Ketchikan

Now we approached Ketchikan our final port on this cruise. A week does not sound long but somehow it has passed in slow motion. The view from the cabin was familiar if a little lighter. Tens of thousands of trees, some low cloud though less than yesterday and a great deal of heavy weed, floating in the water and often giving the impression, from a distance, of being something more exciting.

I saw an eagle flap into a tree and, a little while later, I was equally pleased to see Ketchikan airport and the departure of an Alaskan B737. Float planes were prolific.

Ketchikan, where Sapphire Princess was already docked was by far the most vibrant of the three places we have stopped. Our brief and self-guided walking tour was marred a little by the onset of increasingly persistent rain but it was much warmer than further north. The highlight of our foray was undoubtedly to see the late salmon attempting to swim upstream. The bodies of the unsuccessful were everywhere. The fish in countless numbers even in this essentially urban setting wait in the more sheltered parts of the Ketchikan Creek before hurling themselves into the current to go for most of them, nowhere. There was some leaping but mostly determined, if largely futile, swimming.

The rain and the ubiquity of tourist shops suggested a return to the ship but not before we had bought a beautifully carved stone seal.