Further on into the Gulf of Alaska, we came across the ruined village of Unga. A ghost town on the Aleutian Island also called Unga. This place was abandoned in the 60s but used to support a population of a hundred or so since the late 19th century. Fishing and a small mine were the primary sources of income. The weather was awful. Overcast, windy and raining in squally bursts. Diane was not in the slightest bit interested in getting wet, so I went ashore on my own. A few battered buildings are all that remain. Not the most exciting island I have ever landed on but, even so, it was a small, interesting island in a very remote place. I really liked that. Coming back on the RHIB we had to push into the wind and the waves. It was quite exciting but I got completely soaked and Diane was not impressed when I left wet patches on the cabin floor.
Heading even further west, out into the Bering Sea, we cleared the Aleutian Islands and reached the Unalaska Islands. The wind had become fierce and the ship was moving a lot. The Amundsen has a very sea-worthy hull. I like the way it moves. A steady and predictable rolling. Many of the ships I have sailed on crashed around in ways that inevitably surprised you and could easily catch you off balance. A considerable proportion of the passengers were far less enthusiastic about the how the ship rolled and had retreated to their cabins. Diane was starting to look a little green around the gills when we steamed into the calm waters of Dutch Harbour. Fortunately, motion sickness disappears very quickly once the movement disappears.
Dutch Harbor has been a busy centre of commerce for many years. As well as serving several major shipping routes, it also supports a sizeable fishing fleet. This is one of the richest fishing areas in the world. During WW2 the Japanese bombed the harbour. Along with Pearl Harbour it was one of the few places in the United States to be bombed by the Japanese. There is little war museum. When we arrived, it was packed with people from another cruise ship. When I say packed, what I mean is that the museum had reached its fifty-person capacity. We are not really museum people, so we moved on, bought some crisps in the supermarket and ended up in a bar. This was the magnificently named “Norwegian Rat Saloon”. Apparently named after rodents that first arrived in the town from a Norwegian trawler. Our new friends from the ship were here. Hello Francis and Clint. So, we settled down for a few beers and some chat with the locals. One oddity about Dutch Harbor is that although the area is famous for Red King Crab, it is rarely sold locally. They are only allowed to sell the crab once it has been sent off for cleaning and sanitising and packaging and taxing. It can then be shipped back to the island in impressive, shrink wrap packaging, but it is very expensive. However, if you did want to find locally caught crab that had maybe been removed from the system (not that I am suggesting there is a black market, but just in case) you might want to start at the Norwegian Rat Saloon.
Pushing north-by-north-west way out into the Bering Sea we passed by St Paul Island. The weather was too bad for a landing. The ship was rolling again. There were not so many people in the bar in the evening. Fortunately, next day, the wind eased. We reached St. Matthew Island, the furthest point from human settlement in Alaska. This is a very rarely visited island. We felt quite privileged to be able to go ashore. Diane was not impressed by the rain and the sea state. The fog did not help. By the time we reached the shore, the Amundsen could no longer be seen. We pottered around on the beach for a while. I completely missed the opportunity to photograph the very rare McKay’s bunting. I saw a group of much better informed “bird nerds” gathered round a very boring looking white bird. I thought nothing much of it and plodded on in search of something more interesting. On the way back to ship we took a detour round a tall, bird covered rock. Here I took photographs of several types of bird new to me. Including Tufted Puffins which, like all puffins, are ridiculously cute.
Next morning we arrived in Nome. We are doing a long trip on the Amundsen. This is made up of a number of shorter trips that have been stitched together. We had just completed the first of these, Vancouver to Nome. This meant many people leaving the ship to go home. Then, later in the day, many more people arriving for the next leg, Nome to Halifax via the north-west passage. We stayed in our cabin while the chaos of disembarkation settled. Then we wandered into town. This is another of those wild west towns. Not very pretty but interesting. Nome is a gold town. There is still gold to be found. All the easily accessible gold is gone but there is still plenty in the gravel just offshore. People build their own boats with suction tubes and panning equipment. When the weather is good, they take these just a short way offshore. A diver handles the suction tube underwater while the gravel gets sifted and panned on the boat. I have no idea if there is still a good living to be made like this but there are certainly a lot of people giving it a go.
We got back to the ship early. The wind was picking up again and squalls of rain were making it unpleasant to be outside. The Amundsen was having problems staying moored. We watched from our little balcony as several mooring lines snapped. Down on the pier a group of workers were struggling to attach new ropes. The ship started up its main engines and then used these to push the vessel again the dock wall to hold it in place. We found out later that five of these massive, thick mooring lines got broken. I noticed an interesting safety feature. Each thick rope has a small central core that does not break. I guess that this is more elastic than the main rope. Possibly it is longer and coiled inside the central core. Whatever, because it does not break, it helps prevent the broken rope ends flying off dangerously. There is an awful lot of energy in the rope when it breaks. If it hits something, or someone, it can cause a lot of damage. This is one way to help mitigate the risk.
In the evening, the wind dropped, and we managed to get the rest of the passengers onboard. Next morning we had set a course westward. Deeper into the Bering Sea. Later we would turn north and navigate the Bering Straights between Russia and the United States. In the meantime there were whales. A lot of whales. I spent a very happy couple of hours on deck trying to photograph them.
