Beating to the pulse of cruise ships

In recent years, Ketchikan has been shifting much of its economy from extractive industries such as logging to tourism. For 2010, they are forecasting 429 stops by cruise ships with an estimated 771,000 passengers aboard. As you can see from the table to the right, though, that is down nearly 20% from recent years.

Where we are moored at the city floats, we can watch ships come and go from two of the four cruise ship berths. The typical pattern is a 7 AM arrival, passenger disembarkation at about 8 AM, and a departure between 3 PM and 5 PM.  Last Friday, we saw five cruise ships pass through town. The next day, only one.

Activity in downtown moves with the pace of the cruise ships. It awakens with the first passengers and falls back to sleep as the cruise ships depart.

At the docks, tour boats and fishing guides race in to pick up clients and then return them 3 or 4 hours later.