Welcome to the Canteen/asylum!! We may be weird, but we're lovable!!
Welcome to the Canteen/asylum!! We may be weird, but we're lovable!!
t.....the hat trick #150, #200, #250!!
Good morning fellow cubevillians! 
Luggage was offloaded Sunday from the Clipper Odyssey, which grounded Saturday night off the Baby Islands in the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. The 340-foot luxury vessel traveled to Unalaska-Dutch Harbor under its own power. (Photo by Jim Paulin)
Published: August 2, 2004
Cruise ship hits rock; passengers evacuated safely
REFLOATED: Rising tide allows vessel to make port; fuel spill amount unclear.
By DOUG O'HARRA Anchorage Daily News
(Published: August 2, 2004)
An eco-touring cruise ship on a Nome-to-Homer sightseeing trip hit a rock in Akutan Pass in the Aleutian Islands on Saturday night, prompting a flotilla of local boats to ferry more than 150 passengers and crew members about 20 miles into Dutch Harbor that night.
The Unalaska-Dutch Harbor community quickly laid down its welcome plank for the surprise guests -- with the Grand Aleutian Hotel setting up beds in conference rooms and locals delivering goodies, residents said.
"There was a huge outpouring of help from the community, and there were a lot of good Samaritan vessels that actually transferred all of the passengers into Dutch Harbor," said U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Daryl Wilson. "Best of all is that there are no reports of any injuries, and that's great."
The 338-foot Clipper Odyssey grounded and punctured its hull off Baby Islands east of Unalaska Island shortly before 9:14 p.m. Saturday with 126 passengers and 70 crew members aboard, according to the Coast Guard and a spokesman for the St. Louis-based Clipper Cruise Lines.
Initial reports suggested an unknown amount of light diesel fuel had leaked at the time of the grounding, but no sheen was seen Sunday during a Coast Guard helicopter flight, according to company and Coast Guard officials.
It wasn't clear Sunday how much fuel went into the ocean during the incident. Chief Warrant Officer Roddy Corr on Unalaska told The Associated Press that 5,000 gallons of fuel had leaked, with two of the ship's chambers ruptured and a gray water tank flooded.
But Clipper spokesman Doug Bolnick said the boat had been carrying only 5,000 gallons in a 20,000-gallon tank during the grounding and had spilled a small amount of fuel.
"The Coast Guard is going to be conducting a marine investigation into this to determine what happened," Wilson said.
The boat, on the seventh day of a 12-day trip, was approaching a promising bird-viewing site after dinner when it struck an uncharted rock in about 70 feet of water, Bolnick said in a phone interview from St. Louis on Sunday evening. The boat was moving at 4 to 5 knots and struck with a "crunching sound," Bolnick said.
Paté animal: A tabby turns crabby when a photographer strays too close to its mashed meat in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. The U.S. National Park Service plans to trap about 200 of the feral cats and send them to animal shelters.
Madge, 'CSI' is all snowy Migrating purple martins wreck the reception in Sedalia, Mo.
