Dutch Harbor, AK, 19-JUL-2022 – Writing on a keyboard for the first time this trip. To be honest I prefer dictation, but I do that early in the morning when Jennifer is asleep or when she is away.
It is Tuesday morning. We arrived this past Thursday afternoon, about 5:30 pm. With the sun setting at 11:30 pm, it is difficult to keep track of afternoon versus evening.
Jennifer tucked us into Dutch because she can see a long run of low pressure systems rolling across the Pacific towards us. When we are arrived there were 10 boats here on AIS, by Saturday there were fifty. There are still 45, but we are not certain how many are here because of weather and how many are here because of ‘‘openings,’’ though each fishing boat captain we’ve met has told us the weather looks rough through this weekend. As I’ve written, it is always good to get reassurance from the pros.
On this trip we haven’t been having people over for dinner, but then again, there haven’t been many to ask.
We did finally leave False Pass. Rather than be there a few days as I expected, everything lined up and Jennifer took us out early the next morning on an overnight to Akutan.
At full flood, the water into the False Pass harbor moves at more than six knots. Ignoring the wind that seems to howl in the same direction each time, we simply do not have the horsepower to exit the harbor. We had planned to leave at 11 am. The current and tide move one hour later each day: Jennifer took us out at 9 am the next morning at near slack.
The passage north to the Bering Sea is through an open bay that gives the area its name: False Pass. The bay is an open area of shifting sand bars. Despite what we were told the marked channels were accurate. We had no problem motoring through.
In False Pass, we made friends with Cindy who we believe runs the place. We learned a few things: Trident, one of the major processors, has 250 workers in False Pass. They are able to process one million pounds (about 454,000 Kg) of fish per day. There are two types of tenders that collect fish from the fishing boats: buyer boats and haulers. The buyers generally carry about 250,000 pounds of fish and collect directly from the fishing boats. The haulers generally seem to carry about 650,000 pounds of fish and deliver from the buyer boats to the processing plants. This keeps the fishing boats fishing full time. However, False Pass only does ‘‘gill and gut,’’ where other plants do full products: filets, steaks, etc.
Akutan has 1000 workers.
When I add up the numbers, the amount of fish coming from this part of the world truly startles me.
As we’ve been learning more and more about the industry and its history, we also meet the people fishing. Many are in their sixties and about call it quits. Many have already.
In the 1970s, the money to be made was truly staggering. This was an undeveloped fishery and those who arrived found a very low cost of entry and huge profits. One could buy a fishing boat and pay it off in one year. As we meet these people, we get a handle on the assets they have acquired and like gold rush times, the costs of things here is an indication of how much money is flowing through. In Unalaska, the city that contains Dutch Harbor, a very small house, about 1000 sq ft (100 sq metres) is roughly $400,000. You can fill in the rest.
Years ago there was a change in how licenses for some of the fisheries were handled. Previously, a license had no associated catch with it. To fish, one applied for a license and fished. No license was worth more than any other. This had various side effects including what was called fishing derbies. The season would be some period of time, sometimes just hours and each boat would catch as much as it could. The inherent dangers are obvious regarding weather, etc.
Some fisheries looked at the amount of fish that a licensee caught and assigned that amount to the license: a license now had equity, certain licensees became instant millionaires.
The business has adapted. Licenses can be fully or partially rented, but newcomers can’t arrive expect to make huge sums of money as they once did. However, in a good year a deckhand can work for a three months season and spend the rest of the year windsurfing in Mexico.
The sail from False Pass to Akutan was an overnighter, some time under sail some under power. The next morning were we using the Raymarine autopilot under power. The display started beeping ferociously. The screen displayed some error about not being able to access the wheel drive.
Restarting the device did not fix the problem. We set up the wind vane, but found that it was not accurate enough under power in light airs; we hand steered the remaining nine hours to Akutan.
Akutan Marina is an oddity. It is beautiful, brand new, completely protected from all weather and is free. There are at least two thousand linear feet of dock space for large boats. The entire harbor has been newly cut out from the shore near an old whaling site. It is an expensive-to-build, beautiful site. Alongside the marina is a helipad where personnel from the processing plant are ferried in and out. While Cindy from False Pass suggested we contact her colleagues there, we did not.
Really, we should have invited Cindy onboard for dinner… I’m not sure why we did not. I feel remiss about this.
There was one difference in how we used the autopilot on our way to Akutan: we set it for the most sensitive setting meaning it was constantly adjusting the course and using much more power than usual. In Akutan, I replaced the motor to test whether that might be the problem, it was not.
