| We finally make it to Uyak Bay. Here we are flying north, and see several small islands that lie a little ways south of Amook Island. |  |
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On final approach into the old, abandoned cannery where
we will stay over the next week. This cannery was closed in
1982, and canned salmon and crab. It consists of about 30
buildings, many of which are exactly the same as the way they were the
day it closed - right down to the 1982 Newsweek magazines left on
coffee table in the superintendent's quarters. We actually
stayed in a bunkhouse that was used by the plant engineering and
maintenance personnel, not those who worked in the factory.
The cannery was purchased over a year ago by our host, Steele Davis, who intends to turn it into a hunting, fishing and diving lodging operation. Although rustic, it was quite interesting and in fact fairly comfortable. The nice thing for divers is that it is only a 5 minute boat ride to the SS Aleutian wreck site! |
| David Bressler and Steve Lloyd (right) just after we arrived. |  |
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Unloading the float plane. While the "Mad Dog" people (from the NY / NJ area) arrived in two float plane trips, everyone else had come earlier, most on Josh Lewis' boat, the M/V Melmar. |
| After unloading, we spent some time meeting and greeting everyone. Here is Josh Lewis and myself. Josh is the captain of our dive boat, the Melmar, and found the Aleutian together with Steve Lloyd. He is quite an interesting character, and it is fun to listen to his stories of adventure! |  |
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David Bressler suits up as we're heading to the wreck site. It is only a short, 5 minute boat ride! |
| Steve Lloyd goes over the SS Aleutian deck plans. |
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As we reach the wreck, we see beautiful, large anemones similar to those back in New Jersey! |
| In fact, we discover that the water temperature, darkness, and low visibility is very much like the New Jersey Mud Hole! Except that the silt is really volcanic ash from the Valley of 10,000 Smokes across the Shelikof Strait, as opposed to Hudson River runoff! |
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Our tie-in in the Aleutian stern. |
| A ladder going down to the next deck. |
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Some debris in the stern. |
| These are deck tiles in the stern. |
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Here is Steve Lloyd shooting some video with his great big lights. |
