September 21, 2006

Christmas On Attu Island

With the Fall season upon us and Winter around the corner, we are often asked where our small-ships spend their winters.  The smallest of our ships, the Spirit of Alaska and Spirit of Columbia will end their fall seasons come home to Seattle for the winter, but our larger (relatively speaking) operate almost year-round.  The Yorktown Spirit will be in the California Wine Country, the Nantucket Spirit in the Caribbean, the Spirit of Endeavour in Mexico's Sea of Cortes and Pacific Explorer will be in Costa Rica & Panama.  Our largest, ocean-going vessel the Spirit of Oceanus is enroute to Japan, by way of the Aleutian Islands. 

Her current journey is the subject of this post.  Sometimes, we reposition or "dead-head" our vessels to their next destination.  This means that we batton down the hatches and make a straight course for the next port.  Other times, we find clients who want to charter the ship and create a custom cruise.  It's essentially a private cruise, sold by a third party to their exclusive guest list.  The Spirit of Oceanus is currently on such a charter.

On September 8, in Whittier, Alaska, a group of birders, hosted by Victor Emmanual Nature Tours (VENT) boarded the Spirit of Oceanus.  Their ultimate destination was Attu Island, which is at the westernmost end of the Aleutian chain.  Attu is know for it's world-class birding and many of the guests on this cruise are adding birds to their "life-list" that can only be found in this region.  VENT is posting the daily log from the trip on their website.  It's a great read- even if you are not a birder.  Be sure to check out the photo gallery.

One of my favorite stories- unrelated to birds, is that of the interaction with the Coast Guardman serving at the USCG Loran Station on the island.  This duty station is consider to be "isolated duty" an understatement! Therefore, the "Coasties" are only assigned to the station for a year.  Connections to the outside world are made through internet, mail pouches and television.  But visitors are rare.  On Monday night,  there was an early Christmas party onboard the Spirit of Oceanus.  The honored guests were the Coast Guard Station members.

Here's a quote from the Exploration Journal that describes the event:

This evening concluded with our Christmas in September celebration for the Coast Guard, who rarely get visitors in December. The Coast Guard had already been beyond hospitable to us and had shuttled us back and forth to the distant Japanese War Memorial in their pickup. They even helped out with a rare bird chase at one point. So it was a real pleasure to throw a party on their behalf. A Christmas tree had been decorated and the entire lounge was bedecked with decorations befitting Christmas. Dick and Don performed Christmas carols and led us in some group singing. Group gifts were handed out to each of the Coast Guard personnel (who serve one year on remote Attu) and thank you plaques were exchanged with the ship. The Cruise West kitchen went above and beyond on dinner and hors d’oevres. The Coast Guard guys don’t get many visitors, so it seemed like the chance to dine with us, hang out at the bar, and joke around off the base were welcomed. At least we hope so! We went to bed with visions of sugarplums (and Asian rarities) dancing in our heads.

Tomorrow, the Spirit of Oceanus leaves Attu for Petropavlosk, Russia.  The birders will be headed home and our Ring of Fire trip begins.  After that, it's on to Japan, Vietnam and the South Pacific.  Adventure awaits our guests and crew, but my guess is that the crew's fondest memories of 2007 will include their days at anchor off Attu Island.

Posted by Leigh on September 21, 2006 3:29 PM

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