Week One...

Week One...


Well I have survived Alaska for one week! I managed to live through 100+ winds, learned my way around an engine room, and most importantly have made several new friends. I don't think I am going to have any problem enjoying my time here.

View back over the harbor towards my house.

View of the Ships out our window.

The sights have been amazing. I still wake up every morning and have to re-grasp that this is not vacation, I won't be leaving tomorrow.  Even in the rain, this is one of the most beautiful places that I have ever seen! Because we are the land of rain, we are also in the land of rainbows. There is nothing more magical than seeing a double rainbow stretch over the city and end in the water! The sun has been out the past few days and we have had incredible views of the snow-covered mountain peaks. There is truly beauty every where that you look.

If you look very closely there is a double rainbow.

Just playing with cute sea stars.

I amazed at every single creature that I see! There are sea stars literally everywhere! I have seen a variety of colors, and shapes. At low-tide on our dock they are located on every piling and all over the shore. The number of jellyfish in the harbor amaze me. So far I have seen thousands of little moon jellies. I have seen a couple of harbor seals and yesterday I saw my first sea-lion.




The birds are everywhere. Gulls are the most plentiful and I've seen Bonapartes' gull  in breeding plumage, Mew gulls, Glaucous Gulls, and Herring Gulls. The mergansers are beautiful and I've seen a few common merganser pairs. Pelagic cormorants and Pacific Loons are also numerous. My goal is to keep a running count of all of the animals that I see on each cruise.

At work we have mainly been training and cleaning. My boat just arrived here, so she needed lots and lots of cleaning. Her name is the Sea Lion Express! My captain's name is Gwen and I'm really excited to work with her. Other than cleaning our boat, we have been running drills everyday. We also spent one day shooting off fire extinguishers and learning how to use flairs.

There is a lot to learn, and not a ton of time to learn it in.

My Boat.

There will be plenty of times that I am sure I will feel like I'm in over my head, and that's alright. Everything here is a new challenge for me, but that is how I know I made the right decision to come here. I love that everything is new, and that it makes me think. I will just keep my childhood wonder and excitement about everything, and it will be a wonderful season!