Greetings from Dutch Harbor, Unalaska Island, Alaska! I had a long travel day yesterday but made it here last night in one piece, if short on luggage by one bag. Fortunately I was reunited with my bag, so carefully packed down to the last square centimeter of capacity, this afternoon. I was beginning to wonder if I'd have to do a last-minute shopping spree at Alaska Ship Supply, a store by the hotel with everything from flat screen TVs and lawn mowers to commercial fishing clothes and groceries. Anyway, I think I'm all set to board the Healy tomorrow afternoon and sail towards the Arctic Ocean the following day. The Healy is here, too, arriving earlier today. It was pretty thrilling to look at the big ship knowing it will be my home for the next 5 weeks!
Bill Schmoker in Dutch Harbor with the USCG Healy in the background.
A view we won't see once underway! The USCG Cutter Healy shortly after arriving at dock in Dutch Harbor.
Unalaska Island has lots of fascinating aspects including natural and human history aspects that could fill volumes. One thing I learned about today were some of the island's connections to World War Two, when up to 50,000 US servicemen were stationed here at naval and army bases. Dutch Harbor was bombed by Japanese aircraft that flew from two aircraft carriers on 3 & 4 June 1942, resulting in 78 deaths. The Battle of Midway began on 4 June 1942 and is considered to be a turning point in the war in the Pacific. The attack on Dutch Harbor was likely planned as a diversion to draw US forces away from Midway but US codebreakers had already determined that the main Japanese force would be in the southern Pacific. Today derelict buildings and concrete bunkers in strategic locations around Dutch Harbor serve as reminders of this past chapter of US military history.
Concrete WWII-era bunker overlooking Dutch Harbor.
Here's the view from inside of a massive WWII-era concrete bunker on top of a hill overlooking Dutch Harbor.
Climbing out of the bunker hatch atop the summit of a hill overlooking Dutch Harbor. Following the bombing of the US military base on 3-4 June 1942 defenses on the island were strengthened and up to 50,000 troops were stationed there to hedge against further attacks on this strategic link between the US mainland and the western Pacific.
I took advantage of the mostly free day to do some birding, and saw 5 lifers! (In birding parlance a lifer is a bird seen for the very first time.) My favorites were probably Horned Puffin (a northern Pacific relative of the more familiar Atlantic Puffin) and Rock Ptarmigan. I also enjoyed seeing the Aleutian Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch, which is a very bulky & hearty subspecies that stays in the islands year-round, as opposed to more southerly Gray-crowned Rosy-finch subspecies that migrate south in winter. I find it amusing that Bald Eagles are like pigeons in big cities- they seem to be on every other street lamp, roof top, or stack of crab traps. They nest on short clifftops around town and there are even warning signs below some of the nests so folks can keep their distance and avoid a trip to the emergency room for scalp woulds inflicted by parents defending their young from a percieved threat. Besides birds I saw Arctic Spotted Squirrels, which are a kind of ground squirrel that live in burrows seemingly everywhere on the tundra, and a couple of Sea Otters far out at the edge of kelp beds. While the island has some free-roaming horses, the largest non-human native land mammals here are foxes. Of course, on the sea mammal end of things there are some pretty big denizens!
Cliff-nesting Horned Puffins in Dutch Harbor, Alaska.
A cryptically-colored male Rock Ptarmigan peers out from the tundra above Dutch Harbor, Alaska.
Like pigeons in a big city, Bald Eagles are found about everywhere around Dutch Harbor.
Well, I'm pretty knackered and think I'll call it a night. I'll leave you with a shot taken on Summer's Bay Pass about 1000 feet up above Dutch Harbor. No trees anywhere on the island except for what folks have planted, starting with Russian settlers over 200 years ago. That's all for now! Best- Bill
Bill at Summer's Bay Pass, Unalaska Island.