POULSBO — Last week, the 125-foot Island Spirit made waves in town when it dropped anchor at the Poulsbo Marina for the day.

This week was no different.

After making his maiden voyage to Little Norway Aug. 6, Captain Jeff Behrens decided to swing by and visit once again Aug. 11. Behrens is hoping to add Poulsbo to his ports of call next summer but said he couldn’t resist the chance to swing by once again.

“I decided to come back to Poulsbo because I like your city,” Behrens told Port of Poulsbo Commissioner Glenn Gilbert, who was on the dock to meet the vessel Monday afternoon. “I like your port. You’re very accommodating, unlike some ports we’ve been to.”

Port Manager Ed Erhardt is away on a personal vacation.

While his 25 Minnesota natives shopped downtown Poulsbo, Behrens did business. He showed Gilbert and others his ship and talked to them about his operation. He even walked around town and met people at the Sons of Norway and Chamber of Commerce and introduced himself to HDPA President John Kuntz.

Behrens said not only is he trying to promote himself for business he hopes to do next summer but also for a special Poulsbo trip he is planning for late September. He said with tourism suffering in the last few years, he’s been trying to reposition his tours to cater to Northwest natives. Behrens said he felt scheduling a special cruise to leave from the Poulsbo waterfront would introduce more locals to the ship they’d be seeing from time to time next summer.

“I would suspect there would be a lot of people who would be interested just because it’s convenient,” Behrens commented.

The proposed September cruise would leave Poulsbo for five days and travel to locales like Friday Harbor, Roche Harbor, Coupeville and Sidney and Victoria, British Columbia.

Behrens said not only does he want to promote his tours to Poulsbo locals but also to let them know that he wants to be a good neighbor. He pointed to the 5,000 pounds of batteries he carries on board that power much of the vessel. He said he would hope that anyone with a concern about his operation visiting Little Norway on a regular basis next year would ask for a tour before making a judgement.

“People look at is and think, ‘Oh, it’s just a big cruise ship.’ But we can be the quietest one here,” he commented.