It’s all so easy when you don’t know how hard it is.

Luann (comic by Greg evans)

And the ride began late due to mechanical delays. Originally scheduled for 5 pm departure from Dutch Harbor, but due to some mechanical maintenance needed, new schedule was 12:45 am – ugh. Thus we had another evening. We had extended our room, at the grand Aleutian hotel, so could hang there, but weather was reasonable (no rain or wind) so we walked about. Headed to the sushi restaurant and had a delightful meal with some very good sushi. Interesting walking as it just winds amongst the industrial canneries, which arebusy but not crazy, as not much fishing now. Company store, the bunkhouses and apartments, generator building, docks, both boat, and truck.

It was a long day and all were ready to fall into cabin bed and sleep, and all did except me, who in spite wanting to sleep, did not seem capable, so I wandered exploring the boat. 270 feet 3 decks plus the car deck below. We had departed amongst scattered clouds and an almost full moon. Beautiful and with the iPhone camera able to somewhat capture the mood. I wanted to see Priest rock but alas it was dark when we passed it at 1 am. We have a painting on wood at home of priest rock, and now at least I can say I have been by it.

It is now Tuesday and we departed Saturday night Sunday morning. We have made 6 stops thus far with Kodiak yet to go, in about 5 hours. Akutan, Cold Bay, King Cove, Sand Point, Chignik, and this morning Old Harbor. Each unique, with a varying makeup of native and western, makeup, ranging in size from a few dozen to maybe a few hundred. I managed to at least get up and get on deck to see, at least the dock, of each although several were middle of night. Could get off and walk but frequently the actual town too far in the allotted time of usually half hour, sometimes an hour. One has to be careful though, as apparently if you do not take your ID and ticket with you they will not let you back on. TSA rules apparently.

It was fascinating to observe the choreography of docking and loading as well as unloading. This is the last run of the year, for this Aleutian run and folks are returning themselves, gear, boats, cars to points north. Will be interesting to see how many get off in Kodiak. The crew says a lot of standby in Kodiak awaiting trip,to Homer and the road system. Currently I count only 2 empty spaces on car deck, and it is packed in, with minimal,squeeze room between vehicles, cars, pickups, trailers, boats, a front end loader, vans, dogs.

And ferry has gotten fuller with people as we go along. At first it was seemingly just a few, mostly tourists as ourselves, but each village added a few more, with a stop of 1 to 1 1/2 hours to unload and load vehicles. A circus but well choreographed. Fascinating to watch, staying out of way, as lots of heavy machinery.

The views were spectacular. We spent much of day just watching the ocean and/or the coastline. This may be some of the most spectacular coastline I have ever seen. Volcano’s when clouds allow, but cliffs and rugged coastline amazing. And the wildlife! Sei whales, humpback whales, harbor porpoises, birds mostly gulls and shearwaters, possibly an albatross or fulmar. Constant incredible views.

The weather has been calm, with only a slight rocking of the swells. We had expected the gulf of alaska to be rather rough, this time of year, but has been basically flat. We had been concerned prior to departure watching weather, but a wasted worry. Currently as I write seas are larger, but we are running with the wind so fairly smooth.

Cell phone reception again is irritating me. Be at dock in village and everyone is yammering away on phones, except us, who get no reception. Again AT&T fails to,deliver. Was reasonable in Dutch harbor but apparently only GCI (a local alaska company) covers smaller places here. Seems in 2024 somebody would have it figured for all to share. Starlink is on the boat for crew or just boat work but not available for us. And as I write and we are closer to Kodiak we have reception and everyone is on phones catching up.

Weather has come in again, cloudy, windy, occasional rain. Beautiful to just sit here in our cabin, looking out at waves, with the shearwater birds just floating the waves. The ocean always is changing.

Bottom line, would love to do this trip again.