Helen FieldsScience Writer

We got to Dutch Harbor Wednesday afternoon, then spent Thursday exploring. The fruits of our labors are online now. Chris’s pictures are way better than mine – check it out.

Friday morning I went over to Alaska Ship Supply, a store that, yknow, sells ship supplies. It’s about a five-minute walk from where the ship was tied up, and up until Thursday night the weather hadn’t been bad in Dutch at all – 30s and sunny or drizzly. But Friday morning, whoooaaa boy. The wind kept blowing gravel into my face from the road. Once I had to turn around and brace myself so I wouldn’t get blown away. And this was the day we were leaving.

Here’s my artsy picture of the view from just inside Alaska Ship Suply. The store has groceries (many of them in bulk, most of them very expensive), clothes (for men, although I got myself a sweatshirt), fishing supplies, automotive stuff, electronics, a whole lot of adult magazines…everything you might need onboard your fishing vessel. (People tell me this store features prominently in Deadliest Catch, but I wouldn’t know.)

We ended up leaving a bit later than originally planned because of the weather – we got underway at about 8 p.m. Friday.