20240921 Saturday, September 21, 2024- Dutch Harbor, Alaska

20240921 Saturday, September 21, 2024- Dutch Harbor, Alaska

Our last US port of call arrived today in the form of Dutch Harbor.  We were surprised at how dark it was outside at 8am.  When we first pulled back our curtain, it was pitch dark outside, but we could hear the grunting and barking of sea lions in the dark.  As dawn arrived, we began to see two harbor floats across the bay from our pier that had sea lions hanging around on them. 

Dawn ignites over Dutch Harbor

We have been traveling westward without a time zone change so that makes some sense.  The sun didn’t really rise until nearly 9am as we finished breakfast and headed out for our excursion.  We did see something at breakfast that was a bit of a shock.  We saw someone with a gun.  

Apparently a US Customs and Border Patrol Agent came aboard when we tied up.  He took the liberty of casually making his way through the breakfast buffet with what looked like a girlfriend, and sat down to have a very pleasant breakfast.  That must be a side perk of pulling cruise ship document checking duty.   

Dutch Harbor’s included excursion was basically Dutch Harbor on your own with tickets to the Museum of the Aleutians, and a van shuttle from the ship to this museum, the Dutch Harbor WWII Museum, and the Russian Orthodox Church in the city of Unalaska.  

Dutch Harbor is on Unalaska Island, which is one of the larger eastern islands of the Aleutian archipelago.  As such, it had an outsized importance during WWII when the Japanese invaded and actually occupied two islands in the Aleutian archipelago for a year.  Aircraft based at Dutch Harbor were instrumental in driving the Japanese off the Aleutians, and taking the war back to the Japanese in the Kuril Islands.  

One of the important planes based at Dutch Harbor was the PBY-5A Catalina flying boat.  This was used for long range patrols, search and rescue, and bombing.  We feel a common bond with Dutch Harbor because Oak Harbor also was a primary base for Catalinas as well.  The boat launches in our marina are terrible for launching boats because they were designed for taxing PBY’s in and out of the harbor.  

We were very fortunate in that the weather started out remarkably pleasant with little wind, blue skies and sunshine and a temperature in the low 50’s.  This made for very comfortable walking around.  

Transportation in Dutch Harbor was even more constrained than in Kodiak.  The population of Dutch Harbor is only 4200.  With the Viking Orion and Silversea Silver Nova in town, that population grew by nearly 50%.  They could only manage a handful of 14 passenger shuttle vans to transport cruise ship passengers, so they had a strict loading schedule.  There seemed to be some sort of crazy shuttle schedule with vans only going back and forth between ships and certain points instead of running a continuous loop, so it was hard to figure out how to get from one place to another.  

King crab pots, as seen on The Most Dangerous Catch

We started by getting dropped off from our ship to the Safeway in town, which was within walking distance of the Museum of the Aleutians.  Admission was included with our tour.  This was an interesting but crowded museum of the natural and anthropological history of the Aleutians.  It was interesting that in this museum, the history of Russian occupation was further whitewashed to say the Russians provided education and religious enlightenment by taking young men from the Aleutian villages to Russia.  They then returned to hunt for otter and other sea mammal furs.  There was no mention that not only were the young men kidnapped, but their women and younger children and elders were held hostage in exchange for making fur tribute payments to their captors.  Over 75% of the Aleutian population was wiped out by starvation, disease and abuse.  The young men were also forced to fight their Coastal indigenous tribal neighbors, towing Russian Naval ships behind their canoes.  This museum seemed to emphasize how accepting the Aleuts were of the Russian Orthodox religion and their gratefulness for salvation of their souls.  There is still a lot of Russian Orthodox religious iconography in the area.  Every city has their own blue onion domed Russian Orthodox churches.  

The tragedy of the Aleutian indigenous tribes was deepened by WWII.  Tribes were “Evacuated” from their villages with little advance notice.  Villagers were swept out of their villages with just the clothes on their backs and they were taken in a military transport ship to SE Alaska where they were dumped into abandoned mining camps or canneries with no food, clean water, health care, or access to natural resources for hunting or fishing.  Some Aleutian natives were captured by the Japanese and taken to Japanese prisoner of war camps.  The survival rates for the prisoners of war was probably significantly higher than that for those evacuated for their own safety.  After the war, the government refused to return them to their villages.  Of course, those villages had been burnt to the ground after they were evacuated so the Japanese couldn’t use them.  Those who had any Japanese ancestry were placed in internment camps, and fared about the same, which is not good.  It is heartbreaking to learn of how poorly people treat others when we lose sight of us all being part of the same human race.

