14-15May10 Petersburg, AK

Alan asked what kind of photo equipment I'm using: A Canon T2I Rebel body and a Canon 100-400mm L-series zoom lens. Also a 17-40mm L-series zoom. The camera body is the cheap part �- most of my camera money is invested in glass. The 100-400 zoom is the one that blows me away. Very long, especially on a cropped sensor, and amazingly sharp for a zoom.

Wrangell Narrows was a piece of cake, no big ships in there, and we arrived in Petersburg during the annual Spring Fling, or more properly, the Norwegian National Day celebration. Petersburg is a town of 3000 souls, most of whom seem to be of Norwegian ancestry, so they put on a pretty good party. Parades and displays of all types and fabulous community meals. We had a shrimp fest in the cafeteria of the Bunkhouse, the dormitory for the cannery, and I'm certain the entire town showed up along with plenty of visitors like ourselves. They covered the long tables with newspaper and doled out all the shrimp you could eat, along with the most amazing side dishes and deserts imaginable.

It was so good that my enthusiasm I swallowed my temporary crown that bridged three missing teeth (as in, a very large crown). It was holding down the fort while my titanium implants get rooted in the bone. Needless to say, recovering the crown was a challenge (imagine what that would have done to the toilet macerator!), not to mention the joys of having it work its way through the narrow spots of my intestine at three in the morning. Enough said on that. I'm now a bit short on teeth until I get home and have the implants finished.

We met Henry and Janice on Cloudy Bay in Petersburg, and our three Nordhavn 55's and single Nordhavn 50 were all lined up on the same dock. Plan is to travel together for a while, which should cause some commotion when we all show up at the same time.