We waited expectantly on the ferry dock for the arrival of our crew and addition of Piper, our fourth crewmember. The itinerary had them flying first to Seattle and then back-tracking to Ketchikan. Danny and 10-year old Piper were flying solo, so all sets of parents breathed a sigh of relief with the handoff. Thank You Dave Summerfeldt for your considerable help in making this work!
Danny graciously had agreed to escort Piper for the flights, but it meant him flying back to anchor-town for an extra day. Both Laurence and I had enjoyed our brief sojourn and accomplished a few major boat chores. The sun had shone for all of a day and part of another…….something to celebrate in Ketchikan, so we did. A chilled bottle of Veuve Clicquot, a large bowl of fish chowder (I’d whipped up from one quarter of Danny’s monster red snapper,) a sunset and Lolo in a skirt made for a date. We even had new tunes in the cockpit from the new Bose speakers I’d finally gotten to install after a year in the box.
The night before had found us rollicking at O’Brien’s Pub just up from the harbor where local musician David Reynolds just happened to be having a CD release party. The music was good, the crowd local, the beer stellar and the owner, Willy, was just as much fun to watch. We chatted much of the night with Scott, from Craig - an ex-Ketchikaner and Tug crew on assignment here who’d invited us to visit. The music scene and local crowd made me miss the Tap Root and my music buddies. Lolo and I decided we’d better start working on OUR repertoire!
Today, I got the new ICOM AIS working and found to my amazement, I could see 20 ships within 10-miles broadcasting their AIS info. Cool! This will be nice in crowded areas and in the fog. We finished cleaning up the boat and before long headed to the ferry dock to pick up the kids. It was great to see Piper and she arrived with parts of her hair dyed bright red; something I’ve gotten used to by now. We showed her around briefly, but most of the shops had closed up already as they seem to run on “cruise-ship time.” We simply HAVE to hit the “Ketchikandies” chocolateria tomorrow morning. On the way back to the boat, we ran into Willy again from O’Brien’s who invited us to play tunes in the pub, so after a quick dinner, headed up with instruments in tow and had a few. The people of Ketchikan are warm, friendly, gracious and fun. O’Brien’s was technically closed, but Willy insisted we “pretend this was our livingroom.” I traded a Last Train CD for the Dave Reynolds CD from the other night and Piper and Willy took turn shooting spit wads at the wall, while Danny, Lolo and I played and sang music. John requested something from Bob Dylan, the gentleman in the far corner commented “nice samba” to one of Lolo’s Brazillian tunes. But alas, we’d promised Piper a piece of the famed Annabelle’s peanut butter pie, so finished our Guiness’s and packed up the instruments. Farewell and Adieu to you Ketchikan and we hope to return again someday. Tomorrow, it’s off to Canada.