Adak

Actually, it is 11:32 9/7/2005, Aleutian Time. We changed our clocks this morning. Sometime really early this morning, I awoke to the blatantly obvious lack of rocking, as well as a relatively quiet engine. The reason? As surmised, we were approaching Adak.

We arrived into port around 7:30am, and ate breakfast with John Paskie, who came on down to the boat. Cyrus' idea of waking him up to a full-moon didn't quite come through; instead he just called John on the sat-phone and informed him of our arrival.

Adak harbor is pretty, with very few ships (5) and a sparkling clear bay. Plenty of Sea anemonies are attached to the piers, and lots of jellyfish flop about in the waters here.

The town of Adak is pretty interesting. It used to be populated by about 7000 navy personnel when there was a base here. The Skipper tells of how he'd been here in the 80's, when it was really hopping. He was offered a job making pizza. He also told an interesting story of an engineer who made good with the wife of the captain in charge of something or other. The guy ended up buying the gun of the captain, for self-preservation reasons, as much as anything.

In 1996, the base pulled out. Now only about 70 people live here. Only, there's still a huge modern town here. The suburbian buildings are in pretty good shape for having been left here 10 years. Slight signs of decay are around... cars are all dented... There's a health-trail whos equipment is rusted and signs are ripped... Lawns are completely overgrown with weeds... very few people walk the streets. All in all, it is a very interesting ghost town.

The old Fish and wildlife house is a good example of this decay. Some while ago, they pulled out of a large building. Now, it's a mostly-unfurnished building. Mustang suits still hang in neat rows... displays at the visitor center are still halfway assembled. The list of local animals remainswritten in chalk in the lecture hall. It is in this building where our communication hub lies.

Several times over the course of the day, I --in various combinations with others-- logged on in there to access the internet. Among the news items: More info was needed for my Chile registration. Also, Steve sent in an abstract for me.

There's a bunkhouse with a really nice kitchen where the others stayed. Today we caught up with Max, Ed, Guy, Michelle, Jessica, and Tina. They'll be coming on board tomorrow morning for our trip to Amchitka. Yes, the weather outlook is still bleak... We all hung out and had Pizza for dinner.

I've moved into a different cabin for the duration of our trip. There are still 3 bunks, but they're staggered,so I can actually sit up and type.