Saturday (June 17) afternoon in Palmer and I am taking a break during this day of chores.  We arrived safely last evening at the Anchorage Airport after our five days in Dutch Harbor/Unalaska.  We may now say we have visited the Aleutian Islands.   Dutch Harbor is a beautiful place with rather awful weather.  At the time of our arrival, however, the weather was pleasant, and the view when landing was spectacular.  The plane turned in from the sea between two ranges of mountains and descended over the blue bay.  Waterfalls rained off the green cliffs.  Anne thought of Hawaii; I wondered at our survival.  Upon touchdown the pilot threw the plane into hard reverse and my weight tested the seatbelt.  I turned to the resident sitting next to me and said, “short runway?’  He nodded.

Only later would we see the “airline gate” at the land end of the airport runway.  Similar to a railroad gate it is adorned with flashing lights.  When a plane approaches the lights go on and the gate goes down.  The runway does not cross the road, but apparently on one occasion the landing gear of an aircraft scrunched a tall truck and the plane made a belly flop on the runway.  The FAA did not like that.  Now there is the gate.

Our Saab 200 aircraft landed without incident.  We were met by Ann Nora who joined us as we rented our rough and ready SUV with many red lights glowing on the dashboard.  Anne joined Ann Nora and I followed with our wheels from the Dutch Harbor Airport on Amaknak Island to “the bridge to the other side” that connects to Unalaska Island.  The town of Unalaska includes Amaknak Island and a corner of the much larger island of Unalaska.  Ann Nora and her partner Captain Rick (see Most Dangerous Catch - season 4) rent a fine house on the west side of Captain’s Hill above the bridge and west of old town Unalaska (or Iliuliuk).  The names there are a bit confusing.  The house has a fabulous view of the bridge, the pass, and parts of Iliuliuk Bay and Captain’s Bay and their boat harbors.

The town is industrial and the industry is fishing.  They fish for cod, halibut, salmon, and, of course, king crab.  We passed a factory and another guest of Ann Nora spoke, “the smell of money.”  I chuckled.  I never associated the smell of fish with money.  But, fish make this town and is its focus.  The economy is thriving and tourism is an after thought.  Despite lovely mountains, seas, spouting whales in the harbor, and important native and WWII history, the town  scarcely draws tourists.  Why?  It is too hard to get too and has awful weather. 

We called our tour captain and asked about plans.  He told us that we should change them.  Our Wednesday tour would find wind and rain.  We should go on Tuesday.  We did.  The morning weather was fabulous and the sea wrinkled in the light breeze and the surface twinkled with puffins.  We made our way to the nearby Baby Islands where water rips with the tides between the Bering Sea and the Pacific Ocean.  Thousands of birds swarm there to feed on plankton drawn by the strong currents.  Among them were small numbers of Whiskered Auklet, a bird that can be found only in the Aleutian Islands.  We cheered them as another life-bird.   In the afternoon our slow boat took us to the Chelan Banks in search of shearwaters and albatross.  We found only a few before the wind changed and turned the chop into high seas.  We returned to port very satisfied.

During the remainder of our stay we remained on shore.  On the rainy day we visited the WWII Museum and learned the tales of the war among these islands.  There was disaster in 1942.  Dutch Harbor town was bombed.  How many people know or remember that one of our cities was bombed in WWII?  The Islands of Attu and Kiska were invaded and occupied by the Japanese.  The some fifty residents of the former, two European and the rest Aleut, were imprisoned in Japan until the end of the war.  One was killed and half died from poor treatment.  Our government forcibly evacuated the Aleut from the remaining islands and provided rather shabby accommodations for them on the mainland where more than a few of the old and very young died from the conditions.  Dutch Harbor became a fortress around the harbor.  There was hell to pay “removing" the Japanese from Attu.  They would not surrender and those not killed in combat killed themselves.  Our army found the weather as much trouble as the enemy and suffered more casualties from it than from the Japanese.  After the unpleasant capture of Attu, landings were made on Kiska to begin another hard fight, but the Japanese had vanished, making a successful evacuation of all personnel.  They would die defending islands of more importance to  the Nippon.  We also visited the Aleut Museum with fine displays of native culture, crafts, and art. 

On the windy day, we rode all the roads there are including the one across the high country.  The tundra meadows were becoming green and the willows and spring wildflowers were in bloom.  There are a few dozen spruce trees on the island.  They were planted by the Russians.  They survive and grow strangely.  First they hug the ground forming a thick tuft of very wide shrub.  Then they grow tall quickly, but the thin stalk is killed by the cold wind.  Then another shaft pushes upward to fail.  Only in a valley near town do any trees reach some twenty feet in height.  Eagles perch in them.  Of course eagles perch everywhere.  They are the house sparrows of Dutch Harbor.
 
On this day the humpback whales came to town.  We had seen a few dozen near the bay entrance coming back from our tour of the Baby Islands.  It is usually fun to see whales (but the fishermen told us of some very unpleasant experiences with the leviathan) and their arrival some fifty meters off the shore made even hardened Dutch Harbor folk pull their jeeps over to watch. 

The whales added to the daily sea otter show.  We watched one herd of at least one hundred of these animals lounging about in a cove among the sea cliffs.  Other animals of interest on the island were Arctic Fox and Arctic Ground Squirrel.  The last is affectionately called “low bush grizzly” by our bird guide.  Agressive little critters.

We found Ann Nora well, but her partner Rick was out of town.  Such is the life of a fisherman.  Still, we met several of her friends and toured the community health center that is the only serious provider of medical services on the island.  Telemedicine and air transport are critical there.  Ann Nora said that pregnant residents are prescribed a trip to the mainland at 34 weeks.  That would be a bit of a bummer, but provides safety.

So, we enjoyed a wonderful visit to Unalaska.