The Middle of Nowhere, Cold Climate Division: Remote Alaskan Islands

“The name Alaska is probably an abbreviation of Unalaska, derived from the original Aleut word agunalaksh, which means "the shores where the sea breaks its back." The war between water and land is never-ending." - Corey Ford

Coming into Alaska before “the season” begins, we started with two locales only rarely visited by cruise ships:  Dutch Harbor, on the island of Unalaska (the largest island in the Aleutians), and Kodiak, home of the namesake bear.

Both were cold and wet.  Rain wet, not snow wet. There was plenty of snow on the mountain tops, but not in the towns.  Indeed, we were told that Kodiak had only four inches of snow this winter.

Dutch Harbor is best known as home of the TV reality show, The Deadliest Catch.  As it was not crabbing season, the crab pots were piled all over town, and the fishing boats were distracted by other fish.

The day in Dutch Harbor was cold and wet, but we braved both to board the shuttle bus (actually, a school bus pressed into service for this purpose, as our visit was on a Saturday) and go into “downtown”: a Safeway, a bar, a hotel, a Ship Store, and the Museum of the Aleutians. The latter was an interesting narrative of the history of this area, including the bombing and invasion by Japan during WWII.

The next stop was Kodiak, a slightly larger town.  Again, our bus was a school bus, but its hours were limited because it was a school day and it was needed in the morning and the afternoon for its usual purpose.  The driver/guide was actually the regular school bus driver, but was a wonderful guide/comedian.  “The kindergarten teacher asked the student to name the four seasons, and so he did:  salmon, herring, halibut, and crab.” 

The rain was fierce, as was the wind, resulting in a large number of upturned umbrellas (“oh, I see your umbrella has been Kodiaked”).  This was nothing unusual. Kodiak gets rain an average of 340 days a year.  The other days often have snow.

 I can’t say I saw anything memorable in Kodiak, other than that bus.  Or at least I can’t remember anything.

Except for the full moon that escorted our ship into these islands—at one point accompanied by a small showing of the aurora borealis.  See if you can spot the northern lights in the photo.

Next up:  more Alaska.