CALIFORNIA ALBUM : Will Eureka See Its Ship Come In? : Depressed coastal town hopes cruise vessel’s stop today will mark turnaround for its economy.

Fussing and preening like the shorebirds along nearby Humboldt Bay, residents of this northern coastal community have been sprucing up the town, washing shop windows and splattering paint on its famous but weathered Victorian facades.

Company is coming--and there hasn’t been a moment to spare.

Today, for the first time in 17 years, a cruise ship laden with travelers will call on Eureka, a once-bustling port city that has seen better days. About 700 passengers and crew members with nine hours on their hands and money in their pockets will step off the 563-foot M/V Sun Viking in a trial run that Eureka hopes will become a continuing engagement.

The ship boarded in Los Angeles on Sunday and has stops in San Francisco, Eureka, Seattle and Vancouver. It will pause in Eureka again in September, on its way back from Alaskan summer cruises.

The coming of the cruise liner could not be more welcome in this economically battered town of 28,000, located about 250 miles north of San Francisco.

Declines in timber and fishing revenue have cracked the backbone of this region, leaving tourism as a last hope for growth in the local economy. Eureka, the seat of Humboldt County, has one of the highest unemployment rates in the state and an average annual income of $12,500 per person.

But a partnership with the cruise line industry could mean dozens of stops each year. This could lead to a tourism explosion and bring jobs to this isolated region.

“It’s an exciting first,” said Mayor Nancy Flemming, “and it has the potential to help diversify our harbor.”

The upbeat atmosphere in town is, in part, about money. Studies show that each passenger may spend between $75 and $100 in Eureka. But Flemming insists that the boon for Eureka will be more than money in its coffers. She hopes that being part of a Royal Caribbean cruise will accomplish what “we could never afford to do”--bring a more hopeful outlook to the town and open up new avenues for its development.

So, with hopes high, the people of Eureka are out to make a good first impression.

“Eureka,” Flemming promises, “will be in bloom.”

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It was Flemming and other local leaders who lobbied Royal Caribbean managers, persuading them to schedule a trial Eureka stop. The idea was met with some skepticism at first.

“What the hell is this Eureka?” Rick Strunck, manager of vessel deployment for Royal Caribbean cruises, said his bosses asked him.

But offering Eureka as an “undiscovered location” had appeal, especially as the cruise line was shifting away from the European market.

“I know the passengers are going to have a great time,” Strunck said. “They’ll get the cosmopolitan flavor of the cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco and then they’ll see poor little Eureka. But it’s that down-home, small-town friendliness that’s going to make this thing.”

There were some hurdles in attracting and accommodating the ship, such as Eureka’s lack of public dock space. But a local timber company jumped in and agreed to provide its private dock.

There was not a quick fix for other longstanding problems along Eureka’s waterfront, however.

The first sight of Eureka for the passengers who will be stepping off the Sun Viking today will be the sprawling, decaying waterfront, with its rotting piers and shabby, deserted buildings.

Because larger ports have better rail and road access, the Humboldt Bay harbor has fallen into disrepair--underdeveloped and poorly utilized, according to various studies. Reduced timber harvests and federal regulations cut into the area’s only significant export, dropping by 30% the export of wood chips and other wood products, said Andy Westfall of the Eureka-based Westfall Stevedore Co.

Moreover, with a lack of boat repair and other fishing support services, much of the fishing fleet has fled to better ports in Ft. Bragg and Crescent City.

No one realizes the impact of dilapidated piers and abandoned buildings as well as Flemming, who lives on Gunther Island, nestled inside Humboldt Bay. From her kitchen window, she has a bird’s-eye view of Eureka’s eyesore.

Its renewal has been bogged down in lawsuits and planning disagreements with county officials, property owners and the harbor district. But recently the city of Eureka and the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District agreed to deepen harbor channels and replace a burned-out pier by 1996, a promising step.

“We can remove the blight,” Flemming said.

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In Old Town, it’s a different story.

Renovations in the historic heart of Eureka have brought accolades, including a recent state Main Street design award. Visitors will see well-preserved Victorian architecture along brick-lined streets with antique lighting fixtures.

“Hundreds of people wandering around this county is certainly going to be good for us,” painter John Norton said about a week ago, as he put the finishing touches on an 1880s saloon being reborn as a kitchenware store in Old Town.

An artifact junkie, Norton will join others in showing off the wonders of Humboldt County when the passengers alight today. His collection of old coins and bottles will be on display in “history tents,” along with fishing exhibits and logging demonstrations.

Serenaded by a local high school band and showered with flowers from the local bulb farm, the Royal Caribbean passengers will be deposited on vintage rail cars for a 10-mile trip around the bay, with an ornithologist on board to help spot the region’s hundreds of bird species. Then the visitors can tour the exhibits, ice cream parlor, art galleries and quaint shops in Old Town.

For the more rugged passengers, there will be tours to a lumber mill, a redwood forest, a re-created Indian village and the dairy town of Ferndale.

Not only does this visit mark a first for cooperation among Eureka area officials, it will present a sight unseen in Eureka. At seven stories, the Sun Viking will dwarf Eureka’s landscape.

“We don’t even have a building that tall in town,” said Deborah Musick, a coordinator for the local Main Street program. “It’s a big ship and a big day for us. It really is.”