Naginak Cove, Unalaska Island, Aleutians July 4, 2012 21:41 53N52 166W33

Just got connected, and the radio is not working well these days. I wrote this on the morning of the fourth:

Happy fourth of July! Our national bird watches over us, just knowing he’s there makes me feel patriotic, although I think he’s expecting us to serve up some fresh salmon guts, I hate to disappoint him today of all days, but we suck at salmon fishing. We have not yet found the trick for catching in Alaska, a couple of cod and some rockfish are all we’ve managed to pull from these waters (and some big ugly many legged spiny seastars – Logan says they’re sunstars). We continue to hope for salmon, crab or halibut. Just one halibut could feed us for a month. For now we have to suffer with reindeer (tough life, I can tell I’m not earning any sympathy on this point).

We spent nearly a week in Naginak Cove, I could have stayed a month, maybe even a year. It was protected from all sides, had a thousand possible directions to hike up, a sky that changed the snowy peak view daily, and more sun than we’ve had anywhere else. I think the peaks were so high, they carved a little hole in the sky to mainline the sunshine, while it was rainy all around we enjoyed calm sunny weather. We had just enough cloudy weather to let our muscles recuperate from the strain of crashing down the mountain above on boogie boards (yes I joined them for a session, more as documentarian than participant, although I did try a few runs). A few new flowers popped up each day, my latest favorite, first spotted day before yesterday are the Lady’s Slippers, now there’s a flower that deck’s herself out well before hitting the slopes. I think she has a sense of the dramatic too, waiting to make a late arrival splash.

Yesterday we beat our way out of our bay then had a great fast downwind run around to Dutch Harbor. The change in scenery along the coast kept us entertained all day. First the old sharp granite mountains with their deep wide valleys and bumpy glacial moraine terrain below, then big broad volcanic mountains with long steep smooth sides and a few cinder-cones mixed in. The snow on top is melting at a fast pace so the lower slopes are gushing water; millions of tiny creeks merge with thousands of streams which feed hundreds of rivers that end in dramatic falls, all carving the slopes in a net of snaky white lines accented with a bright vertical flourish at the most impressive valleys. From the thickness of some of the glacier edges visible on top, the flow will not stop before next winter, even with global weirdness, it would take a few years worth of summers to melt it all – a sobering thought.

Dutch Harbor is a huge fishing port, the harbor master put us out on “the spit” far from town. When the wind dies down we may get to move into the small boat harbor, but for now yesterday’s 25 knots of W/SW winds seem to be holding and we’re safe at dock so we’re staying put for now. There’s a British boat on the dock with us, our first sailboat sighting since Hawaii, so we’ll go find out what they’re doing so far from home.

Nope mom, no internet at all yet and we probably won’t find anything open in town with the fourth holiday, so we won’t be calling a cab or renting a car to do a town run today. The weather is supposed to improve this weekend; we may just wait it out and move the boat closer to the resources then. With some fairly intense days of play behind us, we’ve got plenty of school catching up to do. We need to finish this school year so we can start a new one. We’re about 3 weeks behind.

xoxomo