The Clown Ship

















   I was heading out fishing this morning when I noticed that some of the whale watch boats were already leaving with their passengers. I looked down towards the cannery where the ships have been anchoring and saw nothing, although there were some lightering boats running to the cannery from around the corner. When I got around the bend myself, I could see that for whatever reason the captain decided to anchor on the other side of cannery point. There has been quite a large amount of conflict over the cruise ship dock and it's location. Icy Strait Point wants it built on their property, using state money, and the city says no they can't for that very reason. Unfortunately, one of the city council members has been pushing the ISP location, even though there is a conflict of interest and it has really divided the city. What a pain. I assume the captain docked where he did to make a point, I don't know, but in any event it was a nuisance to try and troll around him tonight when I was coming in. This particular ship is the Norwegian Sun, part of the Norwegian Cruise Line. I don't know why they take a perfectly good ship and paint this ridiculous design on it. It's so out of character for the location. Here we have this beautiful location, with the clean, clear water and mountains and woods and here comes this ship looking like a pimp on a holiday. It's kind of like inviting a clown to your wedding- it just seems out of place. As my old friend Uncle Bill would say, " That looks like a scab on a Polar Bear's behind!" I couldn't agree more.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Sick Pack

Image
      Jen came for a visit the other night. Apparently she had picked up a cold when she went to Juneau last week. Nothing like being crammed into a confined space with hundreds of other folks to test the old immune system. I hadn't seen much of her recently so I kind of wanted to talk to her and show her what I was doing with the new book and get some input. I knew that she was sick, so before she arrived I grabbed out a large bottle of Cran-raspberry juice for her to take home. I guess it's full of vitamin C or some such thing. Then I got to thinking, maybe I should get a mask for her to wear so I  don't catch her cold. She thought that was funny, but she didn't wear it, maybe because it was a dust mask like you'd use when sanding sheet rock and not one like doctors and nurses wear. I guess if a doctor wanted to do a little construction around his house he'd have a ready store of surgical supplies on hand and wouldn't have to worry
Read more

The End of an Era

Image
  I was going to do a blog post about my last days of fishing on the Bonnie J. I've given the boat to a worthy person I believe and I wanted to reflect a little bit on my time with her, but yesterday my son Brian called with the news that my friend and long time Hoonah resident Fagan Skaflestad had passed away. It came as quite  a shock to me for some reason. I don't know why. He was in his early eighties I believe, but he always seemed so robust, so full of life. He was one of those guys that just seemed like would live forever. I can't even recall when we first met, I feel like I've known him most of my life. His family has been around Hoonah for decades. His dad, Alf, had a logging business and he and the boys logged up and down Port Frederick for years. They had a camp up in Salt Lake Bay if I recall correctly, and Fagan used to tell me about running around in a skiff up in the Narrows, fishing for King Salmon. He had the uncanny ability of finding fish when few oth
Read more

Clear but Cold

Image
Behind Lumbago Way Frozen mud flats Spud Creek's frozen     For most of the three weeks that I was in Juneau for jury duty, the weather was clear and very cold. For the better part of the first week I knew it was clear, but we couldn't see the blue sky above because of fog. It was so severe that the commercial jets were forced to fly over Juneau and of course there were no small commuter flights between Juneau and the outlying areas, which meant no mail or freight that would normally be sent via airplanes. Jan always gets a little claustrophobic when it gets like that. It's a terrible feeling to think that you can't get out of here if you need to. When I finally got back home, I decided to go out and get a few pictures of the mud flats that surround Garteeni Creek. The creek itself was still flowing somewhat and the Mallards and Canadian Honkers were availing themselves of whatever there was to eat in the stream. I've heard stories of ducks being froz
Read more