Picture: At Sand Point Ted and I went for a long hike around the island with crew of S/V "Lady Jane"; James, George, Svetlana but Jill was not there.

The view approaching Sand Point Harbor was magnificent, emerald green hills with snow-capped mountains in the background. When we pulled inside the harbor, we did not know where to go because the marina was quite large and seemed almost empty. However, there were numbers and fenders on the slips so we knew that they were occupied. I called the harbor master several times on the VHF, but no answer. We saw some masts at one of the fingers, so we headed in that direction. To our relief, James and George from S/V "Lady Jane" were standing on the end of one of the pontoons ready to receive our lines (ropes).

The pontoons seemed in excellent condition, new and sturdy. Later we found out that the marina daily fee was $23 and electricity was $20, making a total of $43. The electricity was a bit pricy. I guess they had to pay for the new construction somehow. The amenities were rudimentary, no internet and the shower and toilet were a bit dilapidated and one stall was disgusting! We had not seen toilets like that since India. Fortunately we could use our own bathroom and shower on the boat. The harbor seemed to be designed for fishing boats, which makes sense since there are very few sailing yachts in this part of the world. The following day, the entire marina was nearly full of fishing vessels because fishing was closed for a few days.

Sand Point has approximately 1,000 year-round residents and an extra 600 transient people during the summer to work at the Trident Fish Processing Plant. There are two grocery stories, AC (Alaska Commercial Company) and the Trident convenience store. AC originally started during the Russian period but was sold when the USA purchased Alaska from the Russians over 150 years ago. There are several places where we can get Internet. I went to the cafe and bought a cup of coffee but the Internet was like "watching paint dry"- very slow. We tried the Chinese restaurant which was operated by Koreans. The deep fried halibut morsels tasted like fried something, but not halibut, however, they were very crunchy.

Now that I have commented about the negative aspects of the place, there are plenty of positive ones. We went for a long hike around the island with George, James and Svetlana from S/V "Lady Jane" the same day we arrived. It was a warm, sunny day and it seemed most the local people were panting from the heat. For us, it was a welcoming warmth that we had longed for, for weeks. Many wildflowers were in bloom. The countryside was absolutely stunning with patches of yellow and white blossom on the green meadows and hillsides. It was as if someone had strategically planted them; magnificent, beautiful!