Last Aleutian Island of this trip as our ship now heads north into the Bering Sea. The ship pulled up to the dock in the area called Dutch Harbor, which is actually on Amaknak Island, allowing us to walk off on the gangplank rather than take a boat. It stayed docked until early evening. They set up a series of small buses to get people to particular points of interest, but honestly, most of the passengers could walk everywhere.

This island is different from others we’ve seen because it has no native trees. The few scraggly trees here were planted by the Russians when they occupied the area, beginning in the late eighteenth century. Lots of grasses and wildflowers are here, most dominant being lupines.

Both of us took a van to the Museum of the Aleutians where we learned about the native Unangan people, then to the WWII museum. Then we went back to the ship for lunch. In the afternoon, Brian left with a group to go on a hike while Clare went to a Russian Orthodox Church, then a library and finally the post office. We sent postcards to each of our moms, wanting the Unalaska postmark on the cards.

Like yesterday, we saw tons of wildflowers.

So many bald eagles! They were everywhere, posing for our cameras. The ship photographer found several nests with his telephoto lens.

Today, Unalaska is an important place for processing fish. We were told that McDonalds Filet-o-Fish patties are made here from Pollock, but the main product is processed fish used for making Surimi, or fake crab meat. Also, fish oil for nutritional supplements is processed here.

The pitch and yaw of the cruise ship was noticeable during the night, but the air was clear and the sky partly cloudy in the morning. It was getting more challenging to walk in a straight line, which led to many giggles. Our excursion left at about 9, so we ate a quick breakfast to have time to get ready.

Startling sunshine! Brilliant green plants all around the bay; we were headed for an abandoned village.

We landed the Zodiacs on the beach and learned how to get out safely. Easier than we thought; these guides are helpful! Our heavy boots allowed us to walk into the water up to a foot deep. Walking up the cobblestones on the beach was a challenge, however.

We left our life jackets in a bin on the beach, and Clare grabbed some walking poles (small, medium or large). We explored the abandoned village and the plants that surrounded it.

After our wonderful excursion, we were relaxing in the lounge on Deck ten when whale sign was seen! The first was an entire tail of what was identified as a humpback. Then blow after blow of whales passing by.

Fog and a half sea day greeted July this morning. Rarely could we see land poking through the fog.

The presentation was about the importance of plankton in the world’s ecosystem. Astonishing how many systems it affects!

Later, the ship celebrated Canada Day, when Canada was assembled into a country, with red and white cake and champagne.

We kept looking out the windows and wandering around the observation decks, but the fog and/or rain never let up. We were also disappointed when we arrived at our planned spot for the excursions when the captain announced that we would go to another spot in the hopes of getting out of the fog. No such luck.

We did hear stories from other guests on this voyage about what they saw the previous day. One claimed to have viewed 9 bears, though he admitted it might have been only seven, since two individuals might have been seen twice each. The tally was one mom with two cubs, another with one cub and two individuals that might have been seen twice. Another person saw a red fox with two kits.

By the time it was our turn to don the waterproof gear and go to the deck to launch on a Zodiac, the fog had thickened to rain again, and we wondered if the trip would be worthwhile. It was, but photographs were difficult to impossible.

As we started out, our naturalist warned that we might not see much. She commented that this weather is more common this time of year at this latitude. She also grinned at how lucky this cruise had been with weather so far, then warned that we were all going to get wet, not just from rain but from splashing of seawater into the Zodiac.

We zoomed out to a tiny steep island to see two bald eagles soaring above the cliffs, probably protecting their nest.

Then the Zodiac driver, Lauren, paused to pull up some bull kelp from the water. We worried that she might fall in! She passed the strand around to all on the Zodiac, taking a bite of the fresh delicacy while explaining its life cycle to us.

When we looked back towards the cruise ship, it was enveloped in fog, a phantom ship, like in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. No photographs from this adventure came out.

Then we went towards another small island, but before we got there, we were surrounded by birds! Lauren, our guide, was SO excited! She killed the motor so we could watch and listen.

Kittywakes dove in droves for tiny fish. Puffins, swimming on the surface, had to use a lot of energy and wing flaps to get aloft, skimming the water for many yards before becoming air born. The puffins were going for the same little fish that the kittywakes were eating.

We learned that the puffins have little spike-like things on their tongues to allow them to hold many small fish in their mouths at the same time.

Puffins fly like footballs without the spin. They are thick in their bodies, which is why they have difficulty starting to fly. But to see so many at the same time! And the kittywakes, of course.

Then someone noticed a brown bird with a thin neck that, surprisingly, Lauren could not identify. But she was determined to, and later told us it was an Ancient Murrelet, a bird she had not seen before.

We ended the excursion with grins, energized by the enthusiasm of everyone on our boat. Soaking wet, yes, and the distinction was clear between water-proof and water-resistant clothing.

We signed up for a special dinner this night, cuisine from South America. Our time slot was late, but the food was delicious.

We woke to an alarm … that we set so we had time to get ready for an early Zodiac adventure.

Our Zodiac slot was in the first group out, at seven AM. And we were lucky. Our guide took us to a small bay, Hidden Harbor, and we spotted a brown bear almost immediately.

We watched it walk and swim a bit along the shore for a while, until it disappeared into the shrubs. It disappeared completely. A giant bear became invisible. This made us wonder how many bears were hidden in the vast amount of vegetation that surrounded us.

We moved on and saw another bear! Our gleeful guide called the other Zodiacs so they could see it, too. This one was bigger but farther away than the first. Both bears were fast walkers and almost never stopped or stood still.

So, we scooted along the shoreline, enjoying the astounding glacially carved landscape when we saw a beautiful red fox. This guy was skinny, looking for food. Our boat kept pace with the red fox for a while, but then we had to get back to the cruise ship.

The fox was harassed by a murder of crows, probably protecting their nests. The fox ignored them, but the humans got a good chuckle.

What a ride! And all of that happened before breakfast.

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Coming into Geographic Harbor on the cruise ship, we saw lots of little, heavily vegetated islands, some with birds on them. Big snow covered mountains in the background.

Our Zodiac saw some unexpected excitement as we started back. The motor started gasping and stalling, indicating we were out of gas. We had already lost our partner Zodiac, making us isolated, alone on the water. Our driver, Brandon, tried calling other Zodiacs and the cruise ship, but no one answered. He opened up a metal box at the front of the boat and took out a lot of stuff to get to the fuel tanks. After moving the fuel line to a new tank and resetting the valves, he could not restart the motor. Finally, with help from another Zodiac driver, we were on our way back to the ship. Apparently it takes a lot of pumping the bulb in the fuel line to refill it at the motor.