Heading for Homer

Good Morning (9/23/12),

What a difference a day makes...weather has cleared, the storm dropped new snow on the higher peaks, and the water is much calmer. This morning's sunrise was the nicest of the voyage so far.

The snowy mountain is known as Frosty Peak.

We are still behind schedule by a few hours due to rough waters leaving Dutch yesterday, but the beauty of the trip is that it just doesn't matter. The ferry retraces its southbound path with exceptions (some villages only see the ferry on southbound leg) but our times at port are greatly reduced & usually we are not permitted off the vessel - or told to stay on the dock. The Purser seemed to enjoy saying, "If you plan to leave the dock remember your credit card....for your Alaska Airlines plane ticket." Not exactly subtle, but then this is a working vessel not a pleasure ship.

We are still a long way from Homer....just over 48hrs travel time remains.

Cold Bay was our first stop this morning. King Cove was our second stop & this time we could see it in daylight. The Russian Orthodox father who so many of us chatted with on the ferry on the way down was at the dock to greet us and see off the bus load of children. It's a fishing community with a population of 950.

So: King Cove as we approach the dock

The bus arriving at the dock with boats & crab cages in the background. The kids road the ferry down for athletic competitions & are heading home.

Sand Point was the final stop for today. It was late & dark when we docked here on the way south, so at least tonight we were able to see the community. About 1000 live in this fishing community. Interestingly, most of these windy stops don't use wind turbines because they'd just get knocked down, but here they can.

Finally, sunset after a beautiful day at sea. I watched four pods of Humpbacks this afternoon - from a distance, but always nice to see them. They are travelling quickly to their warm winter quarters in Hawaii. I was pretty confident that I'd see a Fin Whale on this trip, but did not. Weather was not conducive to sightings.

The rest of the ferry trip next post.....

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