Fort Rousseau Causeway

Michael has been wanting to go check out the Causeway for some time so I was off work early on Monday and the weather was pretty nice so we went to check it out. You can only get to it by boat and it is just on the other side of the airport. It was built in 1941-42 as a WWII military installation here in Sitka linking the string of islands offshore from Sitka's present day airport. We set the anchor on the boat just out from shore and pulled the Zodiak from the top to make our journey to shore. Sitka trails works has done a wonderful job making the trail to explore the past, a very pleasant one,as this is now a State Park. There were several buildings that were partially intact ,which made it fun that you could go inside them. One bunker we figured was a munitions bunker by the sign on the door and another maybe a hospital. We walked on a small beach that had tons of pieces from vehicles scattered everywhere. One can only imagine the workings on this Causeway in preparation for war. I am so glad we finally went out to see this amazing part of Sitka history.

Michael's idea of a trail      hahaha

Must have had a rail system for something

This one had about 5 rooms in it. 

Uh oh, my truck is upside down!

Michael thinks this engine still has plenty of Mussel left in it! hahahha

Look out!

This was on the door, maybe some sort of xray machine? 

This was still pretty intact 

Pitch black in here. He could not see me from the door. 

Beautiful day!

This is for all you Deadliest Catch fans, Maverick in town!

These are a few of my favorite things!

Thought I'd just throw up a few photos from my past work week on Allen Marine Tours. What a nice job I have huh? We were both off on Monday so we went out by Viskarie Rocks and dropped our long line. Got 2 cod and 2 halibut. Not a bad way to spend your day.

This guy was walking around up in Reboubt bay on one of our tours

One of our cods

Our 13 1/2 lb halibut

Saw a Minkee Whale  one day  Don't see them very often

Had a humpback whale showing off

Saw this on my way to work going over Indian River Bridge

A young eagle came in and landed

Salmon Breakfast!

These are moon jellies

We came upon a group of them on tour yesterday. Must have been thousands of them!

Want to know how we get our groceries in Sitka? Here is your answer. By Barge down Olga Straight.

I'm having way to much fun!

So out working today, had 2 tours to work.The Navigator cruise ship was in port, the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day in the Sound. We made it out to St. Lazaria Island again today, saw some Puffins, Otters, Eagles, Grey whales and hump backs on our tour. There was another small tour boat out today also that seemed to be following us, which they do, I caught a great photo of their boat with someone on the bow while we were watching a humpback and it looked like the guy was standing on the whales tail in one of my shots. Coast Guard Alaska was doing drills maybe from the way they were flying. I know I am bombarding you with posts lately but it has been an awesome week and I can't help but share!

Coast Guard Sitka!

Another way to tour. I want to do this!

Standing on the tail so to speak

 Puffins

Beautiful Puffins

Harbor Seals and Murres

So we had such an exciting day out on tours with the killer whales yesterday but we also saw some other cool things. The harbor seals are pretty darn cute too and out at St. Lazaria island the Murres are building there nests in the cave there. This is a bird sanctuary so everyone is safe. These birds build a nest that is only 2 inches in diameter. Can you imagine sitting on a nest that small? NOT! When they all exit the cave and do a big turn around out over the Ocean it looks really cool .Looks like a bunch of tuxedos flying around! We have Tuftin Puffins out there too but they move so fast they are hard to catch with the camera. I'll keep trying if we get back out there. Another beautiful day in Sitka!

Harbor seals hanging out

Murres on their nests

Uo in the cave

Balancing act on nests

Lots of harbor seals

Just hangin

Orca Whales in the Sound!

Oh My Goodness, didn't know how awesome it could be to take a boat load of cruise ship folks out on an Allen Marine Tour (my job). We were heading out into the sound today, our normal thing, when our Capt got word from the whale gods (aka another boat) that there may be Orca Whales in the sound. He changed course to head out by Low island and low and behold there they were! An entire family! Mama and baby, daddy, aunts, uncles and cousins. This is the most spectacular thing we can see because we do not see them very often, The crew gets just excited as the passengers and everyone cheers! Last time we saw a group of them was back at the beginning of the season in May. Today we think we saw 2 different groups of them and we found them on both of our tours so it was a treat for about 165 people that came off of the Westerdam cruise ship, Holland America , to take our Sea Otter and Wildlife tour. We did see a few Otters but we think most of them were hiding from the killer whales as that is their only predator . LOL Oops! Great day!

Sea Lions

I worked two tours yesterday with Allen Marine taking passengers out to tour the Hatchery down in Silver Bay. It is put on by the NSRAA and you get a nice guided tour by the hatchery staff then they treat you to a really nice fresh BBQ"d salmon lunch with all the fixings. For $15 it's a great deal!  We took this tour last year and it rained the entire time, as it did yesterday.  haha
Seemed like everyone had a good time and on the way back to town we came across these Stellar Sea Lions cruising for lunch. Guess they could smell fish on our breaths! LOL

Finally we get one!

After all of our times we have been out fishing it has finally happened. We put out our skate line with 15 hooks baited with squid, left it over night, went back and we got a halibut!!!! May not have weighed in at more than maybe 5-6 pounds but I tell you, the piece we had for dinner was about the best fish I have eaten. Put the line out for a second time and all we got after 1 1/2 hours in the water was 3 stupid Rock fish. They are ugly, prehistoric looking fish, but they bake up pretty nice. I am not a big fan of eating rock fish, especially after the halibut the night before. LOL
But we finally got our halibut . Stopped in at the cleaning station to clean all of our fish and a weird local man, we presumed, had nothing nice to say about anything we were doing. He didn't like the knife Michael was using, why is he cleaning the fish this way, why don't we fish out at the cape, the rock fish we caught were crap fish, why do people waste so much of the fish, blah..blah..blah
I was thinking, why don't you get the hell away from us and let us clean our fish in peace. Hahaha

Small is best for halibut!

Our Halibut

Ugly Rock Fish

Got 4 nice servings out of our halibut Yummy! 

Keeping watch over the harbor