We were the only vessel in the marina that night. The next morning, the autopilot was working again.
As we approached Dutch, we contacted the harbormaster asking for space on the Discovery Dock where we were last year. It was full and we were guided over to Bobby Storrs International Boat Harbor, which is older and in need of updating. The harbor master we had been speaking with, Vince, was standing at the slip, 13C, waiting to grab our lines.
Appearances, like in any foreign culture, are misleading to those outside it. Vince looks to us like a stoner or perhaps a gang banger. He is instead well traveled, well read and really smart. We met Vince last time we were here and he remembered us, and I remembered him.
Vince introduced us to the other people on the dock; they were about to go out fishing but waited until we were safely tied up. When they returned that gave us a six or seven pound Sockeye/Red salmon. It took Jennifer and me five days to eat it all.
By the next morning I had been on the phone with Raymarine. Joel, the man I deal with for this device – he and I have spoken before* – reckoned that with that much sawing back and forth we tripped the thermal protection circuitry. I want to upgrade from a wheel drive to a ram drive that moves the rudder directly. This upgrade will require an actuator rated for 20 amps rather than 10, so we agreed I would replace the current unit with the larger unit.
So, all together now, what is Cruising? Cruising is waiting for parts in exotic locations.
While I was negotiating with Hodges Marine in New Jersey, who has the best prices, about how much shipping would cost, Vince came by. It is $170 to ship to the local post office, but only $130 to ship to a street address. Vince offered to let us ship to his address. Yesterday (Monday), Vince came by check on the delivery. When I told him the package was being delivered via FedEx and was currently in Anchorage,† he commented, ‘‘Huh. FedEx doesn’t deliver here, I wonder what carrier they will use.’’
There were two sailboats here when we arrived: a 46-foot Hans Christian, and a thirty-something-foot 1970s boat that had been purchased in Seattle and had a bird’s nest in its stern fender. The Hans Christian is owned by a local man who knocked on our hull. Andy introduced himself to us, spent some time on Caro Babbo talking to us and then gave us a driving tour of Unalaska, and Dutch Harbor, and a narrative of his personal history and the history of the area.
Andy arrived, after time in ’nam, in his twenties and took the area and its opportunities by storm. He fished, he homesteaded, built houses, became a single dad, worked for the fish processors and ran a bunch of businesses, and by my guess, made a bunch of money, enough to head off with his love, Danene, for thirteen years sailing the Hans Christian around the world.
Like me, Andy refers to the woman he loves every few minutes or so: We learned their history together. Sometime in the last few years Andy and Danene bought the very well known Norvegian Rat bar and restaurant, which is where Jennifer and I headed after visiting Dan and Danene’s house and Dan’s shop with his 1953 Dodge Power Wagon. The Power Wagon is more than halfway through an off-the-frame restoration. This particular Power Wagon was built as a one-vehicle utility pole installation machine with an auger and a crane. The kind of gadget that’s difficult for many of us to resist.
Dan built the house mostly from scavenged wood, most of that from WWII structures. The major beams are 12 by 12s and 10 by 12s. Remember, the nearest trees are hundreds of miles east of here. The view out the living room window is Dutch Harbor, three or so hundred feet below. Across the road on the other ha;f of the property, the view out the workshop windows is Captain Bay.
I don’t know how I feel about the Norvegian Rat. I like the place very much and adore Danene, but the name conjures up something other than a very well kept, well-run establishment with a great view of the water, polite professional staff and well prepared food.
We asked our server for Danene who came over and told is that Andy had called to tell her we were coming. Danene, standing by our two-top, talked about all the things we had in common, including Dan Verheesan and gave great advice on where to sail, where to hide out from weather (perhaps the most important thing to know in this region) and how to sail from one place to another.
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I’ve got to go. FedEx has just told me that they’ve given the package to USPS for the last 1000 miles of the delivery and it won’t be here until Friday afternoon, which means we’ll miss our weather window.
I’ll be in touch.
*I’m stuck in a finger pointing match between three suppliers on why heading data that was previously shared amongst the devices no longer is. (For Geeks, the data doesn’t appear on the NMEA2k, nor RS422, bit it did on both previously.)
† By Wednesday after a few calls to FedEx, I learned the package would travel the last thousand miles (from Anchorage to Dutch) via the USPS. Perhaps the extra $40 would have it gotten here in time. The cost will be extra days on the dock, as many as five (over $100 in dock fees) waiting for the next weather window.
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