(Courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard)

The processing vessel Excellence was tied up at a cold storage dock in Unalaska on Friday when efforts to repair a damaged ammonia line went wrong. Their store of ammonia -- more than 20,000 pounds -- started to leak. The crew were evacuated safely, although two local welders were taken off the ship and medevaced to Anchorage.

Gina Walker, the hospitality manager at the Grand Aleutian Hotel, says the Excellence’s purser contacted her Friday afternoon asking for rooms for her crew.

Almost immediately, they showed up at Walker’s front door.

"When they arrived, they didn’t have anything but the clothing on their back," Walker says. "They weren’t able to get back onto the vessel to get their personal belongings. A lot of them didn’t have money, IDs. We accommodated them the best they could. We provided them with food, we provided them with bedding. We just did what we could to make them more comfortable. And they were happy with what we provided."

One of the crew members, an electrician named Leonard Lobaugh, was playig poker in the hotel lobby this afternoon. He says the hotel’s just fine – for those who are allowed to stay there.

"Only bigwigs here at the hotel," he says. "We’re all at Westward and Alyeska. What I hear, the women have better accommodations, because there are three people to a room with bathrooms in the rooms. Guys, wherever we stay, it’s like bunkhouses where the bathroom and the shower’s down the hallway."

Lobaugh and most of the crew are staying at local fish processors. The Excellence’s operator, Premier Pacific Seafoods, is paying for their food and lodging there. The crew only came to the Grand Aleutian today to get lunch and meet with their bosses.

They were supposed to find out if they’ll get advances on their paychecks, like they usually do while they’re in port. But the meeting was delayed. Some sat and napped in the hotel’s oversized chairs while they waited, or talked in a conference room that’s been set aside for them.

One processor who declined to give his name, was getting ready to go to the grocery store next to the hotel for the fifth time. He doesn’t need anything – he just doesn’t know where else to go. 

None of the crew knows when, or if, they’ll be able to go back to work. Most expect that their company will have to fly them back home to Seattle, but they weren’t willing to say that on tape for fear of getting fired. Premier Pacific Seafoods says they’ll pay to fly the Excellence crew home if it comes to that. Ideally, they want the crew to leave the way they came -- on board the Excellence.