03 Aug 2017

SHO: Gray Whales Greet Us

Our first ever Northern Sea Route Expedition aboard the Akademik Shokalskiy commenced in Anadyr on July 31^st.  As I write this we have just transitted the Bering Strait and have turned west.  We have made our first landings. Yesterday we were at Whale Bone Alley on Yttygran Island, (a famous Arctic archaeological site dating back to the 14^th century .. perhaps even older) then we took the zodiacs whale watching.  Gray Whales from California spend the summer in this region and we saw many of them. We also had a good encounter with the Pacific Walrus, we located a haulout with about 450 animals present. Yesterday afternoon we enjoy the hospitality of local Chukchi people in Gil’mimyl Bay. Many of us took the opportunity to soak in the nearby hot thermal pools out in the tundra.

This morning we landed at Cape Dezhnev, the Northeastern most point of the Eurasian continent. Fog obscured our view, so could not see across the Bering Strait to Alaska. As I write this we are steaming to a new anchorage at Uelen village where if the weather is OK we plan to spend the rest of the day, before continuing westward.

Rodney Russ. Expedition Leader