Petropavlovsk Kamchatka

Since I last wrote, four days have passed.  We visited Petropavlovsk in Kamchatka, were delayed outrageously by the Russian authorities and ran from a typhoon.

We were almost three hours late reaching the Russian port of Petropavlovsk on the Kamchatka peninsula.  This is the easternmost city in Russia and a lonely outpost indeed.  We we arrived the captain was informed that we would have to wait an additional indeterminate time as the port was closed.  The Russian navy was conducting submarine exercises.  We were all rather skeptical, submarines – really!  That was until we saw a nuclear sub steaming out of the harbor followed  by two Russian naval mine sweepers and a small diesel sub.

By the time the ship was cleared to land, our all day tour to the volcanoes had been canceled.  Michael and I spent two hours in the theater waiting for our passports to be stamped by the Russian authorities just so we could take an abbreviated hour and a half tour of the town.

Petropavlovsk  is a very poor town.  Started as a fur trading outpost by Vitus Bearing, it limped along as a tiny out of the way settlement until the Soviet Union created a large naval base there in the 1960's.  The Soviet government brought in eastern European Russians and Ukrainians to support the base. They and their children are the primary inhabitants of the Kamchatka peninsula.  After the end of the Soviet Union the place suffered near total economic collapse.  The city is characterized by falling apart fifty year old Soviet style buildings mixed with newer construction occupied by the relatively wealthy, especially in the outskirts.

Our bus tour included a stop at the "Cultural Museum," an old fashioned collection of artifacts.  Exhibits featured the indigenous peoples, the Russian settlement starting in 1742 and exhibits of native plants, animals and geological features all crammed into the basement of an interesting old building.  The main floor, which we did not have time to see except in glimpses, appeared to be an art exhibit.  Something else was on the second floor but we didn't have time to see it.  We had a quick narration in Russian about the indigenous people, translated for us by our tour guide.  The guide later said she was normally a professor of English at the local university.  Her English was excellent.

The next stop was the local open air market.  We had 15 minutes to explore, hardly enough to scratch the surface.  We saw fresh produce and used household goods for sale by licensed vendors.  There was an excellent selection of local dried fish.  Our guide later told us that most of the fish was "poached," meaning that it had been caught illegally.  Two ladies on our bus found a man selling Russian rubles for American dollars from his car.  They bought enough rubles to purchase one kilogram of red caviar for the equivalent of $30 U.S. dollars.  I don't think they realized they were making an illegal currency transaction.

Our final stops were at two Russian  Orthodox churches.  The first was at a large cathedral not yet complete.  We observed a wedding party taking pictures in the parking lot.  Most of the party were feeling no pain.  We could see the vodka flowing freely.  At the second church were able to enter and admire the icons there.  There was another wedding party taking pictures at this church too.  They were also celebrating with liberal quantities of vodka.  Our tour guide said that weddings are often held on Fridays so the participants can have a long weekend to recover from the celebrations.  They must need it.  Even grandma appeared to have had a bit too much to drink.

We hurried back to the pier in order to reboard our ship for a 5 pm departure.  Michael and I had cocktails on the back deck of the Silver Shadow while watching a rainy sun set.  We had picked the best spot to watch the ship sail out of the harbor. Nothing happened. . .

Eventually the captain announced that there was a typhoon in the Pacific Ocean between Japan and Kamchatka.  We were going to overnight in Petroplavlovsk and depart at 5 pm Saturday after taking on fuel.  The plan was that we would cross  westward into the Sea of Irkutsk and proceed south keeping  the Kuril Islands between us and the storm.  The canceled tours would run Saturday.

Saturday was clear and cold.  We got to take the tour of the volcanoes after all.  The journey by ATV (really a converted Russian military troupe carrier) was more comfortable than I expected.  After we left the paved highway, we jounced along at nearly fifty mph on the gravel road that turned into a dry riverbed.  The riverbed, rocky and rutted in spots, served as the road to the volcanoes.  It was black volcanic silt studded with small rocks and boulders.  The going was much slower than on the road but not really uncomfortable.

It was fascinating to watch the countryside turn from green to Autumn yellow as we climbed.  The vegetation changed from mostly birch trees to brushy tundra.  We were headed toward the saddle  between two active volcanoes at about 3000 ft. above sea level.  The trip took about two hours.  We traveled about 25 miles from town.

