Land at last in Kodiak

After seven very stormy days at sea, with winds reaching gale force 11 for a lot of the days, 12 being the highest, we have arrived into Alaska, the Final Frontier.

Glorious sunny, but cold day. The town is famous for fishing, one of the main fishing ports in the USA and the Kodiak Bear. The Kodiak Bear is found exclusively on Kodiak Island and it’s archipelago and due to setting up a refuge in 1941, bear numbers are now in excess of 3,000.

Originally inhabited for some 7,500 years by the Alutiiq tribe, it was used as a base by Russian settlers, for seal, sea otter and whale hunting.
It then became part of Alaska when the land was sold by Russia.

The Russian Orthodox Cathedral still remains in the town.

Hit by ash from a volcano eruption in 1912 and an earthquake in 1964, the town was recovering but in 1989 the town was devasted by the oil spill from the Exxon Valdez. Very interesting info in the Wildlife Visitor Centre about the slow recovery from the spill.

Only a small town but lots of interesting info on the Alutiiq and wildlife.