Jun 21
Hi All,
Sadly we left lovely Sweeper Cove on Adak at 0700 for a 61nm run to Bechiven Bay on Atka Island. But wow, a day passage….we forgot what that was like…..took about 7 hours, arrived little after 2pm. It was for the most part trawler like conditions….yea!!! We went through several narrow passes….Asuksak Pass, Chugul Pass, Fenimore Pass, and Atka Pass. We timed the passes pretty well and had fair current most of the way…in fact in Chugul Pass we had a 3.5kt favorable current….11.2kts SOG baby…..we saw many whirlpools and tidal overfalls….welcome back to PNW cruising!!!
Bechiven Bay is a beautiful bowl anchorage…surrounded by 1500′ hills all covered in green tundra….Mark kept wanting to break out in Sound of Music song….hmmm!!! As we approached we saw on one of the hills white specks…..at first we thought big cows, then maybe horses, then maybe mountain sheep…..hmmm. After we anchored and had passage beers, we launched the dinghy and went to take a look….turned out to be Caribou…or as Kathy read, Reindeer….supposedly the same animal. It was a herd of 20-30 scattered on the hills near the shoreline….the adults more dirty white/gray with black around the necks and face and the juveniles more brown.
We then went to explore and find a WWII B-24 bomber that had done an emergency landing at the head of the bay over the berm. Wow….what a find….since it was built mainly in aluminum it was in very good shape…well, for a crash landing….the tail section had been ripped off but the wings forward through cockpit were intact. It was a very impressive emergency landing and as we understand all crew survived. Joel on mv Messing Around, a Selene 40 has been texting with Mark on his InReach and gave us some history and then Les emailed this article:
On December 9, 1942 took off from Adak Airfield on a weather reconnaissance
mission over Attu and Kiska. Aboard was Brigadier General William E. Lynd.
Over Attu, circled Holtz Bay then returned to Adak Airfield at 4:00pm, but
found the area obscured by bad weather. The B-24 radioed it would fly to
the far end of Atka Island and make a force landing at the western end of
Bechevin Bay. During the crash landing, the rear fuselage broke off rear of
the wings.
Rescue
The crew survived the crash with minor injuries, General Lynd suffered a a
broken collar bone. Sheltering at the crash site, the crew made a shelter
by draping wing covers over the left outer wing and wrapped themselves in
their parachutes for warmth overnight.
The next day on December 10, 1942 spotted from the air by another B-24 that
dropped supplies to them. Afterwards, the crew walked 200 yards to the edge
of Bechevin Bay to await rescue. Later that day, a PBY Catalina landed at
Bechevin Bay and attempted to rescue the crew, but it were too heavy to
take off. Instead, they waited for a U. S. Navy destroyer escort to arrive
to perform the rescue.
Wreckage
Remains in situ on Atka Island. Over the years, the fuselage crumpled
behind cockpit from weight of the turret. In 1975 by a US Navy helicopter
crew removed the machine guns.
During 1978-1989, Ted Spencer visited the wreck and photographed it. The
serial number, bomb markings and unit insignia were still visible on the
left side of the cockpit.
Ted Spencer visited the wreck during 1978 & 1979:
“The nose was buckled by the crash. They came down very hot due to the low
visibility and the ascending terrain in front of them. They hit the frozen
ground which was actually made up of little hummucks. As they slid along,
the ground tore up the skin and formers of the lower fuselage. The nose was
doing the plowing and the nose gear assembly was torn away. The coupe de’
grace was when the plane hit ground that had been furled by an old creek.
The nose hit the far bank of the creek bed bank which probably buckled the
nose/flight deck section. The impact slammed them to a halt.”
Indeed it did stop abruptly…..maybe 200-300 yards from initial hit….impressive flying and that all crew survived!!! I was very surprised to see how thin the aluminum shielding was….some very brave men flying these airplanes and manning the guns…wow….impressive!!
Kathy eventually went for a beachcombing walk and was startled to find 3-4 red foxes….whoa. They were very shy but she was able to take some good photos. When Mark and I caught up the foxes had moved a good 400-600 yards away. We eventually got in the dinghy and followed them from about 200 yards away and they seemed comfortable we were no threat….wow….that is our first ever wild fox viewing!!!!
Weather: This very nice HI south of us providing the partially sunny days on Adak and these wonderful west winds…now Day 6….sidebar: had another great viewing of Mt Sitkin, 6000’….is allowing another pesky LO to develop SW of us and by tomorrow evening, Saturday, the weather is going to turn to 25-35kt winds from SW-S….arghhhhh…..but, we should be safely tucked into Hot Springs Bay enjoying the hot springs and maybe doing some crabbing/fishing!!! OBTW….I confirmed with people in Sweeper Cove that there are Dungeness crab around but rarely caught….they catch primarily tanners (like Opillo’s but maybe bigger) and King crab…ok, we can live with that!!!
The air temp is now in the mid to hi 40’s and sea temp in the mid-40’s….about 2-4*F warmer…the Kabola actually seems to be able to maintain and turn off every so often!!!
Today, Friday, June 22 we left at 0630 for the 262nm overnighter to Inanudak Bay (affectionately called Hot Springs Bay by cruisers) on Umnak Island. ETA late Saturday afternoon. So far trawler like conditions…..lots of Dall Porpoises playing but no whales yet!!!
Hope all is well!!
John
Mystic Moon
GO MYSTIC GO!!
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