May 2, 2023 Kodiak, A;laska

Sunrise was around 5:30 a.m. Westerdam was docked at Pier 2 on Chiniak Bay by 8 a.m. U.S. Immigration and Border Control boarded and set up in the theatre for the face to face passport inspection for the whole ship. We had group #15 part of the 9:30 to 10 a.m. schedule.

We had breakfast in the dining room looking out on the calm waters of Chiniak Bay, a nice change from the rough waters we experienced getting here. There were patches of blue sky after an early morning rain. Morning temperature was 4° C and very little wind. Some group tours were starting to leave around 9:30 a.m. in school buses. The school buses needed to return by 1:30 p.m. to be available to take the school children home.

Our number was called shortly before 10 a.m. Passengers were seated in the theatre for about 25 minutes until directed to get in the line for one of five Immigration and Border Control officers. Just a quick question or two, the passport was stamped then you were on you way. Our ship’s staff gave you an Inspection Clearance Card to use while exiting the ship. Once cleared by Customs we returned our passports to the safe and went out to find the Kodiak Public Library for internet and then to explore Kodiak. We had no change in walking, no sea legs.

The City of Kodiak is situated on the second largest island in the United States, southwest of Anchorage in the Gulf of Alaska. Kodiak Island is famous for huge Kodiak brown bears, elk, Sitka deer (black tail), and mountain goats. Kodiak is all about bears. A unique subspecies, named for the Kodiak Archipelago where they are found, evolved in isolation for around 12,000 years and can reach heights of 3 meters when standing on their hind legs. From May through October, the bears have a diet that feeds predominantly on grass, plants, berries and fish. About 3,500 Kodiak bears live on Kodiak Island. It was once a prime native hunting ground for the Alutiit, but their population plummeted after Russian traders and fur trappers settled the area in the late 1700s. Alaska was purchased by the United States in 1867, Kodiak grew into a commercial fishing centre. It had been the capital of the area during Russian times.

The world's largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century occurred in 1912 at Novarupta on the Alaska Peninsula in what is now Katmai National Park and Preserve. An estimated 15 cubic kilometres of magma was explosively erupted during 60 hours beginning on June 6th. This volume is equivalent to 230 years of eruption at Kilauea (Hawaii) or about 30 times the volume that was erupted by Mount St. Helens (Washington) in 1980.

Due to the remote location of the eruption, scientists did not visit the site until 1918, when they found the Ukak River valley filled with volcanic deposits and steaming fumaroles. They called it the “Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes”.

It took about an hour to post the blog text and photos using the library’s free internet. There were several dozen Westerdam passengers also using the wi-fi. Larry scored a small tabletop and higher stool to work. I browsed the fiction books and found most of Louise Penny’s books. (There is also a library on Westerdam’s Deck 3 with half a dozen each of current authors including State of Terror by Hillary Clinton and Louise Penny). Once emails were briefly checked we walked around the main townsite with the backdrop of mountains.

I bought some gloves since the weather in Sitka and Ketchikan will be chilly too. We passed the Holy Resurrection Orthodox Cathedral that is a reconstruction of the one destroyed by fire. The church was established in 1794. Nearby was the historic Russian American Magazin which is a timber frame building. Since there was little wood available, it was constructed from wood from older buildings on Kodiak and other areas. Today it is a museum, but closed on Tuesdays. It became the home Nellie and W.J. Erskine and their family from 1911 to 1948 and became a community gathering place witnessing the eruption of Katmai in 1912 through to World War Two. Across form it is the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center, which was open today.

The walk to and from the ship was about 20 minutes to Center Street. We had logged over 16,000 steps by the time we returned to the ship and added the equivalent of eight flights of stairs for the sloping road from Center Street to the Kodaik Public Library.

It was after 2 p.m. when we got back to the stateroom, so we climbed up to the Crow’s Nest for lattés and brought them back to the stateroom to accompany our eating of yesterday Anniversary cake which had a chocolate cake base and chocolate mousse layer covered in chocolate. We had stored in the mini-fridge overnight.

We met Pat and Pete for Five Crowns at 4 p.m. in the Crow’s Nest and arranged to play the game tomorrow with Dennis and Kathy with whom we had dinner on the first night on the ship back on April 10. The captain made his daily announcement just before the ship departed at 5 p.m. The second officer would be guiding Westerdam into the Gulf of Alaska for the 38 hour trip to Sitka, Alaska. He mentioned a thank you to the people who volunteered to donate blood yesterday and the person had been transported safely to hospital.

We ate dinner in the dining room with Debbie and Stephen from Melbourne, Australia and Rosemary and Jenny from Australia, northwest of Sydney. The entertainment tonight was the quartet, Cantaré. Tonight they sang gospel songs. We climbed back to the Lido for evening tea after Larry returned from the Casino. Walking into the indoor and outdoor pool areas, we noticed that the pools had water in them after six days empty. The sun was just setting around 9 p.m.

Today’s steps were 20,463 Flights of stairs were 42.