When we arrived at our destination, the panorama was breathtaking.  The volcanoes, two active ones emitting fumaroles of steam, and four or five believed inactive were impressive as the clouds lifted to give us a good view.  We could see downhill to the bay in the other direction.

We had arrived at a kind of camp consisting of several wooden buildings with carved work along the eaves and around the windows.  One building was a large tank on its side, with a door and windows added, painted in the colors of the Russian flag.  We were directed to a row of very primitive outhouses.  These were lean-to A-frame buildings with a hole in the floor.  As I said, very primitive.  The tour escort from the ship passed around a lot of hand sanitizer.

Our chief Russian guide invited the goup of seventeen of us tourists to take a hike toward the volcanoes.  This was an interesting stroll really, over volcanic terrain layered with traces of an early snow.  After the walk, our group was treated to a Russian style meal in one of the buildings set up as a dining hall.  We were treated to a vodka aperatif, followed by Russian champagne and locally brewed beer.  We had borscht (without beets), fresh grilled salmon and a dessert of meat dumplings.  There was a side salad and lots of cookies and candies.  It was a memorable meal.  It was a happy group that journeyed back to the ship.

Once again we boarded the Silver Shadow and awaited departure from Kamchatka.  Once again, nothing. . .

As the sun set over Petropavlovsk for a second day, the captain informed us that the scheduled refueling had not yet taken place.  Michael and I speculated that the bribes hadn't been big enough.  Soon, though, we saw the bunkering boat (the fuel boat) pull alongside.  After dinner we went on deck to watch the anticipated departure.  We heard the anchor being raised.  A few minutes later the captain had the anchor dropped again.  He eventually announced that the Russians had closed the port again for more military maneuvers.  He had no idea when they would let us leave.  We went to bed not knowing if we would wake once again to see the seedy Petropavlovsk skyline.

Next morning we were at sea.  The day was dark and rainy.  In the afternoon the captain informed us that we would skip our scheduled landing at Hakodate, Japan.  We were heading west of the Kuril Islands to avoid the still threatening typhoon.  We passed 230 miles west of the eye of the storm at 7:00 pm.  The night was the roughest.  Everyone on the ship woke numerous times as the ship tossed in the rough seas.  Yesterday the seas calmed, we headed back east into the Pacific and we finally left Russian territory behind us.  I'm in no hurry to visit Russia again anytime soon.

 

 

 

 

Update: something about a typhoon

Saturday, 25 September 2010, Avacha Bay Anchorage, Petropavlosvk, Kamchatka Peninsular, Russia

We arrived a couple of hours late to Petropavlosvk yesterday morning due to the higher currents than the captain anticipated. Apparently Captain Cook's journals were not in his library. But now the good captain is our newest best friend forever since the typhoon (his Italian accent made its name sound like "Fred", which I doubt it is) is working its way up the Japanese east coast (I think he said). So we will stay at anchorage in Avacha Bay today and go on the Kamchatka Volacanoes via ATV tout today, the tour that was canceled yesterday due to the late arrive, and did I mention the Russian submarines that kept getting in our way. (I will post pictures and description of all on the blog later today or early tomorrow.) We did do a "Highlights of Petropavlovsk" tour instead of the ATV ride yesterday. Full details will be in the blog. Hint: the highlights are few but interesting. But Elizabeth Taylor was right in Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf.

The plan is for us to navigate on the west side of the island chain between the Kamchatka Peniinsular and Japan, essentially out of the waves and rain and arrive Sandai next Tuesday on schedule, blowing off (literally) the stop in Hakodate since we will be hidding in coves and under trees (or something like that, if I understood his announcement correctly.) He also said, "Not to worry", but this time quite a few times. We are also bunkering, the nautical time for topping off the gas tanks here in Russia, "so that we can do ANYTHING NECESSARY to avoid the typhoon", he said. What a guy.

Updates with the new blog entries and many nifty pictures of our (extended) Russian stay and then two days at sea hiding...

Check: http://cbu-nrt.blogspot.com tomorrow for all, including pix of the submarines and volcanoes.

MB
('cbu/UA)

Dutch Harbor also known as Unalaska

Monday, September 20, we finally reached Dutch Harbor.  This is our last stop in the United States.  It is about as far away as one can get and still be in the U.S.   Except for the islands at the far western end of the Aleutians, all of Alaska is on one time zone.  Geographically it should have four time zones.  As a result, sunrise on Monday was at 8:48 am.  Sunset was at after 9 pm.

