Summer Wrap up! (Part 2)

It was a beautiful August morning when we arrived in Unalaska/Dutch Harbor.

Penny and I had a full day in Unalaska/Dutch Harbor. For those of you who don't know, Dutch Harbor is the international port in Alaska's 11th largest city called Unalaska, population 4,000. The military presence during the second World War left a lot of evidence behind--as soon as we pulled in to port we could see bunkers all over the hills behind the Harbor. We had a great day visiting the Aleut museum, meeting a lot of new people, hitching rides as we walked through town, and did a lot of sightseeing. It seemed to me to be a place of great cultural diversity: Aleut, Russian, Filipino and the fleet of often shady-characters. It also seemed to be a very rich community, with fancy city services like a recreation center with a beautiful swimming pool and the best baseball diamond I've seen in the state!


I snapped this picture right as we pulled out of Dutch Harbor. Small boats are rare in the Aleutians, especially sail boats!

Here we are in Cold Bay on our way back up the Peninsula to Homer. The water is so shallow here that the pier had to be built far enough out for the ferry to dock.

It was so wonderful having Penny along to help me say goodbye to the Aleutians, the Alaska Peninsula, and gentle summer weather. I can easily say that this summer--more than any other--I have realized how important it is to me to live a life alongside Alaska's coastline and its fisheries. I'm plugging away at my studies in Natural Resource Management and Fisheries and UAF, and hope to graduate and be out of the frozen North and back on the water for good in 3 more semesters. But between now and then, I look forward to next summer in Southwestern Alaska while I study my socks off and stay snug inside when it's 60 below. Yay! So much to look forward to!

Thanks for reading!

Okay! Summer wrap up! (Part 1)

One last swim before leaving town. I was sad to leave Sand Point for many reasons, but especially because the water had finally warmed up to a really nice temperature!

This is sooooo late! But I really wanted to do it no matter that there's snow outside my Fairbanks campus apartment and it's 27 degrees and quickly dropping. What it all comes down to is just sharing some beautiful pictures. My friend and mentor Penny Pedersen managed to leave her husband and 3 boys in Ketchikan for a week and travel with me from Sand Point to Dutch Harbor, and then all the way up to Homer via Alaska State Ferry the end of August after the salmon season was over. The seiners and gill netters were putting their nets in the box, and the school year was quickly approaching. I wanted to tour the SW as far as the ferry would take me as a sort of final hurrah before heading to the frozen, lonely interior for the next 9 months.

This is Roundtop Mountain. It's right behind the community of False Pass, AK, on Unimak Island--the first in the Aleutian Chain. False Pass has a population of 64 people, and is established in the tight narrows between Unimak Island and the end of the Alaska Peninsula. It is a place of powerful connection between the Bering Sea and the Pacific Ocean. A place I'm told is always windy and swept with churning tidal currents. I sure experienced both at extreme degrees. The name "False Pass" comes from the fact that only small boats can get through the small gap between island and mainland--small boats like 58ft seiners. The 296ft Tustemina was too big, so after servicing the village we had turn around and continue southwest until we could pass over to the Bering side near Akutan Island.



And here I am with the kite's final avian endeavor. The wind was so strong it broke the string as soon as I had it in the air. It was gone before the Tustemina crew could reprimand me for flying it in the first place. Seeing it swirl in the churn of the propeller wash behind the boat, I felt bad for adding to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch I wrote about earlier this summer. At the same time, I have to confess the romantic side of me thought drowning in the Bering Sea was the only way for such a fantastic kite to end its flying days.

More later!