Gorgeous Summer Day

I got off work a bit early today (and went in a bit late, but that's a different story) so I tried to make it to the Museum of the Aleutians before it closed with no luck. It was too nice to just go home so I drove out to the spit and watched the boats and enjoyed the sunshine. There are hundreds and hundreds of crab pots stored on the spit awaiting the arrival of the crab fleet and apparently this eagle found just the right one to perch and keep an eye on things. As I'm typing this I'm watching the fog steal into Dutch Harbor from the south, the frosting on a perfect day . . .

Season Over 25% Done

The current pollock season is known as the "B" season, and I was warned it was long and dragged on forever. When it started, four months of more or less continuous work did seem a bit intimidating, but now that over a month has passed I've seen there is an ebb and flow to the work that makes it fine. I still have had only one day off since I got here six weeks ago but the work changes from the plant to refrigeration, and there are changes in the target species as well - starting September 1 there will be cod deliveries in addition to pollock, and not long after that some crab as well.

This is a picture of one of our boats, the Sea Wolf taken from Strawberry Hill. We had company for supper tonight and it was fun although a bit subdued. Chico had someone to romp with in the living room while we ate, and Goldfish's pot roast turned out great!

So Much Sleep

I only worked 9 hours today instead of the usual twelve and a half and the extra sleep was amazing! I was almost giddy with energy and I could feel my body recovering and I'm ready to be back into the heat of things tommorow. The coolest thing I saw today was a heavily loaded tandem ocean kayak arriving in Dutch Harbor this evening - it looked like they were heading to the small boat harbor. I almost jumped in the truck and headed down there to ask them for their story as it looked like they had been on the water for awhile - did they circumnavigate the island? Or just go camping for a week or two? I knew the harbor was perfectly safe for a kayak and want to get one someday but this was the first one I have seen arriving from the open ocean. It was especially interesting because I had just finished Birth Place Of The Winds about 4 guys that explored some of the Aleutian Islands by kayaks.

The top picture is of a huge yacht that stayed in the harbor for a few days a couple weeks ago. The picture doesn't really show how impressive this vessel was - and the rumor was it was a charter boat that rents for a cool $110,000 a week. Somebody must have really wanted to visit Dutch Harbor! The bottom picture is important for two reasons - first, it is the only picture on this blog so far that I did not personally take since I arrived on the island, and secondly, this is my grand daughter Aubrey who turns one year old tommorow! Happy birthday sweetie, I love you!

No Fish Tommorow

We went out to 3 Amigos tonight for supper after strolling to the library. As a bonus Goldfish and I fixed their electronic cash register while we were there so the owner comped our dessert, a nice touch. The river is just teeming with pink salmon right now and I think I'm going to have to break down a catch a few for the freezer - I was going to wait for silvers but I think I've waited long enough. On Tuesday night we're having our first company over for supper, that will be fun. As I've been typing this I watched the Alaska Rose pull away from the dock and head out to sea so the night shift must have finished unloading her. With no ship due until tommorow night I'll be working tommorow with the refrigeration guy, probably insulating pipe. Most of the day today was gorgeous and sunny and I think we might have hit 60 degrees for a bit there!

The picture is taken at the entrance to the Russian Orthodox Church graveyard. I couldn't quite get the freighter framed like I wanted but I still like the effect.

Venturi Effect

Yesterday at work we had finished unloading the Progress and I was watching with interest the Great Pacific move into place along the dock using their deck crane since they were working on their main engine and didn't want to start it yet. The wind was blowing out of the southeast and I saw the coolest sight as the clouds were blown across the top 500 feet of the nearby mountains - it looked just like the smoke in the wind tunnel you see in car commercials all the time as the clouds speed up in the area around and alongside the peaks, a perfect demonstration of the venturi effect.

These photos have nothing to do with that but you can see there are no more boxes to unpack, that the place is pretty squared away and comfortable. In the middle picture you can see the computer desk where I sit and blog and look out the window. Life is good, and the company furniture is actually pretty good stuff. Cheers everyone, and good night!

