We're going to Dutch Harbor, cuz that's where the fish are!

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We had to fly back to Anchorage to get to Dutch Harbor. Even though Dutch is closer to Kodiak, there are no flights between those remote towns. Like almost every other spoke on the Anchorage hub, it requires two fights. It was a quick flight to Anchorage and we landed a few minutes early. When we went to check in at the gate they asked us if we wanted on the earlier flight which left in 15 minutes. So instead of wasting 90 minutes in Anchorage we jumped right back on a plane. There was only 1 other passenger besides us on the flight so I can see why they were trying to load up. It was a 3-hour flight in a dual-prop airplane and a great view of the Aleutian islands.

Because of the high winds in Dutch Harbor the airplane's approach path is very unique. There are only 50 pilots or so that are cleared to land a plane there because of it's difficulty. It's hard to explain without pictures but I'll give it a shot. Two bays come into Dutch in a Wishbone pattern. In the middle of the wishbone is Mt. Ballyhoo. The airport is at the base of Mt Ballyhoo in the top center of the wishbone (right where a wishbone breaks when you pull on it). That means that depending on the wind, pilots are either guided to take the left or right wishbone into the airport. On this day the winds were pretty good so we took the left wishbone. Because the winds whip through the valleys and over the hills, the plane approach starts about 3 miles out at 500 feet, decreases to 200 feet and 2 miles out and feels like you're going to skip off the water. The fun part of taking the right wishbone is that there's an island in the middle of it too. When the plane gets down to about 100 feet it has to jump up to 300 for a few seconds and drop back down to 100 to go over the island. If they fly in too high the wind pushes the plane up in the air and they miss the runway. It was a wild ride but we landed without incident (the first three pics are of our approach). As you can see it was low.

Upon arrival we went through the paces of car rental, bag pick-up, and hotel check-in. It was too late in the day to start work so we decided to go exploring. 15 minutes later we met down in the hotel lobby and drove around Harbor. The city's name is Unalaska, Alaska (is there an echo in here?) but the harbor's name is Dutch Harbor. Dutch is the #1 fishing port in the United States and clearly has enough businesses to support fishing and a few others, but that it is. There are boats everywhere, canneries, and a smattering of the normal conveniences: gas stations, grocery stores, and restaurants. In taking our tour I got some great shots of a Russian Orthodox Cathedral (in the next blog entry) and some great views from the mountain tops. We went to the end of every road, as we have everywhere else, and got the lay of the land. Even though it's not apparent from the appearance of the buildings, this is a rich town. A lot of money is made there in Halibut, Salmon, Cod and Crab. When you hear "Alaskan King Crab" it's most likely from Dutch, if not it's from Kodiak.

We met our FAA contact, Andrew, in the morning. He was the one-man show that supported Dutch Harbor. He doesn't live there, he's from Anchorage, but travels out there and a number of other remote sites, to provide technical and communications support. He was a good looking guy, about 32, who wore corduroy fisherman's overalls with a matching Carhart Jacket. Carhart makes all of the industrial and cold weather clothing in Alaska as far as I can tell. We jumped into his huge FAA 4WD truck and were off to our first of 3 locations, Haystack. Haystack has 3 weather cameras and temperature gear that gathers information and send it back to Anchorage for consolidation. I would tell you that the view was great but it was great from almost everywhere in Dutch Harbor so it'll become trite. Suffice it to say we did our work there and headed for site 2, the NDB Bunker.

Andrew drove us to the airport, crossed the runaway with a quick call on the CB to the tower, and stopped in front of an old hanger that looked ready for demolition. Inside there he had a trailer with a snowmobile and an ATV (4-wheeler). As we helped him load the trailer, he told us that it had been snowing for the past two days (while we were in Kodiak) and the next two sites were only accessible by snowmobile -- I'm sorry, snowmachine. Once it was hooked up, we drove to the bottom of the hill where the plowing stopped and he shuttled us one-by-one up to the NDB Bunker site. Having never been on a snowmobile I was really looking forward to it. When Andrew donned his beaver hat I knew I was in for an adventure.

They sent me up first, as the guinea pig I think, and we dumped over twice on the way up. It didn't hurt at all and we both laughed out loud. On a side note, those snowmobiles are incredibly unstable and do not balance well at all. Plus they are relatively heavy so when they flip over it's a bear to get them back upright. Covered in snow residue, he dropped me off at the top as he went to retrieve Steve and our team lead. By the time they were both up there I had gotten started at one building and was headed over to the NDB bunker about 200 feet away. It was a WWII bunker but he couldn't remember why it was called the NDB bunker, just that it had been named that. Steve got going on that one while Andrew showed me around. In about an hour we had finished that up and were shuttled back down to the bottom. We broke for lunch and then went to the other side of the mountain to start the Ballyhoo site.

