Definitely not a Tourist Town......

Saturday August 24. 12 C. Cloudy, clearing later.

We will put our clocks back another hour tonight, making us two hour behind and again tomorrow. On Monday we cross the international dateline and be a day ahead of Vancouver time. It becomes a bit confusing.

Dutch Harbour. The ship had no organized shore excursions here today. This is a stop designed to break up seven days at sea to only four from here to Russia. 

   The ship supplied a shuttle bus service in local School Buses today as there are no Tourist Buses in Dutch Harbour.

    We needed some domestic supplies so we took the bus to the Safeway as the first stop, next was the WWII Museum. We then took a taxi driven by a native grandmother for a trip around the old part of town a few miles away, then back to the ship. In between we got a substantial amount of walking in.

    This place also runs on fish and everything related to it it. An interesting place and the weather was not an issue at all.

   We where back on the ship around 12:30 and had a great Pub Lunch on the covered pool deck and a walk about the ship for some photos then a quiet time before starting our afternoon of speakers before dinner and then the evening entertainment. It was all good today but a bit of a blur in the afternoon.

We now hunker down for four days at sea, the International date line and some interesting talks and hopefully some more informal discussions headed by interesting and knowledgeable guest speakers.

Six months after Pearl Harbour the Japanese bombed and then invaded Dutch Harbour in June 1942. About 10,000 Japanese were involved. 10 Months later the Americans landed and a battle took place in and around here where 549 Americans were killed & 1148 wounded. The Japanese lost 2341. The northernmost Japanese island is only a matter of some 700 odd miles from here apparently. The Japanese Navy managed to evacuate the remnants of the occupying force, over 5000 were taken aboard ships in less than 30 minutes one night in spite of a US naval blockade. This is a little known part of WWII, so close to home.

Waiting for the school bus to take us to town. We ended up walking and then taking a cab!

Remnants of a Pill Box right on the bank of the bay. US or Japanese?

The original Russian Orthodox church in old town.

Also an oldtimer.

Older style homes spread around everywhere. It has a feel like Tuktoyaktuk in the Northwest Territories and also the Falkland Islands: desolate and glad you don't live here!

It looks and feels barren and windswept.

Back on board for lunch!

Pot Pie, Sausage Roll, Chips and a beer for lunch!

Serene looking for sure.

A stroll after lunch and then turn in our passports and Russian Immigration forms for our next stop, [after four sea days], Kamchatka, Russia.