The communities are connected by land and residents continue to push for a road. But standing in-between is the 315,000-acre Izembek National Wildlife Refuge.
Izembek Lagoon contains North America's largest eelgrass bed and is important to a wide variety of wildlife species, including migratory waterfowl, shorebirds, and aquatic and land mammals.
According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Izembek Refuge may be best known for the huge number of brant, a small sea goose, that stop over during spring and fall migrations on their way to and from their breeding areas in Alaska, Canada, and Russia. The entire Pacific population of black brant, approximately 150,000 birds, can be seen in the Izembek Lagoon area every fall.
King Cove residents, backed by the Alaska congressional delegation, wanted to build a one-lane, 27-mile gravel road, including almost nine miles that crossed the refuge, to allow ambulances and other vehicles to pass.
Conservation groups fought the proposal, fearing that roads through other wilderness areas would follow.
As a compromise, Congress in 1998 agreed to provide alternative access. The hovercraft will cost $8.8 million and is part of a $35 million marine and road transportation link paid for with federal dollars.
Aleutians East Borough Administrator Bob Juettner said residents went to Congress asking for an easement and came out with the multimillion dollar project.
"We would have preferred a road. However, Congress dictated a road-marine link," Juettner said. "Under the circumstances, the hovercraft best fits our needs."
In the past, Samuelson said, patients with medical emergencies relied on Good Samaritans in the harbor - often 50-60 foot fishing boats - for rides to King Cove. In winter, they at times had to break through ice to reach the dock. Patients confined stretchers were hoisted with the same boom used to unload crab pots.
Even now, if small airplanes cannot fly, King Cove residents must cross the 18 miles to Cold Bay by boat. Depending on the size of the boat and the tides, they might have to climb 10 feet to 16 feet up an ice-encrusted vertical ladder to reach a dock a quarter-mile from shore at Cold Bay, Juettner said.
"You wait for the boat to go up, and go down and go for the ladder," said Della Trumble. "It's a timing thing."
Trumble's niece was born on a boat making the crossing.
She made the crossing many times trying to reach the airport for trips to Anchorage or other villages in her jobs as an administrator with the East Aleutians Tribes.
The icing and the blowing make the trip scary, especially for people like her who are susceptible to seasickness. Transit for people who are seriously ill is especially unpleasant.
"It's not comfortable at all if you have any sort of medical problem," Trumble said.
She does not see the hovercraft as the final solution. The hovercraft is rated to operate in winds of 70 mph.
"Our winds get higher than that, the gusts themselves. I think we had winds last December of 120 miles per hour," she said.
The vessel has a freight capacity of 47,500 pounds, equal to two DC-6 aircraft. Borough officials hope King Cove-based Peter Pan Seafoods will use the vessel to carry seafood on a 20-minute run to Cold Bay.
"It could mean improved quality of millions of pounds of Alaska seafood processed in King Cove because of more reliable, faster access to the largest airstrip west of Anchorage," Juettner said.
Peter Pan ships out millions of pounds of seafood year-round from King Cove but limits air shipments to cod milt and salmon roe, according to the borough.
Borough officials also hope the hovercraft is a boon for Aleutia, the local brand of premium quality sockeye salmon marketed by Aleutians East families.
Most of the Aleutia harvest has come from Sand Point. Unreliable transportation has made it difficult for King Cove families to sell their fish.
"The hovercraft gives us a way to get fresh premium-quality Aleutia sockeye off the boat in King Cove and onto the market within 24 hours," said Aleutia President Bob Barnett. "It's an incredible opportunity."
The hovercraft is being constructed in Seattle by Kvichak Marine under an agreement reached between the borough and Hoverworks, Ltd. of the United Kingdom. The hovercraft should be finished within a year.
The hovercraft will be 95 feet long, 42 feet wide and will travel an average of 52 mph. A passenger cabin will be equipped with seating for 47 passengers and space for two wheelchairs.
It will have roll-on, roll-off capacity for an ambulance and other cargo. The vessel will be able to operate routinely in waves of 6.5 feet and winds of up to 46 mph.
The borough is constructing a gravel road for residents to drive to the hovercraft terminal site from King Cove. Other parts of the project include a terminal hangar at King Cove, a passenger terminal at Cold Bay, plus landing ramps.
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On the Net:
Aleutians East Borough: www.aleutianseast.org/
Izembek National Wildlife Refuge: http://alaska.fws.gov/nwr/izembek/index.htm