Friday Already

When you work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week for over 6 weeks now (I did have one day off in there somewhere where I climbed Bunker Hill but I'd have to check my journal to see exactly when that was) you can lose track of what day it is, and certainly what the date is, except for one clue - the galley menu. Thank goodness things stay on a schedule there if fo no other reason than to mark the passage of time! I have three favorite meals - seafood night on Fridays, steak night on Saturdays, and then Mexican night is good as well. Not only do I look forward to these meals more than the others, it helps me keep track of the day of the week.

These two pictures were both taken on Ballyhoo with the bottom picture showing the webcams that take the pictures on the FAA website I linked to yesterday. I had a nice evening today talking to a son in North Dakota and a sister in Idaho and taking care of some stuff around the house. Hope everyone is doing well and thanks for all your comments - nite!

Dutch Harbor Webcams!

You can see I added a link under my Favorite Links sections called Dutch Harbor Webcams. This will bring you to a site run by the FAA with webcams all over Alaska. Go down to the one called Dutch Haystack and you will be basically looking out my living room window, real time, from a slightly higher elevation perspective! Very cool! I just checked it and sure enough, I looked at the image, looked out the window, a perfect match except the webcam image looks darker than the real thing. You need to be looking at the NorthEast cam to get the view out my window but check out the other two Haystack cams as well - just scroll your mouse over the thumbnail of the image to change cameras.

Anyways, thought I would share. The Dutch Ballyhoo one is neat as well and I have hiked up where that webcam is and taken pictures. The SouthWest cam on Ballyhoo shows the view looking back towards my place, the plant, and Haystack, very similar to the panoramic view on the top of my blog.

The picture above is of Little Priest Rock taken on the way back from Summers bay last night. Cheers everyone!

The Pass Is Open

We tried the road through the pass tonight and it was open! You might remember a couple weeks ago we tried and there was still too much snow. The top picture shows the view of Summers Bay after cresting the pass and heading down the other side. You can see a narrow strip of land seperates Summers Lake in the foreground from Summers Bay - in between there is a small stream where salmon move to the lake. When we arrived at Summers Bay there was an eagle sitting on the bridge watching the stream for salmon but he left before I could get a picture - I did however get some nice pictures of the eagle in the center picture that was sitting next to the road on the way down from the pass.

The bottom picture shows a few folks fishing for salmon in Summers Bay tonight - they were all from Alyeska Seafoods as there is a regular bunch that goes out there fishing every night after work. As you can see there is not a combat fishing problem out here in Unalaska - even though most people didn't work today due to no fish it wasn't crowded out there at all.

I'm heading to bed to read - I have an overdue library book I need to finish and Goldfish is reading the new Harry Potter book. Cheers everyone . . . .

Cooking Night

My night to cook was fun and we'll have leftovers for a few days if we want to skip the galley some more. Honestly, I love the galley food, love having no groceries to buy, love not doing dishes. I love seafood night, steak night, BBQ rib night, Mexican lunches, the way Henry cooks my eggs over easy just the way I like them . . . . but I have to say it was still fun to cook in my own kitchen and try a couple new recipies.

The photo above I took a couple weeks ago when the lupine was just starting to come out. It is taken from the top of Haystack and shows Captain's Bay. The land mass in the center of the picture is called Little South America because of it's shape - it is a good place to see sea lions. The boats are mostly big freighters hanging out waiting to load with product for Japan - it is hard to see from the picture but they are quite large.

