I only had a week in Fairbanks between the Healy/BEST cruise and the spring's mooring cruise. I flew back to Dutch Harbor and got aboard the NOAA research vessel Oscar Dyson. I've never sailed on this ship before but I had been aboard about 2 years ago. I had a job offer to work on the vessel as a General Vessal Assistant. I flew to Seattle to do some medical and dental stuff done for NOAA and the ship was in port then. At the same time I had the offer to work at the Pogo Gold Mine. As you know I took the gold mine job. I'm glad to finally get to sail on this ship.
The Oscar Dyson is based out of Kodiak, Alaska but it spends alot of time in Seattle too in the off season. It is 210 feet long and 50 feet across. Visit the ship's homepage here:www.moc.noaa.gov/od/
The scientist state rooms hold 2 people and have their own bathrooms. Pretty tight quarters but nice.
One half of the lounge.
The other half.
Float coats hanging up in one of the lab spaces.
The largest lab space that is set up for handling fish that are caught in trolling nets. This ship was built mainly to do fish surveys and more specifically pollock surveys.
The lab space I'm using to set up the nitrate instruments I'm here to deploy. I've got two going on one mooring and one going on another mooring. I'll be bringing back 2 that have been deployed since last October.
The computer/acoustics lab.
Same lab, other half.
The mess hall.
Chow line and kitchen. Very nice facilities and yummy food. Lots of fruit and veggies again.
The tiny gym.
The large bridge.
Looking at the back deck from just above the bridge.
Bald Eagles are thick as thieves due to all the seafood processing plants offering up plenty of eats. This one was looking to do some dumpster diving.
We were delayed in port for 2 days so I took some time to check out the town of Unalaska. This Russian Orthodox Church was built in 1825.
You can read more about Dutch Harbor/Unalaska in my entry back in September 2007:
http://bipolarexplorer.blogspot.com/2007/09/dutch-harborunalaska_29.html
This house is near the church and was most likely the rectory for the priest.
This one of a kind sits on the main street of Unalaska. Those are stuffed cloth fish and a purple Hummer on the left side! All the flowers are fake. The house was built in 1897.
Hiked up this hill, Bunker Hill, to check out some of the fortifications left from WW II. The bunker in the next picture can just be made out in this picture. It is the hump in the center of the picture on the skyline.
For more information on the Aleutian World War II National Historic Area:
The bunker on top of Bunker Hill.
The views.
There are several of these gun mounts up on the hill.
Took this photo of a photo at the WW II museum in town. You can see the guns that were on Bunker Hill.
Looking at Dutch Harbor from Bunker Hill. The Oscar Dyson is at the pier just below the arrow. I hiked up to Fort Schwatka and the tip of Mt. Ballyhoo on the second day we were sitting in Dutch.
From atop Mt. Ballyhoo. I've pointed out Bunker Hill.
Cornice up on Mt. Ballyhoo.
Looking down the steep side of Mt. Ballyhoo as the snow blows up the gullies.
The nearly 100 buildings of Fort Schwatka occupied this area and to the far left of the picture as well.
Well perched bunker.
The view down from the position of the previous photo.
Same bunker.
The view.
Steps down into the bunker.
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