We were not able to disembark until after dawn even though we docked around 6:30 am.  There were no tours available.  Just a shuttle bus (another school bus) had been advertised.  It made four stops. There were two busses running every twenty minutes between stops.

Michael and I were most pleasantly surprised to find a tour guide aboard, an enthusiastic young woman who had recently moved to the area to be with her family.   Not only were her insights on the local sights interesting, she told us a lot about the local scene from personal observation and stories about her family.  I especially enjoyed the story about her grandmother catching a 150 lb. halibut.  I never met anyone before whose grandmother caught such a large fish.  The tour escort hasn't spent a winter in Unalaska yet so it would be interesting to see if she is still so enthusiastic next spring.

Michael and I decided to take the bus to the end of its route, tour the Holy Ascension Russian Orthodox Cathedral and work our way back toward the ship. We couldn't see much detail out the bus windows.  It was raining and foggy.  What we could see were hills covered in green but with no trees.  Houses, commercial buildings and other structures had few frills.  This is a fishing town.  90% of the residents make their living from the fishing industry.  It usually rains and the strong winds blow the rain sideways.

The town's real name is Unalaska from a Native American word for "near the peninsula".  Dutch Harbor refers to only the harbor section made famous by the television show "The Deadliest Catch."  It is called Dutch Harbor because a Dutch ship ran aground there years ago.

Most of the year there are only about 4000 residents on the island but during the fishing season the population temporarily swells to more than 6000.  It's definitely not a tourist attraction.  Only four cruise ships, all of them on the small side, docked here all season.

The Orthodox cathedral tour was delightful.  The docent was an Alaskan Aleut native parishioner of the church.  She could recite the history of the church from memory and explained the meaning of the numerous icons that decorated the interior. The building, though a cathedral has only four rooms.  It is a cathedral because it has been the traditional seat of the bishop of the Alaskan Russian Orthodox church.  It is supposedly on the site of the first Russian Orthodox Church in America. There is no bishop currently in residence – he now lives in Anchorage and flies in periodically to conduct services.  The story of the church is the story of the native Alaskan people.  Exploited and almost killed off by the Russian fur traders, they were converted to the Russian Orthodox Christian faith by priests who have since been sainted.  The native Aleuts were "evacuated" during WWII and spent a number of years in little better than internment camps.  When the survivors were repatriated, much of their land was lost.  One room in the church was filled with icons saved from other village churches.  The docent told stories of how the parishioners, allowed only one suitcase each during the evacuation, managed to save their precious icons by carrying them in their luggage.

Our next stop was at the Museum of the Aleutians.   This turned out to be an impressive four room, beautifully curated display of artifacts from the 9000 year history of the indigenous people, a WWII section, and a display of underwater photography taken in the nearby Bearing Sea.  The last was in a room devoted to rotating exhibits.

We had no interest in the hotel and shopping "mall" (maybe four stores) and had no time for the WWII museum.  Other fellow passengers who visited it said it was good – much like the one we visited on Kodiak Island.  The particular distinction this museum had is that Dutch Harbor and Unalaska Island were bombed by the Japanese during WWII.

Our sailing time of 12:30 pm. came all too soon.  We sailed away, watching the island disappear into the mist while seeing whales spout in the distance.

Sea Day including Galley Brunch

We left Kodiak Island during a beautiful calm and sunny sail out; we spent the next day at sea on our way to Unalaska/Dutch Harbor.  The weather had been sunny, warm and calm for a week.  Everyone we talked to on the ship staff remarked that for the past few months their up and back trips between Vancouver and Skagway had been mostly rainy and cool.  This might help explain why everyone seemed especially cheerful.  Our luck ran out; it rained and was windy during the trip across the Sea of Alaska.

Sea days are filled with activities designed to keep the guests entertained.  I'm uninterested in aerobics or lectures on herbal purifying programs, bridge or charades.  The weather was too windy, cold and rainy for outdoor activities.  I used the time to work on these blogs, read or to attend enrichment lectures and cooking demonstrations.  The approximate day and a half between Kodiak and Dutch Harbor featured a special brunch put on Sunday by the entire galley staff. 

The chefs and food service workers went all out.  They had dishes on display in the main dining room, the lobby to the dining room and throughout the galley.  The presentation was spectacular.  The attached photos give an idea of the elaborate lengths to which they went.

