Cruising Alaska Off-Season — Walking Sitka

It’s the day after Juneau. Royal Caribbean‘s gigantic Ovation of the Seas made port in Sitka, Alaska on Monday, 27 September. Sitka sits primarily on Baronof Island, with a portion just across the bridge on neighboring Chichagoff Island. This city may be small in size and population, but it is large in the history of Alaska, as it was designated the Russian America capital.

To be sure, Sitka is a very small municipality. The total population is well under 9,000… except when a cruise ship hits town, which isn’t very often. In nine Alaska cruises, this was only our second time here. The first was in 1988 on our very first cruise, aboard Holland America‘s original, and very enchanting, MS Noordam (currently sailing as the MS Marella Celebration). It was on this cruise that we met and had a lovely chat with the acclaimed author James A. Michener, but that’s another story. Suffice it to say, Mr. Michener was an absolutely charming man, and one of the most interesting people you’d ever want to meet.

The town is not the only thing to see here. Look around at the picturesque marinas, and above for beautiful mountains. Below you’ll find some scenes of the boats in and around the marina at Crescent Bay, which is where we were dropped off by the shuttle from the ship. And the mountain vista was taken from very near this spot as well, on the parking side of the Sitka Historical Society Museum building.

Speaking of the waterfront history museum, this beautifully decked out Tlingit canoe awaits you just outside the entrance:

Here in Sitka even the merchant building retain that old frontier charm:

But on Wednesday’s article we’re going to move away from the commercial and on to the historical. I’ll give you a preview of what to expect in just a moment but, before I do, below are two more maritime themed photos from the maritime themed city. The first is a tug that was secured to the dock shared by Ovation of the Seas, which is some 6 miles/9.6 kilometers outside of town. The second is once again from the marina at Crescent Bay.

So what will we be looking at on Wednesday’s article? How about the seat of the Alaska diocese of the Othrodox Church? We’ll be traipsing through the historic Cathedral of St. Michael the Archangel: