Alaska Summer Solstice Cruise - Kodiak, Alaska

Cruise Day 17

Tuesday, June 25, 2024

Today we are in Kodiak, the largest town on the island of Kodiak located at the north end of the Aleutian Islands.  The population of Kodiak is around 5600, but it looks bigger.

Kodiak Island is at the top of the Aleutian Islands. 

Our port today is Kodiak (red marker) on Kodiak Island.

The alarm went off at six this morning as we have an early tour scheduled and have to meet our group at seven.  It was foggy and cold outside, which didn’t look too promising for our tour, but it’ll be what it’ll be, we have no control.  We got cleaned up and the Neptune Lounge was open early so we got something to eat and then headed off to the Rolling Stone Lounge to meet up with our tour group.

Today we are on a private tour organized by a member of our Cruise Critic Roll Call Group.  It is a small boat wildlife tour and there are only six of us so it should be a good tour.  This is a tender port, but our group all have priority tendering privileges so we ended up on the first tender out.  We met Lee, the captain and guide, at the tender pier in Kodiak, and he drove us in his van to where his boat was docked.

When we reached the boat dock, we made our way down a couple of very steep and slippery ramps and boarded the boat.  We were met by his assistant Amanda, a very young, but very capable young woman.  The cabin was small, but comfortable and the six of us fit in nicely, but it didn’t matter much as we spent most of our time out on the rear deck.

That's our boat for the day on the left, the Powder River.

Lots of fishing boats in the harbor.

After an introduction and safety instructions from Lee, we headed out into the harbor.  It was still cool and foggy, but we were dressed warmly so it wasn’t too bad out on deck.  We immediately spotted an eagle on the mast of a nearby fishing boat and a couple more eagles near their nest in a tree near the shore.  We also saw some otters as we cruised out of the harbor area.

A couple of eagles perched on a mast in the fog.

We spotted an eagle on one of the mast of one of the nearby boats as we started our trip.

This is an eagle's nest on the hillside as we sailed out of the harbor, it is huge.

And one of the eagles.

Leaving the harbor behind, we head out into the bay..

As we left, a curious seal popped it's head out of the water to check us out.

Just outside the harbor there was a floating dock that the sea lions had claimed for their own.

These two were getting into it.

At the end of the dock there was a stack of crab traps where a young eagle sat.  You can tell it's young by the brown and white mottled feathers.

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We spent the next three hours seeing many more birds, otters, and sea lions.  Near the end we also saw a couple of whales, but they kept their distance, so we were never able to get very close.  As always, Val was anxious to see some more puffins and although there were quite a few around, they also kept their distance and moved on as we got close.

More remains of World War II.

Besides the wildlife sightings, the scenery was also very beautiful, the fog gave the area an ethereal look.  All too soon our three-hour tour was over, and we headed back into the harbor.  We were surprised at how large Kodiak was and particularly the harbor.  It looked like it had a very large fishing fleet as well as tour and pleasure boats.  Kodiak has a population of around 5600, but it seemed much bigger.

You can barely see it, but there is a whale between us and the harbor entrance and our ship, the Westerdam.

Back in the Kodiak Harbor.

It was a little after eleven when we got off the boat and after saying goodbye to Lee and Amanda, who had another group waiting, we were driven back to the tender pier.  We talked about wandering around Kodiak for a while, but we were cold and tired from getting up so early and decided just to return to the ship.  When I complained to Amanda that we had to get up at six she just laughed as she had gotten up at three-thirty to do preparations for today’s tours.

It did feel good to get back to the ship and the warmth of our cabin.  After cleaning up a bit, we went immediately to the Lido for lunch.  It had been a long time since our meager breakfast this morning.  Despite the fact that it was around noon, the Lido wasn’t very busy as most people were ashore.

After lunch, Val and I had some estate business to take care of as there were a couple of complications on the sale of the house.  We called, Joanna, our realtor, and discussed our options and decided what to do with her and then Val and I decided to rest for a while.  Neither of us slept well last night so we were both feeling pretty drowsy.

Later in the afternoon, both the escrow company and Joanna had sent Val documents to sign so she spent quite a while doing that.  I caught up on the blog, downloaded our pictures from today and then relaxed until dinner.  It has been a long day, and we are looking forward to getting a good night’s sleep tonight – after dinner and the casino of course.