September 26 – Dutch Harbor, Alaska

good morning Dutch Harbor

Weather

refrigerated containers EVERYWHERE

– 10º, warm when out of the
wind and the clouds disappeared

Steps – 12,644

11 hours 47 min of daylight

Latitude – Calgary 51º, Dutch Harbor 54º

Norwegian Rat Saloon

Dutch Harbor (and the city Unalaska - pop 4,254) is one of the few ports where there are no organized excursions. We stopped here to fuel up before setting off for 5 says at sea until we get to Japan. We are in the Aleutian chain of islands and are actually further west right now than Hawaii! Unalaska is the main population centre for the Aleutians.

We have moved so far west and haven’t yet set our clocks back that sunrise wasn’t until about 9:00. This meant that we were able to catch the sunrise.

more containers

Dutch Harbor is the main port for the Bering Sea king crab fishery and is where the Deadliest Catch TV show is based. I think I’ve seen bits and pieces of a few episodes, but no real details about the show. Apparently, the pub “The Norwegian Rat Saloon” where we had a local pint (of course) is in a few episodes when the captains come together. We chatted with a couple who watch the show and had a taxi take them to check out the boats.

Dutch Harbor has been the largest fisheries port in the US, in terms of volume c

would put a person off drinking pop!

aught, for nearly every year since 1981. There were refrigerated containers

EVERYWHERE!!

A visit to the “Norwegian Rat Saloon” was the extent of our excursion today. From the ship it was about a 30 min walk. This place was basic, but typical. I had hopped for some local fish, but they were out of halibut, but we had shrimp…not sure if it was local – no crab. We took a long way back for about an hour walk.

We topped off today’s excitement with a trip to the local Safeway. Safeways

lots of boats

seem to be the main grocery in Alaska.

Russian Orthodox Church

We saw 12 packs of coke for 15.50USD and rotisserie chickens for 19USD! Milk, eggs, and produce were about the same, but in USD. On the menu at the Norwegian Rat Saloon, they had halibut strips and chicken strips…they were the same price…not sure what it is about chicken and coke up here?!?

some old brick building

At this point we thought the day’s excitement was behind us…nope…finally some…WHALES!!!!!!! We had seen a bit of whale ‘activity’ on our walk today. The road we walked on was right along the bay, so we had a good view if anything was going on. I say ‘activity’ and not actual whales at this point, because all we can see is their spouting – this along is pretty cool!

About half an hour after we set sail, we got a ‘bing-bang-bong’ this signals that someone from the ship is about to make an announcement. There are minimal announcements made, so when we hear

cool water shot

the ‘bing-bang-bong’, it’s important. This was the most important announcement of

a 2-er is luck I know

all…WHALES are around. They sure were!! We were napping, so we quickly got dressed and were about to head to the top desks, when we realized that they were right outside out balcony. We stood there mesmerized for about half an hour watching spouts, a few flukes and one whale that was super close. This made my cruise!!!

Although we're still in the US, we had absolutely no cell today - interesting.