During this period I spent a lot of time resting to try and get rid of my cold more quickly.  I also sorted through the photos I have taken so far and tried to select interesting shots to illustrate my blog entries.  I have been having problems getting and sending e-mail for the past few days.  Michael spent fifteen or twenty precious Internet minutes trying to make the computer work.  We were not especially successful.  I'll be uploading these reports on his computer while we still have Internet service.  Japan has some strange rules that don't permit the ship to transmit to the satellite links while we are in their waters.

Kodiak Island

I am slow at posting these reports partly because I finally caught Michael's cold in addition to my computer problems.  Even though I was not at my best, I enjoyed our tour of Kodiak Island ably reported by Michael at: www.cbu-nrt.blogspot.com .

The two ladies who ran the (school) bus tour, the teacher and the driver who deals with children all the time, treated us as somewhat errant middle schoolers but were funny and very proud of their tiny community.  The Baranov Museum is just an old housed filled with Aleutiq, Russiaqn and late 19th century American memorabilia but it is lovingly restored and is staffed by enthusiastic volunteers who would love to sell everyone Russian nesting dolls and Kodiak Island tee shirts.  As there are only twenty cruise ships that visit during a season, up from none a few years ago, they have only limited opportunities to show off their wares.

Kodiak Island was founded as the capital, really an outpost, of Russian America in the early 1700's. It exists today because of its fishing  fleet, canneries and a huge U.S. Coast Guard station.  The most interesting cannery is an old WWII Liberty Ship that has been cemented into a wharf and converted for processing fish.  The fish processed depend upon the season.  The salmon season is just finishing and they are now canning and freezing haddock and rock fish.  The crabbing season starts soon.

We saw the Russian Orthodox church, the Alutiq Museum and the Abercrombie state park and took a leisurely drive through the three main streets. I didn't see any traffic lights. There was, however a lake with a float plane landing, a Safeway and a Wal-Mart, not the super center, just a small one.

The state park is located at a point overlooking Marmot Strait.  The views of the nearby volcanic islands are impressive. The US Army constructed a bunker and installed cannon during WWII.  The local veterans have carefully restored much of the equipment and created a pretty good museum on the site.  There were a number of military installations on Kodiak Island.  The former air and naval base is now the Coast Guard installation, the largest in the western U.S.  No shots were ever fired in anger from Kodiak, just a lot of practice.  The island was fortified because of fears of an attempted Japanese invasion of mainland Alaska. That never happened although the Japanese did occupy the islands of Attu and Kiska at the very end of the Aleutian island chain and did bomb Unalaska/Dutch Harbor.

The tour ended with a performance by a youth group rum by a Bulgarian Orthodox priest and his wife.  They take in at-risk teens and teach them self respect through good works and the performance arts.  The kids were pretty good.

I think we saw all the sights there are to see on Kodiak Island.  It was certainly not the usual tourist experience.

Tracy Arm, the Sawyer Glacier, Juneau & Skagway

Almost exactly two years ago I was in this part of Alaska.  There are significant differences between the two visits. It was cool and rainy the last time around while it was warm (60's) and sunny this time.  There were many more active waterfalls in 2008 though there was a lot more ice floating in the water of the Tracy Arm this time.  Almost all of the Juneau tours with the exception of the expensive "flight seeing" were tours I had taken the first time. The last time I visited Skagway, I took the White Pass and Yukon train excursion.  This time Michael and I decided to pass on the tours and explore Juneau and Skagway on our own.  I had traveled extensively on the "Alaska Marine Highway" in 2008.  I'm in a luxury cruise ship in 2010.  I think I had the more authentic experience in 2008.

I was pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable the visit to the glacier was in a (small) cruise ship  as opposed to an (even smaller) excursion boat.  The fact that the sun was shining made it easy to stand on deck, camera ready for whatever came up.  Even ten stories above the water, the view of the glacier face was impressive.  Later I compared pictures I took in 2008 with my new ones.  The shape of the ice face has changed.  It appears that the face of the glacier has shrunk back ten or twenty feet in the past two years.  There were far fewer waterfalls in 2010 but the view of glaciers in the distance was much better.  This time we had competition: the Sea Princess went up Tracy Arm ahead of us and spent more than its allotted time at the glacier face.  As a consequence our arrival in Juneau was delayed an hour or so.  It's ironic that each ship is allotted half an hour at the glacier face.

