September 5, 2024.

We know most people in Sitka, in the winter.  But in the summer a whole new crop of newbies arrive in town.  I don’t know as many of them.  As we walk from Westerdam to the Sitka Sound Cruise Terminal, one of them tried to entice me to go on a tour.  “Do you want to see bears close up!?”  Another of the tour operators, who knew me, started laughing.  I have already had a few bear encounters this year.  He approached me and with a chuckle he started his pitch.  Then Lakota, who was in the information booth saw us:

“Hey Rich and Suzi, which ship?”

“Westerdam”

“Awesome!”

As we went into the terminal our next-door neighbors, Martha and Keith, who sell prints of Keith’s watercolors at the terminal, told us that we might want to check in at home.  A bear got into another neighbor’s garbage and brought the bag up to our place and spread the garbage along our hillside.  Welcome home!

Our friends Dave and Janet met us at the terminal. We went, as we do every Thursday, to Seniors’ coffee and doughnuts at SeaMart grocery store.

Much of the conversation in town is about the internet and cell phone outage. The undersea cable failed before we left, (see my first cruise post in this string).   It was still not back and probably will not be until between Sept 10 and 13.  The repair ship is just picking up its gear in Victoria BC.  Several Star Link units were flown in and there is public wifi now at the Library, University, the Tribe and a few other places.  The hospital and one of the banks both have units.  The tribe loaned Raven Radio a Starlink to keep up contact with the remove villages.  The newspaper also got a link.  Alaska Airlines flew in a Starlink so I guess they are no longer needing to use sharpies to write bag tags.  The town is pulling together.  It reminds old timers (me included) of life here before satellite.  TV was recorded in Seattle, a week later played in Juneau and we got it after two weeks.  Long distance calls were expensive with long lags and echoes.  There was no online shopping, only local stores and the Sears catalogue.  I remember pop calling me in 1980 asking me what I thought of the election results.  I said, “the tape hasn’t gotten here yet.”  Although, of course, we did have radio. 

According to our State Representative people are spending 10 minutes online and then taking an hour to chat with other Sitkans at the Starlink hot spots.  It’s tightened the bonds of an already tight community to the point where she says she is getting requests that Sitka adopt a one internet and cell free day a week, the same way we are trying to arrange one cruise free day a week.  She said in a news story: “That is a political nonstarter.”  

The Cruise terminal also has Starlink so, although we were warned by the Cruise Director that we would not be able to use credit cards or ATM machines in Sitka, credit cards were accepted by cruise terminal businesses.  I have heard some local resentment that cruise passengers are using the library wifi slowing it down it so locals can’t use it. There is much better wifi on the ship than in Sitka.

After coffee we went home.  Keith was there and we looked at the garbage.  We had taken our garbage to the disposal station before we left Sitka so it would not be in an outdoor bin.  The city has a record of our drop off, but I wanted to make sure that we don’t get fined for creating a neighborhood bear hazard.  We didn’t have time to rake it up. Keith said he would contact the neighbor who had left the garbage out, and they would fix it.  I appreciate that.  In Sitka it is illegal to leave garbage out except on the day of pickup.  Bird feeders are also illegal from April to October.

We ran some errands in Sitka.  We had ordered prescription meds for the two month trip, and some did not make it into town before we left.  We made a stop at the pharmacy to pick them up. Some of the clothing we ordered months ago for the trip had not arrived, so we checked the Post Office.  Still not here.  The post office restructuring under Postmaster General DeJoy has slowed service to Sitka. Stuff that used to come by air now comes by sea, and we can never make shippers understand that, no we do not have UPS or FedEx ground.  They try it, and sometimes stuff comes back to them, so have to wrangle refunds.

After errands we took Dave and Janet to Westerdam for a tour and some lunch.  It takes some doing to get guests on board in the post 9/11 and COVID eras.  But working through both the Sitka Cruise Line Agent (a request made weeks ago) and Guest Services on board we got permission.  It came through just the evening before.

On sail out we watched a Coast Guard copter from Air Station Sitka hover over a small boat, I am not sure if they were training or making an interception.  It buzzed the aft of the ship. 

We cruised into a weather front coming up from the South with some dramatic clouds.

That evening we were listening to the jazz group in the Ocean Bar and overheard a couple talking “They only have 14 miles of road.  It’s beautiful but how can they live in a place like this?  It’s so remote. What do they do in the winter?”  I smiled and thought “whatever we want.”