The mountain I mentioned at the beginning of this thread was Mt. Ballyhoo and the NDB Bunker site is on one side while the Ballyhoo station is on the other at the very top. Again we had to get there by snowmobile (although they insist on calling them "snowmachines" up here for some reason). This was a much farther trip (probably 15 minutes each way) and he had a sled so he could carry two at a time. Our lead went up with Steve. Steve is the technical expert on this trip so it didn't make sense for me to go, despite my personal wishes. I waited in the car for about an hour until they came back.

You could tell Andrew was having fun scaring us all on the snowmobile so when he returned he asked me if I wanted to go see the top. Our lead protested, he didn't want to wait, but Andrew said he could go much faster with just me. To this day I am not sure if that should have encouraged me to go, but the lead finally said "Ok" and we went up the mountain. We made it to the top in less than 7 minutes and to be honest I was fairly frightened. We drove on the side of the road along a switchback which had a sheer drop-off on the side. Any mistakes and we would be over the side and down 100 feet in no time. You probably feel more in control driving than you do as a passenger and he had obviously ridden on this road hundreds of times and knew exactly where to be. We stopped at the top and he gave me the tour.

There had been an Army Fort built there during WWII and there gun mounts, bunkers, and the other standard military buildings one finds at an outpost. We took the full tour and Andrew told me that Dutch Harbor was also attacked by the Japanese, although it is much less well-known (I'd never heard of it but will look it up when I get a chance). In June or July (I can't remember) of 1942 it was attacked. He didn't go into the details insisting that I look it up because I would find it interesting. We looked around for a few minutes and jumped back on the snowmobile for the trip down. He made it downhill even faster and I'm certain that my heart still hasn't quite caught up with my body. Once we finished up there we went back to the other two locations, picked up our computers and were done. Andrew was kind enough to drop us off at our hotel and bid us a good evening.

One of the seminole events in Dutch Harbor every week is the Seafood Buffet at the Grand Aleutian Hotel. For $32.95 you get all you can eat shrimp, sushi, halibut, salmon and king crab. To say that it was the best seafood I have had in years would be grossly unjust and inadequate for the quality of the food. The three of us must have eaten 9 lbs of crab meat (no shells included there) and some dessert as well. If I had had so much as a Andes mint after that I would have exploded all over the dining room. It was gluttony at its finest and we enjoyed every second of it.

We all felt we owed Andrew after his generosity of time and willingness to scare us to take us to death's door, so we had asked him over for a drink. He joined us for a beer later on and he told us all about Alaska and why it is different. It was a very interesting conversation and at one point I asked him if he had born there. He sighed, "No, I was actually born in a small town in California...El Centro." I couldn't believe that he was born in the same town where Jaisa was born and we both grew up. It's amazing how closely we are all connected.

We parted our ways that evening and although he left quite an impression, I will likely never to see Andrew again. We slept in the next day since we had finished work and had to wait until 4:00 PM for our flight. There were no seats available anywhere in Dutch since the canneries were laying off workers and boats were coming in. People were just trying to get out of there and we were glad that we at least had confirmed reservations the week prior or we would likely be there getting ready for next week's Seafood Buffet.

We checked out an noon, grabbed some brunch and waited in the lobby of the hotel until 2:30. By 2:45 we had checked in and turned in our rental car (small town) and waited for our flight. It was about an hour late but it came and we got back to Anchorage on Thursday night. It's funny how Anchorage has come to feel like home. Every time we go back there we all feel a great sigh of relief and look forward to it and all its amenities. Considering that half of the residents of the state of Alaska live in Anchorage (300,000 people), you can understand how different it was from the towns we visited (3,000-6,000 people). There was an incredible feeling of accomplishment when we landed there as we knew the trip was essentially over. We bade our lead farewell (he had an 11 PM flight to Chicago) and made our way back to our home away from home, the Anchorage Marriott Downtown.

I knew I was going to have to work Friday morning but, with any luck, I'd be on a plane for home by 1:00 PM. Knowing how lucky I've been to keep my schedule for the last two weeks I should have expected to get one more inconvenience but I didn't. I felt entitled. Guy, the Project Manager for this job, told me that would be fine to leave on Friday but it was not to be...

Final thoughts and the rest of the story in the next installment.

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Photos

Dutch Approach
The view from the airplane on the way into Dutch Harbor

Approach #2
Low and steady over the water

Andrew
Here's a shot of Andrew, our FAA contact, and his trusty, or is it rusty, snowmachine

Mt. Ballyhoo
Me 600 feet above Dutch Harbor on Mt. Ballyhoo