Visiting a Friend’s Special Log in Sitka’s Rain Forest

Day 5, 2024 Majestic Japan

Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024; Sitka, Alaska

We lucked out today in Sitka, Alaska, as earlier forecasts for rain today disappeared. The sun tried unsuccessfully to peek through low-hanging clouds, but for this town where it rains two out of every three days, we’ll count today as a good day.

On my past port calls in Sitka we tendered into town from the anchored ship, but today the Westerdam docked at the (new to me) pier facility about five miles north of town. The city provided free shuttles to the center of town, running every 10 to 15 minutes. I left the ship about 10 a.m., at which point there was no line.

My destination was the Sitka National Historical Park, with its miles of trails through the rain forest. More specifically, I walked along the coast trail to a large fallen log, beginning to rot and sprinkled with green moss. I call it Rich’s Log. My cruising friend Rich McClear, who lives in Sitka, walks pass it many days to follow its transformation from season to season. In fact, in his Postcards from the Transition blog, Rich calls it his log.

During our port call on my previous Alaska cruise in June, Rich and his wife Suzi hosted several of us for a local’s view of Sitka, which included a walk to his log. Now they are on this Majestic Japan cruise, but he said he probably wouldn’t have time today to visit the log. I decided to do it for him.

I brought along a small, collapsible three-legged stool as I knew there wouldn’t be a bench here, and planted myself for an hour or so of sketching and painting. Several people I know from the ship came by, and Karen offered to take a picture of me at work.

It’s been years since I have painted on site, as I usually just do a quick drawing and add watercolor later (if I get around to it). I’m learning as I go, and one thing I had forgotten is that in damp weather it can take a while for watercolor paint to dry enough that the paints don’t run into each other. By the time I finished, the tide had come in and almost obliterated the long sand and gravel spit in my painting.

I didn’t see master carver Tommy Joseph working today in the shed, but enjoyed the variety of totem poles along the path in the National Historical Park.

The salmon are still running, so I stopped at the Sitka Sound Science Center to watch them try to make their way up the ladder. They hadn’t started yet when we were here earlier this summer. I saw a number of eagles in the trees.

By the time I reached town I was hungry so treated myself to fried haddock and chips at the recommended Bayview Pub. With the Norwegian Sun also in town today, I thought there might be a long line, but the benefit of being alone sometimes is getting a table too small for other groups. At $36, it wasn’t cheap, but it was a great meal. So good that I skipped dinner (and stayed in the cabin to watch my Kansas City Chiefs eke out a win over the Baltimore Ravens).

Yesterday was our first sea day, and I discovered how nice it is to be caught up on my paintings because I finished each one on site. Of course, we’re just a few days into the cruise, but so far so good.

For the second time since leaving Sunday, the evening entertainment in the World Stage tonight is a movie. Both pertain to our destination – The Call of the Wild about a sled dog struggling for survival in the Yukon, and The Great Alaskan Race about mushers in 1925 who traveled to Nome, Alaska, to deliver lifesaving medicine for a deadly epidemic.

I don’t make it to the main show most nights, but still I hope we will have more live entertainment as the cruise progresses. I believe the performers in the music venues are the same ones who were on the ship in June and July, and they got good reviews. This cruise is starting with a lot of excitement.