Monday, September 20, we finally reached Dutch Harbor. This is our last stop in the United States. It is about as far away as one can get and still be in the U.S. Except for the islands at the far western end of the Aleutians, all of Alaska is on one time zone. Geographically it should have four time zones. As a result, sunrise on Monday was at 8:48 am. Sunset was at after 9 pm.
We were not able to disembark until after dawn even though we docked around 6:30 am. There were no tours available. Just a shuttle bus (another school bus) had been advertised. It made four stops. There were two busses running every twenty minutes between stops.
Michael and I were most pleasantly surprised to find a tour guide aboard, an enthusiastic young woman who had recently moved to the area to be with her family. Not only were her insights on the local sights interesting, she told us a lot about the local scene from personal observation and stories about her family. I especially enjoyed the story about her grandmother catching a 150 lb. halibut. I never met anyone before whose grandmother caught such a large fish. The tour escort hasn't spent a winter in Unalaska yet so it would be interesting to see if she is still so enthusiastic next spring.
Michael and I decided to take the bus to the end of its route, tour the Holy Ascension Russian Orthodox Cathedral and work our way back toward the ship. We couldn't see much detail out the bus windows. It was raining and foggy. What we could see were hills covered in green but with no trees. Houses, commercial buildings and other structures had few frills. This is a fishing town. 90% of the residents make their living from the fishing industry. It usually rains and the strong winds blow the rain sideways.
The town's real name is Unalaska from a Native American word for "near the peninsula". Dutch Harbor refers to only the harbor section made famous by the television show "The Deadliest Catch." It is called Dutch Harbor because a Dutch ship ran aground there years ago.
Most of the year there are only about 4000 residents on the island but during the fishing season the population temporarily swells to more than 6000. It's definitely not a tourist attraction. Only four cruise ships, all of them on the small side, docked here all season.
The Orthodox cathedral tour was delightful. The docent was an Alaskan Aleut native parishioner of the church. She could recite the history of the church from memory and explained the meaning of the numerous icons that decorated the interior. The building, though a cathedral has only four rooms. It is a cathedral because it has been the traditional seat of the bishop of the Alaskan Russian Orthodox church. It is supposedly on the site of the first Russian Orthodox Church in America. There is no bishop currently in residence – he now lives in Anchorage and flies in periodically to conduct services. The story of the church is the story of the native Alaskan people. Exploited and almost killed off by the Russian fur traders, they were converted to the Russian Orthodox Christian faith by priests who have since been sainted. The native Aleuts were "evacuated" during WWII and spent a number of years in little better than internment camps. When the survivors were repatriated, much of their land was lost. One room in the church was filled with icons saved from other village churches. The docent told stories of how the parishioners, allowed only one suitcase each during the evacuation, managed to save their precious icons by carrying them in their luggage.
Our next stop was at the Museum of the Aleutians. This turned out to be an impressive four room, beautifully curated display of artifacts from the 9000 year history of the indigenous people, a WWII section, and a display of underwater photography taken in the nearby Bearing Sea. The last was in a room devoted to rotating exhibits.
We had no interest in the hotel and shopping "mall" (maybe four stores) and had no time for the WWII museum. Other fellow passengers who visited it said it was good – much like the one we visited on Kodiak Island. The particular distinction this museum had is that Dutch Harbor and Unalaska Island were bombed by the Japanese during WWII.
Our sailing time of 12:30 pm. came all too soon. We sailed away, watching the island disappear into the mist while seeing whales spout in the distance.
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