out and about again

We've been under weigh since midnight. The fish & chips weighed on me heavily, so I lay in bed wondering where I stashed my dramamine. I never looked for it, I'm happy to say. The seas were rough, and I was wondering when we'd turn back; though I now know we didn't. Josh reports good time (11 knots), so we just might be in Amchitka by midnight.

Yesterday, we found a backgammon game. Horray!

VFW

Just came back from the VFW in town. We ate some fish & chips and played a little pool. Being the garbage-disposal that I am, I plowed through my meal; others snubbed the fish -- apparently it wasn't that great.

The plan now? Midnight departure: weather depending.

venturing forth

(time adjusted to Aleutian / Hawaii time)
Well, we just made our first attempt to leave Adak; and have just turned the boat around to return to dock. Seas are probably 25' up ahead. Now absolutely everyone has had the pleasure of experiencing the joys of seasickness. Somewhat amusing, but not very. The smell of vomit is now begining to seep throuout the boat. blech.

Maybe we'll try later, but my guess is that we're in Adak one more night.

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.

Atka area

The sea ahead and to port is whitish grey. The sea ahead to starboard is dark. The sea behind is a deep beautiful aquamarine. Today I napped. After waking, I consulted with the skipper, who thinks we may be in Adak by midday tomorrow. We'll see... The waves have smoothed out a bit... well, amplitudes are still sorta big, but the periods are long enough that the boat is rising and falling with them, rather than breaking against them. Right now we're approaching Atka, on the north side. Fog and clouds are preventing a good view of the Island.

Called Katie and Mom. Both were surprised to hear from me.

Still bouncing along

I'm *still* amazed I can sleep on a trip like this. I was afraid to actually get out of bed, because of the abuse received when standing or walking the hallways. At some point yesterday, I nearly knocked the stuffing out of myself trying to get to the bathroom. Sitting here, in my room, I can feel my spine expanding and contracting by an inch or so, depending on the wave action. We're migrating a long stretch without much protection- -and I haven't been up and outside to see if there were any whales. This morning's breakfast: oatmeal & toast.

Movie: "Free Range". a bit over cinematic and overdramatic -- typical Costner. However, there are a couple nice gunfight sequences.

Darkness descends

Skipper brought our course in close to Cleveland. Unfortunately, it's been both too dark and too cloudy to tell much. By morning we should be long past this place. I actually caught a glimpse of the weather charts. Lots o' pins on the flags. Also plenty of triangles. pins - 10mph (I think), Flags - 50mph. Gonna try to sleep tonight, but I don't have my hopes up.

The Islands of the Four Mountains

We're in the cradle of the Islands of the Four Mountains. Unfortunately, our mountain of choice - Cleveland - is shrouded in clouds; as are all the other islands. The water has smoothed out enough for us to eat, though I can't say that I'm extremely eager to do so, even with a moment of peace. Tonight: Rueben & stroganoff. Yesterday we had ? Day before was Steaks (mmm) -- I think. It all mushes together. Somewhere in our dinner menus, we've had Corned beef, too. How many days have I been out here?

I found out later, that perhaps cleveland had an eruption. No sign from down below, though...

more weather and bartering

We eased out of Mutton Cove and cruised past Okmok en route to the Isle of four mountains (Cleveland Volcano and friends). We expect, as usual, bad weather and large waves. What we find instead is sunshine and whales. I spent time 'till about noon hanging out in the sun in one place or another. At first, I was laying up on deck, just behind the wheelhouse on the starboard side. Later, I was chilling aft With Cyrus. Lots of whales have been making their presence known, though very few come close to the ship. I shot some video of orcas, though I think several different species have been nearby. Crazy.

Right now, I think the whales are still around, but there's no hanging out on deck. The boat is being tossed about pretty fairly. Early in the day, each person on board joined one of two camps.

Camp#1: "Oh sh**. We're going into some huge water. Gimme drugs!". In this camp, which included Josh, there was haggling of this-type of dramamine/bodine/patches. Patches were applied, drugs were popped in anticipation of a rough day.

Camp#2: "Hah! I've survived this far. Forget drugs!" Well, one by one camp#2 succumbed. First Anthony gave in, then, a short time later, I caved... and finally a somewhat greenish Cyrus took his bodine.

I'm surprised at how quickly the days seem to pass. I mostly spend my time watching movies. I was trying to edit a movie for Kamchatka, but that $&#@# movie maker program keeps crashing. I've also been entertaining myself with moves... let's see... so far I've seen: Slap Shot, Swing Shift, The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly, American Wedding, Scratch, The Bourne Supremacy, The Italian Job, and From Russia with Love. Maybe there's been more, but I don't remember.

I keep trying to start working on my school stuff, but I can't seem to string two coherent thoughts together. I'm still a bit worried about having left my abstract to Steve. I know he can pull it off, but he was (and ALWAYS was) really busy. plech.

Waves are up to the point where now and then you hear the skipper cut the engine. Whenever I hear that noise (er... lack thereof), I just hang on.

From Mutton Cove past Unalaska

Good morning. I'm on anchor/wheel watch right now. Cyrus and I have volunteered to help out the crew by taking on a bit of the night watches. The skipper is up front and in charge all day. While he's asleep, the rest of the crew take turns babystitting in the wheelhouse.
Tonight, were anchored in Mutton Cove, off Chernofski. This is a pretty nice little safe harbor in Unalaska across from Ft. Glenn.

As we were pulling in, a fog was over ft Glenn (surprise. surprise.) and Ship Rock couldn't be seen. However, Tulik stood out rather nicely.
Todays' traverse was pretty smooth, on the grand scheme of things. Yeah, we rocked and rolled and pitched, but it was not nearly as violent as that first night. As reported earlier, though, the weather is supposed to be wretched for the next few days (week). It'll supposedly be blowing 35 or so, with associated big seas. We'll continue down and around Umnak Island, traversing it N & W, until we get to a tiny bay past Okmok. That'll be our best safe harbor until we can make a mad dash across the Islands of the four mountains, and on until a largish Island further down the chain. There's something like 140mi of open water to cross. That means.. uh.. at the MINIMUM like a 20 hr traverse. If we have to cut back on the throttle, it could be 30 hrs or more.

Little by little, I'm easing myself back into work. I've had MatLab open, and have started looking at my data again.