Welcome aboard the Silver Sea Explorer.

A small-scale cruise ship touring America’s Pacific Northwest will stop in little old Eureka on Monday, where roughly 140 passengers will disembark and venture out into the greater Humboldt community.

The company, Silversea Cruises, describes the nine-day journey as an “enhanced whale watching voyage.”

“From the towering redwoods of Eureka and the fertile wooded hillsides of Astoria, to unforgettable encounters with incredible marine life, this American odyssey is a true west coast adventure,” the cruise company writes on its website.

The Silver Sea Explorer.

Alanna Powell of the Eureka Visitor Center tells the Outpost that the tourists can choose between one of six local excursions: the Arcata Marsh, the Sequoia Park Zoo, the Trees of Mystery, Trinidad Head, Avenue of the Giants or a historical walking tour of Old Town, Eureka.

“We’ve had several cruise ships dock here before, but this is the first in many years,” Powell said.

The Silver Explorer, one of several ships owned by the private international cruise line, will dock at Schneider Dock at 6 a.m., where passengers will be greeted by live music, the Madaket, a Humboldt Bay Fire boat spewing water from its cannons and booths of local vendors hawking their wares.

Last year, the cruise ship MS Europa was supposed to stop in Eureka, but the cruise line opted to give passengers another night in San Francisco instead. Unless there are some unforeseen changes, the Silver Explorer will arrive on Monday, as scheduled.

Powell says the Silver Explorer was wooed to Humboldt by a group of local agencies.

“Spearheaded by the Harbor District, we formed a partnership between the City of Eureka, the Visitor Center and Eureka Main Street, and devised plans how to recruit additional ships,” Powell said. “We’ve really modeled ourselves after what Astoria, Oregon, has accomplished. It’s been a tremendous boost for their economy and the city of Eureka has put a little more focus on it.”

In hopes of keeping the tourists happy and the cruise liners coming, Powell said that Eureka Main Street will be performing an “intensive cleanup” of the Old Town area in the coming days.

Eureka Police Department spokesperson Brittany Powell also told the Outpost that several officers will be assigned to the downtown area on Monday, just like any other day, and that there are no plans to shoo away the homeless folks wandering the streets of Old Town.

Eureka will be the cruise’s eleventh destination and seventh day at sea. The ship is scheduled to leave promptly the same day at 1 p.m.

Follow the ship’s journey to Eureka by tracking it on marinetraffic.com.