July 2 - Chignik

Our "Trust Tusty" - the nickname for the  Tustumena - chugged through the night and around 7am, we noticed that the engines suddently geared down and we were changing our course. The Captain came on the PA and announced that we were responding to a distress call. Apparently, a fishing boat was in trouble and we were the closest boat able to respond. We found the small fishing boat and some of the Tustumena crew went out in the emergency zodiak boat. Turns out, the boat had an engine fire and was out of commission. After some backing and forthing, we ended up towing the boat by 600 ft. of her anchor line behind us for the next 6 hours but, because of that, we were only able to run at half speed. This brought us into Chignik Bay about 3 hours later than scheduled but it was a fun bit of real-life nautical drama to watch.

Early morning rescue - the fishing boat had an engine fire.

Calm waters - NOT a sign of things to come!
The weather can change very quickly!

Coming into Chignik

Tustumena docked at Chignik

Chignik (like most of the small villages along the Alaskan Penninsula and the Aleutian Islands) are largely native villages and cannery sites. You could see that, at some point, Chignik was probably booming. Off the dock, we walked over a small bridge and then a network of boardwalks head off in several directions, leading to a number of now run-down and mostly abandoned homes, workshops, smokehouses, old canneries and other buildings. At the end of one boardwalk is a coffee house and a small bakery that makes homemade doughnuts for the community but, on Ferry days, they make an extra huge batch for the boat passengers. Whatever the passengers don't buy, the Tustumena crew buys up the rest. It's the "thing" to do on Chignik - go find the local bakery, buy some homemade doughts and buy yourself a good cup of coffee.

Chignik boardwalk - on the hunt for homemade doughnuts!
Chignik residents bake them just for the boat visitors and the Tustumena crew buys whatever is left.

Chignik general store

Slough in Chignik

We have been AMAZED at the terrain so far. The Islands are a brilliant emerald green and most of them are covered in grass and low growing Alder bushes. They look like something out of Ireland or Scotland and remind me of photos of the moors. I'm not sure where I acquired the preconceived idea that the Islands would be barren rocky outcrops (maybe from my experiences on the East and West coasts of Canada) but the Penninsula and the Islands so far are completely different than what we had expected and are stunningly beautiful. The other surprising things is that many of them have enormous, jaggedy snow-capped mountains that tower over the bays and dwarf everything around them.

The Aleutians are often referred to as the Emerald Islands because of their stunning green colour.

An example of the huge, jagged mountains that rise up from the peninsula and some of the islands.

The other thing that has been a wonderful surprise is the food on the ship. The Tustumena crew crank out some fantastic food from their galley. They have a decent menu and it's almost all from scratch. The portions are very generous and the prices are incredible. There is a strict "no tipping" policy because the crew are State employees and the taxes are included in the already modest prices so honestly, we have to say that overall, the food on the ship has been the best bang for the buck in all of Alaska! So far, my favorites have been the homemade clam chowder and the Shrimp Louie - a beautiful salad with a huge pile of fresh shrimp. Fantastic.

We spent another lovely sunny evening on the upper deck, watching whales in the distance and beautiful islands and mountains roll by.