Bering Rose

I saw the most amazing sight at work today and of course didn't have a camera with me so I'll have to just post pictures of the Bering Rose being off-loaded - it should be about done by now and the night crew should be moving on to the Great Pacific. Anyways, it was about 6:45 maybe, a good hour into my shift, and there was a problem with a pump that shut the whole plant down. I got my area squared away and wandered over and looked over the railing at the two guys frantically working on the pump, two levels below me, kneeling in fish guts in their raingear and ever mindful that 200 people on overtime could not work until they got the pump back on line. I grinned to myself because there have been times in my work career when I have been that guy - the guy that has to make it happen NOW while people watched and waited. I grinned because I may be that guy again someday but today?? Today I drifted over to the open window and watched the sunrise on a flat calm Dutch Harbor, the sky ablaze and the Bering Sea a shimmering molten cauldron. I was stunned by how beautiful it was and called a couple of my crew over to watch as well. I kept expecting the colors to have peaked but they got more rich, more vibrant, and when things could not possibly get any better my favorite boat in the harbor, the tugboat James Dunlap, made the turn from the outgoing channel and idled across the scene, pushing the molten water in front of it. I'm a tough guy, and not many things move me to tears - my son making an especially good bone crunching tackle on the opposing team being a rare exception - but this morning I may have had to turn away from my coworkers for a moment - the scene was too beautiful, it hurt my eyes. I'm looking at roughly the same area of the harbor as I sit at my computer desk typing this and I'm remembering how it looked and wondering if I will ever see it that perfect again . . . . .

Touring the Northern Glacier

A couple days ago after work Goldfish and I met her friend Tammy and she gave us a tour of the catcher/processor boat she works on, the Northern Glacier. The tour was awesome! She gave us a very thorough tour, from bow to stern, top to bottom - I even got to see the engine room where I salivated over the 3000 horsepower diesel and the wheelhouse where the captain showed us around. The wheelhouse was like something off Star Trek, right down to the captain's chair. I was amazed they could catch, weigh, sort, then either filet or process into surimi, all within just 201 feet. They pack 670 tons of boxed and frozen product and come in to port every 10 to 12 days to offload and head back out to sea. The picture I took from shore after the tour didn't come out great but there are much better pictures here on the company's website. I believe the Northern Glacier was one of the first at sea processors to fish the Bering Sea. Even though it was built in 1983, the equipment has been updated regularly and still appears to be pretty state-of-the art.

Thanks for the tour Tammy, I've always wanted to see how it was done on one of those vessels!

Wow!

It was an absolutely gorgeous day here today after all the fog burned off around noon. I spent some time at the supermarket picking up some things so I can cook supper in the next few days per my agreement with Goldfish - once a month we'll skip the galley in the evening and I'll cook.

This picture has absolutely nothing to do with any of that - this is the library across the creek. They have a fantastic Alaska collection and is just a quick walk away. I'm posting this instead of the promised report on the boat tour so I can get to bed a little earlier tonight - cheers everyone!

Hello Greenpeace

I looked out the living room window this morning and the Greenpeace vessel Esperanza was parked in my "front yard", and sure enough, I watched Zodiacs full of staff buzzing by my "office window" all afternoon. The top picture is one I took of the Esperanza at lunchtime. At first I thought they were here to protest the controversial deployment of the exploratory oil drilling rig parked in Margaret Bay, in front of our grocery store, to the Beaufort Sea. The oil rig is parked here because a native corporation has been granted a 30 day injunction against the rig proceeding any further north. I took a couple pictures of the oil rig tonight after work. You can see Mount Ballyhoo - at least the part not hidden by fog - in the background.

A little web research revealed Greenpeace is up here for a two month mission in the Bering Sea. You can read about their mission, called Bering Witness, here. It's pretty cool because there is a webcam updated every 30 seconds looking off the ship's bow. As the boat swings on it's anchor with the tides, there is a different view of my neighborhood. Right now there is a flood tide and a nice view of the landfill facility! I think there may be a time during an ebb tide when it would show my place but I'm not positive.

Anyways, a fun day today. I worked refrigeration this morning until fish showed up, then worked hard. After work Goldfish's friend Tammy gave us a tour of the trawler/processor she works on as a Quality Control technician - amazing! How they fit all that in just 206 feet blew my mind. I'll blog more on that tommorow . . . . night folks!

Skyscraper Living

I thought this was pretty cool - a pair of bald eagles has set up housekeeping in a crane and appears to be settled in for good or until the crane needs to be used, whichever comes first. In the background is Mount Ballyhoo.

Before the season started and I was outside doing pipe insulation, I watched a mated pair of eagles build a nest in the crow's nest of one of our boats that was sitting idle. The male patiently brought stick after stick and the female worked them into a nest - it was fascinating to watch but sad because I knew it had to be torn down in a week. I don't envy the poor fellow that was given that assignment!

