Rain Dwell

 

The Johnnie B. at the tidal grid getting some work done on her prop and bottom paint touch up.   She was built around 1905 and still going strong as a commercial fishing boat.   Rough looking, but quite functional, according to her captain & crew.

A tidal grid is a place where you bring your boat in at high tide and careen/lean it so the boat stands up when the tide goes out.   That gives you about 6-8 hours to get work done before the tide comes in and floats the boat again.   Tidal grids are common in places with a large tidal range (22' here).   This wouldn't work well in Florida where we have an 18" tidal range...

With the rains today, we didn't do much, so we decided to wander down to the tourist end of town to shop for a "Ketchikan" sweater and lunch.

A few cruise ships were in port making downtown somewhat busy.

Yup, it was pizza for lunch at Fat Stan's.   That was a pretty good tomato pie.   We had the "Big Bad" (Pepperoni, spicy savory sausage, onions, mushrooms, black olives, and green pepper), with some extra crushed red pepper and parmesan cheese, every so delicately applied by me.

Proof that we were in Ketchikan.   See the big street banner behind us?

We headed back to the boat, stopping by the shipping station (Frontier Shipping & CopyWorks) and the Safeway Pharmacy - but my meds hadn't come in yet..

We also wanted to pick-up some eggs, but the shelves were bare (that's common up here).  About once a week the supplies are delivered by ship or barge from Washington State.   That is supposed to be tomorrow.

So, we went to the other end of town to the IGA Market where they had eggs!  We picked-up 18 of them.

Then back to the boat again to do some work.   Karen was working on legal stuff as we just shifted our WA LLC to a FL LLC.

I took the opportunity to do some sales work for one of my clients.   We have a number of prospects looking for our help with some cool AI projects and that happens to be our area of focus.  I'd say expertise, but there are no AI experts (how can you be an expert at a brand new field?).

Dinner was just salad and tomato soup.   After all that pizza (we ate the entire pie), a small dinner was called for.   And that left room for sharing a banana split.  For whatever reason, fresh fruits and vegetables are a bit limited up here, but not bananas.  There are gobs of bunches in every grocery store.

During and after dinner, we watched the Stanley Cup Finals, Game 2.  That's hockey for you non-hockey fans.

Spoiler alert - Carolina won, beating Las Vegas in overtime 4:3.   It was a very good game.

The problem with getting older is the prescribed medications and having to fight the system.  First, I don't want the meds, but my doc has convinced me that I'm better off with than without them.  Fine.  But the insurance system only wants to pay for one month of supplies.  Just how is that supposed to work when I'm on my boat in Alaska for 5 months?  We don't get into port frequently enough and not on any planned schedule.  Coordinating this is a real PITA.  Sometimes I just give up and do without.  I'm still here...

Anyway, since my meds haven't arrived yet, we will wait one more day before we give up and head off regardless.  So, we will be here tomorrow too.   Saturday, we will head to Meyers Chuck, a small semi-hippie community about 30 miles north (5.5 hours away).   It is a really beautiful place with great people.   But more on that when we get there.

With the constant rain we've had for the last few days, there are no sunset pictures.  It is gray out there and it just gets to be a darker gray and then it's dark.   Not much to photograph.  Maybe tomorrow...  

Good Night.