 

We have seen at least five different Princess ships since we left Vancouver, all much, much bigger than we are.  All carrying over 2000 passengers each. The cruise ship season in Alaska is winding down.  I can't imagine how crowded all of these ports were during the summer with four or five ships docked in each port every day, not one or two.  It certainly seems that the number of jewelry stores in each port has exploded.  A trip to Alaska by cruise ship is no longer exotic. It has devolved into just another shopping experience punctuated by the same generic (expensive) tours in each port.  See the whales, see the glaciers, see the bears!

The mountains, the glaciers, the ocean and the wild life are still wonderful.  It's just too bad that so many people only seem to want to find a McDonald's and buy a tee shirt or maybe some of those diamonds for sale everywhere.  For Michael and me the best parts of the trip so far have been the opportunity to talk to real local people and walk a few blocks off the main streets and see how real Alaskans live.

I had been to all of the sights in Juneau so I was able to take Michael on the tram up to the top of Mt. Roberts.  It was beautifully clear so we were able to take a scenic hike.  Later were able to walk into the parts of Juneau not devoted to tourists.  It's amazing how small the Alaska State Capitol building looks.  We would have walked more but Michael was still feeling under the weather so we returned to the ship for afternoon tea and, later, dinner watching the brightly lit ships in the harbor. 

Skagway was fun.  We walked all over the downtown early and found Michael some cold medicine.  We had espresso in a coffee shop frequented by locals that had been recommended by the clerk in a more touristy place.  The highlight of the morning was watching a work crew take a refurbished White Pass and Yukon diesel locomotive off a wheeled cradle and position it on the railroad track. It appeared to have been unloaded from a ship. Later that afternoon we saw an older, beat up looking diesel being taken off the tracks and loaded onto the cradles. We concluded that the locomotives are serviced elsewhere and we were watching a swap.

 
We finished our visit having walked more than seven miles all over the town including a trip to the rail yard and the airport.  The sail out from Skagway was spectacular.  We were able to sit comfortably on the rear deck and watch the mountains and ocean slide by.  We were even accompanied by dolphins for awhile.

I wrote the above blog Friday, it is now Tuesday.  I have had problems uploading this to the blog site.  I will try sending this using Michael's computer.  After Kamchatka we are told that due to Japanese regulations we will not have Internet access until Korea.  I'll keep writing and eventually my posts will get published. More later on Kodiak Island and Dutch Harbor.

Ketchikan Alaska

It is Tuesday, September 14th 6:00 pm Alaska time and we have just left Ketchikan.  I watched our arrival at 6:30 am this morning from the observation lounge on deck 10.  The sun was shining brightly which is unusual as Ketchikan gets on average 163 inches of rain per year.  The scenery was gorgeous. The town looked like the tourist center it is.  A huge cruise ship, the Sapphire Princess, had already docked and let off thousands of passengers. The streets were full.  Michael and I were inclined to avoid the gift shops and explore further afield.

Michael had been here before. The shore excursions seemed similar to those in the rest of our Alaska stops so we did not schedule any special activities.  This turned out to be a good decision as Michael is fighting a cold and probably would not have appreciated any strenuous activity today.  We took a walk around the town . Historic Creek Street featured old houses built on pilings over the creek.  Most have been turned into gift shops and a former brothel is now a museum.  We found a small funicular (inclined cable car) that went up the mountainside to a lodge at the top.  We had good views of the town from above. 

There was a steep stair down the backside of the hill.  A road lead to the creek, much further upstream.  The waterway was filled with thousands of salmon fighting their way upstream to spawn.  I tried several times to get a picture that showed the abundance of fish in the water.  The road along the creek led us to the native American fish hatchery and eagle sanctuary, a totem pole museum and a pretty little city park.  We watched the salmon some more and met some interesting locals.  We discovered a woodsy walk back along the creek to the center of Ketchikan.  A highlight was a conversation with a gift shop owner who looked like a rustic Santa Clause but turned out to be quite a philosopher.

After we had lunch and a short nap we went back out and walked along the shoreline for a look at the Sapphire Princess and the northern section of Ketchikan.  On the way back we stopped to admire Ketchikan's only traffic light.  We visited a fur store, a craft store and a gift shop.  The local staff are clearly anticipating the end of the season in a week or so yet are still very friendly.  A peak into a museum and we were done. The day was warm and clear so it was easy to see as we pulled away from the docks why Ketchikan is described as a town three blocks wide and ten miles long.

I didn't quite finish this Tuesday.  My entries may take some time to post as I'm trying to conserve relatively expensive Internet minutes.