Sunday, July 27, 2008

Unalaska, Unalga, Baby Islands, Akutan, Akun, Avatanak, Tigalda, 7/25/08, by Bob

We headed out of Dutch Harbor with Josh at the top of the mast taking videos. He talked his way down after we hit a couple of small
waves. Our mast is 79 feet high, so it moves a bit with the waves. We were docked near a NOAA ship that was taller than our mast.

We had great weather, except for a little fog here and there. We left Unalaska Island to the east and passed Unalga Island on the
north. There were a lot of birds there. But when we got to Baby Islands just east of Unalga, there were several times as many birds.
There were thousands of puffins and other birds. The Baby Islands is a group of 5 islands, none longer than a mile.

From there we headed along the south side of Akutan Island. At Battery Point we found some big sea caves. We anchored and took the
dinghy into some caves, tunnels, etc. One of the tunnels we went through in the dinghy was over 100 yards long. One of the caves had
a collapsed roof, so it was actually a big hole in the mountain.

We found some humpback whales feeding near the east end of Akutan. They would splash the water sideways with their tails. They can
sure make a big splash!

We passed the south end of Akun Island with a lot of puffins, other birds, and rock formations. From there we went to Basalt Rock.
It's a really cool rock made out of basalt columns, except the columns are at all different angles.

Then we followed the north side of Avatanak Island to Tigalda Island and anchored near the northeast end of Tigalda. We anchored
close to a lot of big rocks or small islets. We could hear Sea Lions hollering on a rock about a mile away.

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