Jumping Ship

     When we first decided to move to Ketchikan, I really wanted to get a job related to biology, but since we were pretty late in the application game the spots I applied for in this area had already been filled, so I looked elsewhere for jobs and ended up at the Lumberjack Show. At this time of the year a lot of people are heading to college, however, and a friend mentioned to me that one of the naturalists at Allen Marine just left and they needed a new one pronto. I was a little hesitant at first- I had never quit a job before and sometimes it's just easier to stay at a place even if you're in a rut. My gut told me that it was the right move for me, though, and I headed up to the office, applied for the job, was interviewed on the spot and got an offer right then and there (they must have been desperate!). Anyway, the past week I've been training on my boat, the Kalinin, as well as on the other boats to see what their tours are like. Needless to say, it's been awesome. My tour is called "The Best of Ketchikan Land and Sea" and involves an hour-and-a-half boat tour along the coast of Revillagigedo Island, where I inform passengers about the ecology and natural history of the area. We take them to the historic George Inlet Cannery, where we go through an hour tour of the salmon canning process. We then say goodbye to our passengers as they board a bus which takes them on the last leg of their tour (the "land part"). We then pick up another group of passengers that have just gotten off the bus part of the tour and go through our two parts of the tour in reverse. It's pretty great because I get to talk about nature while being on a boat all day, and I get to shmooze with people. I love shmoozing. So here are a few photos from my first week at my new job:

My boat, the Kalinin - a 65 foot monohull vessel

One of my training days, incognito

The old George Inlet Cannery

New Eddystone Rock in the Behm Canal

The Misty Fjords National Monument (the destination of one of the other Allen Marine tours which I got to go on for my training)

A gorgeous day on the boat

A harbor seal basking in the sun while his friends play in the water

    Overall, I'm really happy with my decision to switch- I'm having a great time and am learning so much about the area and about boats- I'm also racking up sea days which I can use if I ever decide to become a captain. Definitely a possibility. We have had some gorgeous weather for the last couple of days and I actually got a little suntan today (woohoo!). I think I'll go join Matt, Kevin and Casey on the dock- they brought a bottle of wine and a guitar with them so I think we have our whole night pretty much mapped out. Hope everyone down south is doing well, keep sending up that sunshine!


Bridget :)