24 Jul 2016

Weather Allows Landing at Abandoned Inuit Village

This morning we came to the north eastern extremity of the Eurasian continent to a place called Cape Dezhnev.  This cape is named in honour of Semyon Dezhnev who in 1648 was the first European to sail through what is now known as the Bering Strait. If Captain James Cook had known Dezhnev's history it might have been named Dezhnev Strait, although to be fair Dezhnev’s diaries and notes of his expedition remained lost for many years.

Inuit (Eskimo) settled this region about 3000 years ago with the village of Naukan was established near Cape Dezhnev and was occupied until the 1950’s when it is inhabitants were “relocated” under a Soviet policy.  The remains of their stone houses (Yaranga) is all that remains.  It is an amazing experience to be here and try an imagine what it was like, I simply can’t think of a more beautiful, wild, and exhilarating place to live.

Today a solitary lighthouse, a monument to Dezhnev, stands guard at this site near the abandoned village.  It is difficult to land here and we were fortunate this morning to get everybody ashore and off again as several hours later the wind and the swell increased.  

We are now in the Chukchi Sea and heading northwards. 

Cape Dezhnev Lighthouse and stone remains of Eskimo Yarangas.

Photo credit: RRuss