Today at work I was watching sea lions feeding on salmon by the dock - at least that's what I assume they were doing as they appeared to be enjoying themselves and the salmon were terrified and jumping for their lives.

The Salmon Are Here

We were walking home from the restaurant last night and I noticed fish jumping in the creek! On closer inspection I saw decent sized schools of pink salmon moving up the creek with the flood tide . . . . I'm "tickled pink" that 40 feet from my head where I sleep at night salmon are swimming by on their way to the lake. I was thinking today that Unlaska combines all the good things about Alaska all in one place - the mountains, the fishing, the ocean, the hiking, and great people all in one place.

These pictures are from a hike to Ugadaga Bay last week. The trail is an ancient portage route used since ancient times and although rated moderate to difficult, it was a nice walk except for a couple places where the trail is very narrow adjacent a ravine. The top picture is of Chico when we arrived at the bay, the second is of the approach to the bay, the third is maybe midway and the last picture is of the sign at the trailhead.

I'll see about getting some pictures of those pink salmon to post soon. The silvers will be running in the creek in August, that will be fun. Cheers!

Wildflowers Are Out

We're running into more and more wildflowers when we're hiking - the top picture is alongside the road on the way to the landfill, just past Memorial Park; the middle picture is taken from Strawberry Hill (a favorite walk because Chico can be off the leash and chase ground squirrels to his heart's content); and the bottom picture was taken when we hiked Ugadaga Bay trail and shows one of the many wild iris that we found where ever the ground was damp. Also, we are noticing the berries are starting to develop. Unalaska is fantastic berry picking - salmon berries, cranberries and blueberries especially - I can't wait until August/September when we can start gathering.

I'm posting early tonight, Goldfish and I are off to The Three Amigos for supper. Every Sunday they cook a different authentic Mexican dish and tonight it's posole. Hopefully we can get a window seat by the harbor - cheers everyone!

Relaxation Day

Today I worked on insulating pipe, a nice break for the body to recover. F/V Alaska Rose is another one of our boats, it holds about 750,000 pounds. In the bottom picture I just missed getting a nicely centered picture as it passed the dock at work; in the top picture it has made it through the channel and made the turn towards the mouth of the harbor and open ocean. It is beautiful and sunny after work but I did chores at home and relaxed before the next round of work. Cheers everyone!

Views From The Apartment

The top photo was taken yesterday from my living room window and shows a research vessel anchored in the harbor - to the right you can see one of their lifeboats returning to the ship. If you look closely you can see several more of those lifeboats hanging from the ship. The were apparently using one of the lifeboats to transport crew members to Dutch Harbor. I watched these funny orange boats go back and forth the dock at work all day yesterday and today - at first we thought they were submarines!

The bottom photo I took tonight on the way home from work from right outside my bedroom window. One of the eagles had something interesting and the others were quite excited about it. I thought these were two good pictures to illustrate that I never know what I'll see outside my windows - with a shipping channel out the front window and a salmon stream out the back window there is always something going on.

There is no fish tommorow so I'll be working with the refrigeration crew; it will be a nice change of pace and an opportunity for the ol' body to recover a bit - cheers everyone!

Working Away

Hey, here I am with my two little buddies getting ready to rock and roll on the line. Trevor, you can see your school is still getting represented! This was taken today actually, which turned out to be a gorgeous one with blue skies and a flat calm Bering Sea. The salmon are starting to run and folks are abuzz with excitement as people pile into vehicles and head out fishing straight from work. Tommorow night I'm going out to the Grand Aleutian to watch Open Mike night and celebrate my first month on the island. I splurged today on a laundry basket and a haircut, a great day in Unalaska. . . . .

Foggy Day

This picture is taken from the beach near the apartment and shows a couple tugboats giving the Horizon container ship a hand docking at the APL facility. Right now there is a huge container ship there; I can't tell if they are loading or unloading. Short blog tonight because I wrote a long email covering things I haven't talked about here. Cheers everyone!