Saturday – Dutch Harbor, Alaska

So we are docked in Dutch Harbor as I write this. Well, sort of. The harbor is Dutch Harbor but the city is Unalaska. To quote the link, “Seemingly in the middle of nowhere, Unalaska is affixed geographically on the Aleutian chain, and historically in the midst of 10,000-year-old Unangan culture, and in the eras of Russian fur traders, Captain Cook, World War II, and of a commercial fishing industry that ranks above all others in the United States.”

Unalaska, or more specifically Dutch Harbor, is home to the crab fishing fleet of Deadliest Catch on Discovery Channel. If you’ve never watched, watch an episode or two. The crab boats sail north out of Dutch Harbor getting very close to Russia. We will sail southwest towards Japan. The crab boats are often in very heavy seas. While we wouldn’t mind a bit more turbulence, we wouldn’t want the seas that those guys face.

Given all that, this isn’t the most exciting port to visit. The weather forecast wasn’t good. Much rain expected. But we didn’t get it. It was actually quite pleasant while we were docked. You saw sunset pictures from the past two nights. Here are two sunrise pictures taken this morning from the Explorer’s Lounge. (It doesn’t get light here until almost 9 am. – sunrise was at 8:52.)

After breakfast we got off the ship and took a van shuttle to the Museum of the Aleutians. Even though we were the only cruise ship in port, it seems everyone from the ship descended on this small venue at once. It was packed. We braved the crowds a bit and then decided to move on. Remember the interesting visor from a previous museum? Here’s another example, one of which shows how it would look in use. There’s a good mural depicting the transfer of Alaska from Russia to the USA. And the museum showcases the fact that Unalaska is the busiest US fishing port as well as paying homage to the crab, the crustacean that makes that fact be true.

There’s not a lot of scenery to photograph where we are.

Next we moved on to the Aleutian World War II National Historic Area & Visitor Center. Long name. They have lots of free brochures about WWII in Alaska. I took a bunch and will be reading up. There was also a movie that Elaine watched.

We were back to the ship in time for lunch in the World Cafe. Elaine loved her veal dish. And I had very good roast rack of pork after a cup of good bouillabaisse. Then it was naps and reading.

Cocktails at the Living Room bar, with our favorite bartenders before dinner back again in the World Cafe.

Nightcaps per usual in Explorer’s Lounge.

And finally a stop in Torshavn, the ship’s nightclub that’s open from 9 pm to 3 am. We were gone by 10 pm. One of the Living Room bartenders had transferred to Torshavn by this time.

We sailed at 5 pm and will next hit land on September 30th in Sapporo, Japan. (We will not have a September 23rd as we will cross the international dateline and lose that day – we’ll get it back on the way home from Japan to Hawaii.) Most postings until then will be short. Maybe more ship pictures. I’m not sure how good the wi-fi will be, so if there is no posting, it’s because it isn’t good.