Yes, ladies and gentlmen, after 7 consecutive days at sea, we make landfall at Dutch Harbor.

The view from our side of the ship was not great:

although it was our first opportunity to see a Bald Eagle perched on the railing of deck 2!

This would turn out to be the first of many sightings of the Bald Eagle while at Dutch Harbor.

The view on the other side of the ship was much more picturesque!

A small bit of land, Dutch Harbor also acted as an immigration point for everyone on board. So, after breakfast, before we could go ashore, we had to present passports, immigration forms and ESTAs to CBP officials who were very friendly and chatty.

The port talk had played down expectations with regards to what there was to see and how we would get to see it. While we weren’t the only cruise ship that was planning to stop there this year (they are expecting 20 ships), it is clearly not really geared up for tourists. There were a couple of signs … the first was that they used school buses to get us around the island, and the second was our guide on the bus telling us that the Tourist Office was closed today because everyone was on the buses!

One of the big surprises of the bus trip was that the bus stopped for 10-15 minutes at each point, allowing people to get off and take photos or, in the case of the museums, try to rush through them!

We skipped the first museum and, instead, got off and walked further ahead to the Grand Aleutian Hotel and the neighbouring Safeway (we like looking in overseas supermarkets!). Once the bus caught up with us, we continued around to the World War II museum where we again got off but then finished the journey by walking back to the ship, past what could be viewed as one of the most challenging airstrips, with water on one side and mountains on the other three sides.

For dinner, we ate at the Restaurant. We both had the chicken wrapped in ham with a “vegetable casserole” (which turned out to be some veg and some sauce) with extra steamed vegetables and mashed potatoe. For dessert, I had the Grand Marnier Souffle and my wife had the blueberry cheesecake.

After dinner, we went to watch Graham Seymour, the Cruise Director, give a one-man show of songs, stories and jokes. A great way to end today.