No place like Nome
17 July 2012 | Nome, Alaska
Rachel
We've now been in Nome since Wednesday, 11th July- a very odd place: their motto is No place like Nome, displayed on the front of the Nome Nugget (the oldest newspaper in Alaska), and they have many such jokes, "When in Nome.... etc", there's an off-beat and very friendly air about the locals.
We arrived about 3.00 am in the morning, bright light still - the sunset is still shows int he sky as the sunrise begins, and on this morning very theatrical fiery colours with amazing flaming red clouds like huge cigars... showing up the enormous antenae, sattelite dishes, ungainly huge buildings and all the rest of USA civilisation that is quite a shock after a week at sea... we anchored beside the busy channel just inside the breakwater and were at once called up on the VHF "Hi sailboat! Where are you from? Welcome to Nome"...by several different people, the locals are busy here all daylight hours which is more or less 24 hours....
Even as we arrived we saw these strange un-seaworthy craft crawling around near the shore, low to the water with small upright wheelhouses, and gigantic pipes all over the deck - we couldn't figure them out, a bit like those low stretched out bicycles....... Next morning in the small boat harbour we woke to see film crews all over the pontoons, next to us filming a flamboyant one called, "Anchor Management": they turn out to be gold dredgers! 63 are registered here according to the local paper (compared with 17 registered fishing boats, all crabbers), and more are being created so it's the latest gold rush as the price of gold goes high... .Already TV has started the rush, which has also been exacerbated by California having just outlawed such dredging. These guys were filming a scripted "reality" TV show "Bering sea gold" like the long-running "Deadliest Catch" a rip roaring blokish Alaska program, complete with swaggering "skipper" (we watched him being directed, camera crew crowding in on the small pontoon)... these small dredgers are like low vacuum cleaners and have a guy in wetsuit on the bottom under them hoovering up the sand, hot water and air being piped down to him, whcih is then crudelly sluiced on board. Further out are bigger dredges that work all 24 hours ..
Soon came another crew filming "Dangerous Waters" for the Discovery channel of 6 young men trying to go around the world on jet skis. These guys went across the Bering strait a few days before, had landed at Russia in fog, their cameras on their handlbars only to be confronted by a tank on shore, guns trained on them by surly soldiers and an angry army colonel who unknowingly picked up their small camera and stared down at it, big fur hat and handlbar mustache no doubt giving them great TV, then they were arrested and put in jail in spite of having visas pre-arranged... After 3 days there were sent back and with contracted filming deadlines looming were desperate for more footage and advice - they have decided to do the north west passage and soon were in the cockpit filming Pete showing them charts and giving wise advice After that farewells with Pete were filmed, shortly afterwards touching greetings "Hi we're looking for advice etc..." , all as if this is totally normal behaviour, the animated sincerity just getting more intense as the cameras roll...but very likable guys nonetheless!... And walking around town you see more film crews, French windsurfers looking for ice loading diesel into jerry cans while a cameraman muscles in behind... weird!
By the way the customs guy also turned out to be very friendly and chilled out which was a great relief - he looked carefully at our crusing permit (with its expiry date of 13th July) and said nothing, and made none of the usual enquiries about firearms, nothing to cause any unpleasantness!
We are now rafted against a large UK boat, Upchuck, also destined for the North West passage and pretty glad to find we are too... a slightly odd assortment of people got together by Frank, a Manchester manufacturer of portacabins and instant multi-story carparks: he got cancer, put his huge posh boat on the market in Seattle, got cured and as the boat hadn't sold is having this adventure to celebrate: the crew all hired at the last minute via the internet. One Aussie, one Irish and 2 other Brits...A local family has been showing us all around and yesterday drove us out 70 miles each way to Council: this huge highway over tundra serves maybe 30 summer cabins... one of the joys of Nome is that unlike most places there are roads so you can get out and see the countryside, All the way a few brightly coloured fishing camps of the locals, or huge old machinery bits slowly sinking into the permafrost, maybe 15 enormous dredgers plus other odds and ends including an entire railway that was begun but never reached a mile... We also saw a wonderful bright red fox, beaver dams of great beauty, great gangling cranes (we were given crane soup and musk ox stew by this friendly family the night before). The guys caught some fish when we eventually arrived at the river by the old gold town of Council, and we grilled it on a fire beside the river before heading back to Nome..
We've also researched the bars... Yes this town is not a dry area like many local ones (each town decides, and some like Chignik its not prohibited but can't be sold) But Nome is neither and there is clearly a big problem...
We're possibly leaving in the next few days but we can't leave safely till we know the ice is clear up beyond Barrow as there's nowhere to shelter at all for hundreds of miles up there, its not only very exposed but in the Bering strait especially can have huge currents (up to 6 knots we've been told. Big winds can whip up out of nowhere, and since it's also shallow, and when wind and tide are different this can be a very dangerous sea... so we'll fuel up tomorrow morning and if the ice reports are favourable will leave midday as the winds are good. Otherwise, and more likely, the ice is still too big past Barow so we'll wait and it is looking like probably another 4 or 5 days till there are favourable winds...
Our Danish friends on sailboat Solare not yet here, but due today probably, or maybe tomorrow. So we know of 3 of us plus these jet ski guys who left today..