This morning we were greeted by glorious sunshine and blue skies. The weather on this voyage has surpassed our expectations, after all we are in Alaska, however today's temperature came as a great surprise. We were still at sea until 12:30 PM but we were coming to stop in Wrangell, Alaska, a small fishing town on Wrangell Island located north of Ketchikan and south of Juneau. Unfortunately, this cruise line is the only one that stops here and they are discontinuing this port of call at the end of this season.

Wrangell has a population of 2000 residents and was once ruled by four nations: Tlingit, (a native nation) Russia, Britain and the United States. We were told that it rarely dips below 0C in the winter and the summer temperatures vary between the low and high teens to the mid 20s C. Salmon, halibut, shrimp, crab and herring are the main fish caught here and there is a cannery in town. Had we facilities to store it, there was plenty available for purchase at extraordinary prices at fish stands at the dock and the samples we tried were wonderful.

We walked around the town, speaking with some of the merchants and then headed back to the ship to enjoy the pool and the deck. At first, there seemed to be only a few other passengers taking advantage of the weather aboard but slowly the chairs filled in. The pools are salt water and kept at a temperature of around 80F and with the day we were having, the air on the sundeck was probably about the same. We set sail tonight at 6:00 PM and are at sea until we arrive in Vancouver at 6:00 AM on Sunday morning so it was a fabulous way to spend our second last day aboard at our last stop on this cruise.