I woke up this morning at 4am to the accompaniment of the ship rolling a bit and for some reason couldn't fall back asleep. Finally at 6:00am I got up and showered and headed up to the Crow's Nest to watch the sail in. There were low clouds and a number of small rock formations as we approached the Kodiak harbor. I could see the Alaska State ferry Kennicott berthed off to our port or left side. We held our position for a long while when the Captain finally came on the PA system and said the Alaska ferry had a mechanical issue and would be delayed an hour. So we continued to hold our position when he came on the PA system again saying there would be a further delay of an hour. Towards the end of that 2nd hour he inched the Volendam towards its berth and held the ship 90° to the dock until the the Kennicott departed. He then swiftly rotated the Volendam a further 90° counterclockwise and slid her gently up against the pier.
At around 8:45am I called our tour guide to advise him what was going on. After another wait the gangway was put in place and the yellow school buses were arriving to serve as the shore excursion transportation. I never heard Deck 9 being called but finally I saw people disembarking the ship and getting in the yellow school buses for their tours or the ride to downtown. Every 20 minutes they would call another lower floor number 7, 6, 3, and 2. At 10:45am I called our guide again and expressed concern that we might not make the 12 noon tour. I should add that all the while we were waiting, the eagle watching was really good!
Then at around 11:20am we got the call for deck number 1 to get cleared. We got in line and after 15 minutes a crew person finally came to the back of the line and had US passport holders go to a separate and significantly shorter line. We then were through in less than a minute. HAL just has to do immigration better!! We should have been instructed to seek the proper line and it would have been more fair for the non-HAL tour passengers to use the numbered card system so that those who weren't planning to get off could use a later time for the immigration inspection. And if US passport holders were such a minority, process us first and get us out of the way. This inspection process made the previous inspections in Asia seem like a choreographed ballet in comparison! End of rant.
Once off the ship another party on our excursion spotted me and noted that our van was nearby and we didn't need to take the shuttle into town to Henry's to meet with our guide. So we boarded a comfortable van and Brie, our guide, took us to town and then to the top of the big hill above the town where they have 4-6 large windmills. Those combined with hydropower provide 95% of Kodiak's power. We also enjoyed nice vistas although it was a bit windy and the clouds kept obscuring the views.
Our next stop was at Ft. Abercrombie State Historical Park which is a memorial to the defensive guns that were constructed for WWII, but never fired. We saw 8" guns that were left over from WWI battleships that were put in use for the 2nd world war. From there we made a stop at WAL MART so a number of us could purchase some provisions. I felt a cold coming on so I purchased some cold medicine. Our final trip took us out to the fairgrounds to see a large eagle's nest. While the eagle wasn't visible, our guide assured us the best was in use and two eaglets should be soon visible. We also got to see the large US Coast Guard facility and the airport before being dropped off downtown where we did some souvenir shopping and then walked back to the ship along what the locals call cannery row due to the number of canneries found there. They actually don't can anything here; they just process and freeze it for later processing in the lower 48. It's only 4-5 blocks from downtown to the ship. There's a cool store along the way called Pickled Willy's which sells some incredible pickled seafoods and there were lots of samples. We definitely spent some money there!
Because of our delay in the morning, the onboard time was extended by an hour to 5:30pm, and we made it back on by 5pm. Before our customary Lido dinner, we watched the sail away which wasn't complicated and we departed promptly at 6pm.
I watched the movie, 'Sully', for the second time this cruise and each time it seems like a new movie. I really like it. I then watched the 10pm cast show of 'Dance' which is my third time to see it this cruise.
Tomorrow is a sea day as we cross the Gulf of Alaska. We'll see if the seas are as smooth as when crossing the Pacific.
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