The museum had lots of interesting artifacts of the Aleutian culture, in addition to those representing the war effort and subsequent development of the commercial fisheries industry, which is still the beating heart of the local economy.  Anyone who has watch “The Most Dangerous Catch” on Discovery, has seen how people in Dutch Harbor make a living.  Those not on the boats work to service and maintain them and in processing plants ashore.  That “Alaska Pollack” that is in most fast food restaurant fish fillet sandwiches is processed and packed in Dutch Harbor.  

Waterproof and breathable rain gear made from 

bear or walrus gut- organic Gortex forerunner

We were able to watch some otters in the wild in the bays around the Museum of the Aleutians, as well as see lots of bald eagles perched on rooftops and dumpsters.  Interestingly, our van driver warned us that while there are no bears to worry about, the bald eagles will attack during nesting season, and there are signs warning of eagle attacks in many places.  

The WWII museum was smaller, but housed interesting exhibits regarding the history of the Japanese attack, occupation and eventual expulsion from the Aleutians.  It also provided a glimpse into the lives of those who served in this extremely harsh and unforgiving environment to protect our country.  This museum is run by the National Park Service, and they had a lot of great books about the military’s role in the Aleutians for free.  We hope they’ll slip in under our return baggage allowance as souvenirs.  

We returned to the ship for lunch.  Janet discovered they had a Rocky Road brownie ala mode, which was every bit as good as it sounds.  We then headed back out to see the Russian Orthodox Church in downtown Unalaska.  This shuttle took us past the post office, Aquatic center, high school and city hall, all of which were packaged on a narrow strip of land between the harbor and a salmon filled stream along with the church.  We also drove past a LFS (Lummi Fisheries Supply) store.  They started in Bellingham and are one of Ben’s favorite places for fishing tackle.  They have since expanded into a national chain.  We had gotten to the church just in time to walk around, take pictures and then catch the next shuttle back to the ship as it started to rain.  

Bird rocks in Dutch Harbor

We relaxed before dinner.  Ben got in another fitness center and thermal spa session and as the ship sailed out of Dutch Harbor, an announcement was made over the intercom to look out for whales.  Sure enough, there were over a dozen whales swimming around us as the ship slowed.  Some were in pods of 4 or 5 animals, while others were solitary.  In the far distance, we could see one do a few tail slaps and maybe a partial breach (big splash, but at too far a distance to be sure).  The whales closer to the ship were mostly just traveling in the direction of the one that was doing all the big splashes and tail slaps.  So today turned out to be a big wildlife spotting day.  Otters- check.  Eagles- check.  Whales- check.  Just no bears today.

Dinner was in the regular restaurant tonight.  Janet went for a vegan lasagna which was surprisingly hearty, and Ben had roasted salmon topped with salmon roe.  Desserts were a chocolate mousse and berry parfait creations.  

The theatre featured a solo performance of pop music arrangements by one of the pianists who is usually playing in the atrium, Yana Zigadlo.  Neither of us were wowed by her technical prowess, musicality or arrangements, so we’ll be able to miss any future performances without having any heartburn.  She’s probably perfectly positioned to be playing live ambient music in the atrium.  

We got a call from guest services to ask if we would mind being temporarily displaced from our stateroom so the engineers can repair a cracked tile on the bathroom floor.  At first we said why should be be inconvenienced for the 2-3 days that it would take to do the repair and have to move staterooms twice.  After we said they should do the repair after Tokyo when we get off the ship, they counteroffered as said we could stay in a Penthouse suite while they did the repairs.  I guess we’ll be seeing how the other half lives, at least for a night or two.  They say we can still access our room while they work in the bathroom so we only have to move what is essential.  They’ll give us the keys to the Penthouse suite tomorrow.

Our clocks go back an hour tonight and we start a long run of sea days as we cross the North Pacific from the Aleutians of the USA to the Kuril Island of Russia and Japan.  We start a progressive trivia tomorrow so we should get a good night’s rest.