Full moon at midnight from our Homer lodgings

We boarded reasonably quickly for a change and were comfortably ensconced in our cabins by 1am. Didn’t feel the boat leave at 2am because we were fast asleep.

Boarding this time was different. It is a side loader but with an elevator to take the cars to the car deck. The elevator then rotates 90 degrees to let the cars drive into the boat. It seemed quite slow and cumbersome and not terribly efficient as the other ferries had been.

However it was large and comfortable and I for one slept well. Possibly because Collette’s bug has caught up with me, Peter also.

The voyage to Kodiak was uneventful, partly because we slept most of the way and partly because it rained most of the way, again.

We checked into our new lodgings which is about 12 km south of Kodiak. There were reports of bear sightings at two close rivers so we left the bags in the car and raced off to find the bears.

The first bear was daddy bear and, as often happens with daddy’s, he was having a nap after lunch.

At the next creek we found mummy bear out catching fish for baby bear. Her first fish was caught very quickly. She seemed to have trouble with the next.

Hope the video works. She then shared lunch with baby bear who was quite small and looked very young. We heard today that male bears will often attack the babies because the females will not mate while they have young with them. There are stories of spectacular fights with the smaller mothers defending her young against the bulls.

On the boat we met a guy who told us about the rocket launch facility on Kodiak which he managed until recently. The Pacific Spaceport Complex Alaska is a dual-use commercial and military spaceport for sub-orbital and orbital launch vehicles. Didn’t get to see it unfortunately.

After lunch we explored the town. It is very spread out without a vibrant heart. We are told that the introduction of Walmart to the town is to blame for undercutting all the local business and decimating the central area. Subsequently it is hard to get a sense of the town and its culture.

Some architecture of Kodiak and part of the largest fishing fleet in Alaska. At the port you know it’s a fishing village as soon as you step out of the car.

To finish off the day we had a drive south along the coast. You can’t go far on Kodiak because they only have 80 km of roads. It was much of similar coastal drive as we have seen so much of in Alaska. A nice drive and a good thing to do on a rainy day.

Otters have the perfect body type for tape dispensers.

A pink salmon put up a good fight. There were thousands in this stream.

Tomorrow it is supposed to be fine again and we have booked a bear watching flight with a local charter company. May the weather gods be with us again.