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Pan Viva headed to sea after weathering intense Unalaska storm

The 738-foot Panamanian vessel stopped in the area early Saturday morning to seek shelter from a powerful storm. High winds have kept the ship from leaving.
Photo courtesy of Ellis Berry
The 738-foot Panamanian vessel stopped in the area early Saturday morning to seek shelter from a powerful storm. High winds kept the ship from leaving.

After several days of waiting out a storm near Unalaska, the Pan Viva is on the move and headed to its destination port in Washington State. The U.S. Coast Guard order which kept the vessel in place for most of Monday has been lifted.

A pilot boarded the 738-foot cargo ship to bring it closer to Summer Bay, where the four crew members who were evacuated from the ship Saturday afternoon as a precautionary measure re-embarked. Two tugboats, the Gretchen Dunlap and James Dunlap, assisted.

The Pan Viva is still missing its starboard anchor after losing it Sunday afternoon outside Constantine Bay. The port anchor was successfully raised Monday.

Over the weekend, the Pan Viva’s port anchor dragged across the seafloor in high winds and rough waves, picking up old fishing gear and debris before securing in place. Jim Butler, the liaison officer for the Anchorage-based Unified Command leading the response efforts, said that both the raised and lost anchors did not interfere with the GCI AU-Aleutians fiber optic cable.

Butler said, “There’s no issues with the propulsion or maneuverability of the vessel, so once the crew embarks and they can clear some of the debris that was collected when the anchor drug and was pulled, they should have it secure and ready for sea.”

The Pan Viva was traveling from China to Washington State along the great circle route — a pathway used by mariners and aviators that creates the shortest distance between two points on the globe — when weather conditions forced it to reroute. The ship is expected to continue its journey to Kalama, Washington once underway.

Born and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina, Andy Lusk is a writer, travel enthusiast and seafood aficionado who won the jackpot by landing in Unalaska/Dutch Harbor. When he's not hiking or working on his latest story, you can find him curled up with his cats and a good book. Andy is a Report for America corps member and an alumnus of New York University.
Sofia was born and raised in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. She’s reported around the U.S. for local public radio stations, NPR and National Native News. Sofia has a Master of Arts in Environmental Science and Natural Resource Journalism from the University of Montana, a graduate certificate in Documentary Studies from the Salt Institute and a Bachelor of Arts in Studio Arts from the University of Colorado Boulder. In between her studies, Sofia was a ski bum in Telluride, Colorado for a few years.
Hailing from Southwest Washington, Maggie moved to Unalaska in 2019. She's dabbled in independent print journalism in Oregon and completed her Master of Arts in English Studies at Western Washington University — where she also taught Rhetoric and Composition courses.
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