Arctic Circle

 

Crossing the Arctic Circle

We sailed north from Nome and at 8:10 AM crossing the Arctic Circle, about 8:30 we started heading east, and then turned south, leaving the circle a little after 9 AM. The wind was about 40 mph, the temperature was in the low 40’s so a very cold day. Mary woke up about 2 AM, I woke up at 4 AM and took a picture out our balcony door. Yes, it was light, but very cloudy, so not very impressive. We had a Arctic Circle crossing ceremony at 10 AM, where you could officially join the Blue Nose Club by diving into the aft pool which they filled with ice. Most everyone stayed in the pool for quite a while since it was 66 degrees, much warmer than the air outside.

Nome Alaska

 

Nome at 11:00 AM

I got up this morning to do a hike near the town of Nome. In 1898, gold was discovered here and the town grew to 10,000 people. Today, it only has 3700, but gold mining remains it’s primary economic driver. This is a tender port and the tenders started running at 8:15 in the morning. A few excursions made it to shore and then we were told that a tender had hit an unmarked dredging pipe at the mouth of the channel and was blocking the channel. They eventually towed the tender off the pipe, but then the fog rolled in. You could not even see the harbor from the ship, which made it unsafe to operate the tenders. At noon, they cancelled tender operations, but that left 14 crew members and 229 passengers in the town of Nome. The fog lifted about 2:30 PM, and we saw 3 tenders immediately leave for the harbor to ‘rescue’ the passengers. They had been well served snacks and well cared for in one of the churches waiting for the fog to clear. We caught a glimpse of the town, but within a hour the fog came in again. Two days later, they were doing some cosmetic repairs on the bottom of the tender. It was totally operational.

Rescue fleet for our Nome passengers at 2:30 PM

Dutch Harbor, Amaknak Island

From the fog to Dutch Harbor

 Since leaving College Fjord, we’ve sailed in foggy conditions until we reached Dutch Harbor, where the sun broke out and we were greeted by several sea otters in the water. The harbor is the top fishing port in the U.S. We walked 2 miles into town to visit the Museum of the Aleutian Islands. The winds were blowing and we could smell fish from the nearby canneries. It told the story of the native people and how they lived as well as the Harbor’s World War II story. The Japanese attacked the harbor on June 3^rd, 1942 to destroy the oil tanks here.  

Japanese attack on Dutch Harbor

On June 6 and 7, the Japanese attacked Kiska and Attu islands and occupied the islands. In August 1942, the U.S. established a naval base on Adak island and managed to block almost all the supply ships to the Japanese held islands. In May 1943, the U.S. retook Attu island and after bombing Kiska island, they found it deserted by the Japanese. Unfortunately, we moved most of the native population in this area to warehouses in the Juneau area. The roofs leaked, there was no heat, and the water was unreliable. Another terrible example of how we treat native Americans.

Cannery barracks 

On the way back, we encountered lots of bald eagles, feeding off the nearby waters as well as the leftovers from the canneries.

Eagles soring 

College Fjords

 

We entered the College Fjord with lots of fog around us at about 6 AM. I woke up about 7:30 and we were at the end of Fjord, staring at Harvard Glacier. (All the glaciers are named for U.S. colleges.) The blue ice burgs surrounded the ship.

Icebergs in the Fjord

Valdez

 

Coming into Valdez

Valdez is most well known as the end of the Alaskan Pipeline, which we could see across the Bay. The pipeline begins in Prudhoe Bay on the shore of the Arctic Ocean.  The pipeline is over 800 miles and crosses a major fault line. Because of the huge temperature variations, the pipe is designed to stretch and shrink without breaking. They also have radiators to disperse the heat from the oil in the pipeline without affecting the permafrost underneath the pipeline.

Horsetooth Falls

The town started thriving when the Richardson Highway was established connecting this ice-free port to Fairbanks, Alaska, providing a supply route to the interior of Alaska.  Since 1950 the highway has remained open in the winter. We did a bus tour along the highway. We stopped for two beautiful waterfalls: Horsetail Falls and Bridal Veil Falls in Keystone Canyon. Then we went over the pass to Worthington Glacier, one of the few accessible by road. This glacier has been retreating for the last 150 years. On the way back we stopped at Thompson Pass (elevation: 2600 feet) for a beautiful view of the Sawtooth Mountains.

Worthington Glacier

Icy Strait

Icy Strait was established as a cannery. Today, it attracts tourists to many outdoor activities. Our activity was to go whale watching. We first stopped to observe sea otters with their pups. 

Sea Otters and Pups

While searching for whales we came across sea lions playing in the sea. 

We continued the search for whales. Usually, you see them spouting in the distance and then approach closer, hoping to get there before their deep dive. After a deep dive, they will usually surface about 5-10 minutes later. But you need to estimate where they will surface.

Whale video

When we got back to shore, we walked into the shore facilities for the cannery museum and a beautiful eagle right above our heads. 

First sighting of a Bald Eagle

Sitka

 

Voyages of Vitus Bering

Sitka has been settled by the Tlingit clan for thousands of years. The name comes the native name meaning “people on the edge of Shee”, the name for this island. Catherine the Great of Russia chartered Vitus Bering to explore Kamchatka, the easternmost region of Siberia from 1733 to 1741. He discovered the Aleutian Islands and the coastal regions of Alaska.  In 1799, Alexander Baranov came to Sitka as head of the Russia America Company and created a settlement.  The Russians traded western goods with the Tlingit clan for “soft gold”, animal furs. He built a fortification and storage buildings, but the Tlingit noticed that the cannons of the fort were aimed at the Indian village, not the sea.  In June 1802, Tlingit warriors destroyed the original settlement, killing many of the Russians. Baranov came back with soldiers in 1804. The natives had built their own fort and at first repulsed the Russians. After two days of bombardment from the ships and the chance destruction of their gun powder, the Tlingit deserted their fort. Sitka became the unofficial capital of Russia America. 

St. Michael's Cathedral

Today, you can see St. Michael’s Cathedral and the Bishop’s House as evidence of the presence of Russia.  Eventually, the fur trade declined, and Russia needed money to pay for the Crimean War. In, 1867, William Seward, the U.S. Secretary of State paid $7.2 million dollars to purchase the Alaska territory from Russia, approximately 2 cents per acre. 

Eagle Ceremonial Hat

We visited the Sheldon Jackson museum, filled with artifacts from throughout Alaska and were entertained by a dance troop that celebrated the history of Sitka.