visible, but they are very proud of the bridge


Fish processing plants along the waterfront, in the industrial part of town

The tour bus takes us back over the bridge and into town, pointing out a few highlights along the way, like where to buy the best pizza and Russian dumplings in town. We are dropped off at Centennial Hall for dance/theatrical performance that covers the period of settlement by the Russians.

It is narrated by a guy who came to Sitka as a project manager from Hawaii and never went home after 25 years. Clearly he and his family could see something in Sitka that is not obvious to the average tourist.


The performance was well put together and required a fair bit of imagination. This dance represented the Russians sailing into Sitka.

After the performance we were free to explore the town, but had to be back on board by 3 pm.

The main town centre is small, with a few historical buildings and a lot of tourist shops selling all manner of things.


The Russian Orthodox Church 


Sitka Pioneers Home


Furs are still popular


The streets are mainly filled with tourists from the ships in port




There are plenty of bars and restaurants


Mount Edgecombe (an active volcano) dominates the skyline

Large marinas fill the waterfront, catering for the fishing fleet, a large number of waterborne tourist boats for fishing, sightseeing etc and private yachts and motor boats. 


A few leisure boats


This large marina also houses the fishing fleet



We discover there is a 3rd cruise ship in town, Scenic Eclipse, is sitting on a mooring (or at anchor) very close to the town centre. Eurodam and Orion are on an "industrial" wharf finger about 15 minutes out of town.


Scenic Eclipse


My artistic shot for the day

About an hour looking around town was enough and we caught the shuttle back to the ship for a late lunch. Before we knew it, preparations were being made for departure and it looks like Eurodam is going to depart first.


Eurodam casts off and is on her way


We cast off as soon as Eurodam had left the dock and follow her out


It is hard to believe this wharf held both our ships


Our last look at Mt Edgecombe as we leave Sitka

Our next destination is Ketchikan, where we expect to dock at 8 am.

At 7 pm we receive a message that our booked shore excursion in Ketchikan has been cancelled, as the hovercraft has mechanical problems. We reluctantly book on the included tour instead which will take us to a totem pole park and town highlights.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Arrival in Vancouver and Fly toTokyo

Image
 We seemed to make little progress last night as we are obviously quite close to Vancouver ad the captain is wasting time waiting for our berth to become available. As has been the case a few times this cruise we dock late, I suspect largely because of the number of blocks of flats that seem to get priority and everyone arrives within a pretty tight window of arrival times.  A nice little settlement on Victoria Island Entering Vancouver Harbour with the Cruise Terminal in Sight (another ship is reversing in) Coming into our berth at Vancouver  Holland America and Princess already pretty much have Vancouver dock space filled, we seem to be that last one in. Rooms had to be empty by 8 am as the ship sails again this afternoon at 5 pm. We were still tying up at this stage and spare seating spaces on the lower floors near the gangway were in short supply. Disembarking was delayed by 30 mins awaiting baggage to be taken off the ship and port clearance to be gained. We were ons...
Read more

A Day in Tokyo with Guide

Image
 Now having caught up on our sleep, we are ready to spend a day with a guide looking around Tokyo. We are quite hungry, as the last meal we had was a light snack on the plane about an hour before landing. our guide will meet us in the foyer at 9am, so we headed down for breakfast at 8am. There was a queue of people waiting for a table, so we patiently waited in line and it was only around 10 minutes before we were seated. Tourism is alive and well in Tokyo, it seems. Right on tome we meet out guide, Ryoji Shimada, and after introductions, we head off to Shibuya station to begin our tour. We will be using trains to get around and I suspect there will be a fair bit of walking, which suits us fine.  The railway station is very close to our hotel, so we board the train to our first destination, the Meiji Shrine The Main Gate to the Shrine Once through the gate, a long perfectly manicured wide path leads to the shrine, through a totally man made forest that was planted when the shr...
Read more

At Sea on Our Way to Hokkaido

Image
Sea conditions are close to perfect as we cruise up the Eastern Coast of Honshu towards Hokkaido. We are doing around 18 knots in flat seas with only a few knots of breeze. The sun is shining and the roof of the pool deck is open. Despite it starting to get a bit cool outside, there a some dedicated swimmers and sunbathers. We are in for a pretty relaxing day with plenty of options available to keep us busy if needed. There was a presentation from the resident historian at 9.30am on the history of Japan, which was quite interesting.  Afterwards we decided to get some exercise, so did 15 laps of the promenade deck, 6km, before heading off to the Atrium Lounge for a cup of coffee. There is a huge screen at the top of the access stairs to the atrium which has even changing slide shows covering a wide range of material. The image quality is incredible.  It is approaching lunch time and we have decided to have a light Scandinavian lunch today, so head up to the 7th floor to the Exp...
Read more