Homer Spit to Veldovia

We boarded the Rainbow Connection at the Homer Spit boatyard, a short walk from our campground. Luckily, there were two, openings when we make this last minute booking this morning

The sailing to Seldovia took 2.5 hours and scenery along the way was gorgeous.

We saw puffins, humpback whales, ostereagles, bald eagles, rafts of sea otters and several bird rookeries.

Puffin 

American Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

Humpback Whale

Black Osytereaters

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THE ORIGINAL SETTLEMENT IN SELDOVIA was built along the waterfront. Access to homes and businesses was by way of the beach but only at low tide. In the late 1920s and early '30s a community effort was organized to build a wooden boardwalk, which made it possible to walk from one end of town to the other no matter what the stage of the tide.Seldovia came to be known as a "Boardwalk Town."

FRIDAY, MARCH 27, 1964, 5:36 PM, the Good Friday Earthquake exploded with titanic force. This massive earthquake, the strongest ever recorded in North America. changed the destiny of Seldovia forever.

It was not long before people realized there was a serious problem .. the land had dropped 4 feet. At high tides. seawater flooded over the boardwalk and poured into buildings along the waterfront. In the autumn of 1964, Severe storms and the highest seasonal tides pounded the boardwalk. The watefront was doomed and the town had to be rebuilt.

Waterfront buildings were demolished, seawalls were constructed and Caps Hill in the middle of town was leveled. It took two years before the town got on its feet again.  However, the town would never again be the center of commercial fishing in Kachemak Bay.  With the exception of the Wakefield Cannery, other canneries never rebuilt in Seldovia and a new road connecting Homer to Anchorage made Homer the new hub of the Kachemak Bay’s fishing fleet

St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church

Saint Nicholas is known to keep close watch on Seldovia’s fishermen and sea farers—bringing them prosperity, peace, and safety.  The church is one of the first things the fishermen see as they return home, and one of the last landmarks to fade from sight as they head out to sea.

The church was built in 1891 under the leadership of traveling Orthodox Priests who paddled kayaks from as far away as the Aleutian Islands and Kodiak.  They traveled from village to village doing their best to make disciples of the indigenous poeple in Cook Inlet.

The chapel is still in use today whenever a Priest or Bishop is requested to visit, usually on Russian Orthodox holidays, weddings or funerals.

Back on the Homer Spit

Someone’s partial catch of the day!

Locked out!

We walked out of the camper at 11:00 to stand on the beach and the door locked on us.  So there we were outside of the camper with no way of getting back in.  We finally found a locksmith who arrived around midnight to open the door for us.

We stayed at the Homer Spit Campground for $64.71. It is located right on the water and afforded some pretty views.