The Aleutian Islands in October had a clear, open sky, a vast, cold north wind, and a sea of rolling waves. In this midautumn moment, it was perhaps the most suitable season of the entire year for sailing among the islands.
According to the local Unangax tribes, drift ice would begin floating down from the north of the islands in early November. By late November, perhaps after one night of Cold Wave, perhaps after one blizzard, the entire sea would be frozen over! From then on came the long winter: great snowstorms, great tempests, great Cold Waves, long polar nights... Every living creature on the islands had to hibernate in its den. Not until late April or early May of the following year would warm winds and sea currents arrive from the south, melting the frozen seal over the harbor and announcing the spring that had come so late!
However, the arrival of warm spring would bring another obstacle to sailing: the sea fog that spread across the entire island chain. The Unangax did not know what caused the sea fog, but according to the experience passed down through their generations, this sea fog was "the spirits of the southern God of Wind," related to the warm wind blowing from the south. The sea fog would appear in spring and reach its height in summer; at its thickest, it blanketed the world from morning to night, dispersing only for two double-hours at noon. When autumn came and the south wind turned north, the sea fog would grow fewer and shorter. But along with the cold north wind came "the spirits of the northern God of Wind"—the surging, freezing storms and tides!...
"Blessings of the Main God! So only in the gap where the southern God of Wind and the northern