5/23–Wrangell

This is a new port for us and we are excited to see it.  Again, sail in is beautiful – we are so fortunate with this weather.

Today we have 2 tours booked – morning and afternoon.  We start off with a quick (thankfully) canoe trip around the harbor to the Shakes Island tribal house.  The harbor is flat calm (phew), so it’s not so tough to get around.  While we are paddling, our guides give us a great history lesson on Wrangell, the Shakes Tribe and a lesson on fishing and the different boats in the harbor.

We pull our canoes ashore – just like the Shake tribes people did all those years ago when they landed here, and head up the embankment for the house.  At the end of the island there is a natural dry dock – but only for 4 hours at a time!  The tide is similar to Hilton Head – extremely large tidal shifts, but faster than HHI.  People can pull their boat up to this mooring, wait for the tide to go out, then work on their boat. But they have to be quick – we could see the difference from when we arrived until when we left a little over an hour later!  And where we had landed our canoes was completely under water – our guide had run out and moved them so we could get in them!

We got to explore the Shakes Tribal House on the outside and take pictures of the construction and the important totem poles there. 

Then we get to go inside for a special dance presentation.  6 of the tribes people are there and tell us stories about the native culture, their history and families – as well as how they just rebuilt and re-dedicated the Shakes tribal house with hundreds and hundreds of visitors, dancing and singing tribal songs.  They showed us dances and taught us words. It was really lovely (but no photos allowed!).

Back to the canoes to paddle back to the ship.  The water is still peaceful, the sun shining – it’s a beautiful morning outing.

Lunch on board, then back out to wander before our afternoon hike.  We headed over to the Native museum, which was fascinating and had great historical displays and the actual totems that were recreated for inside the Shakes Tribal house.

We meet for our afternoon hike, and meet two more lovely guides.  Everyone we have met here has been just amazingly friendly and so knowledgeable.  We hike up through a neighborhood

then onto a well maintained stair stepped walkway up the Mount Dewey trail following John Muir’s path.  It’s a pretty strenuous hike, climbing up all the way – but the views are worth it. 

Back down we go – to the ship – to the Captain’s party – then to dinner and our last day at sea!