16 Aug 2013

Herald and Wrangel Island

It has been a while since my last blog, but that doesn’t mean there hasn't been anything to report. To the contrary, we have been busy with multiple landings each day. The low pressure system that brought the strong N–NE winds moved east as we sailed across the Chukchi Sea and it was followed by a period calm weather.

Conditions when we arrived at Herald Island were ideal for a Zodiac cruise and a landing. The group really enjoyed the dramatic landscape of this spectacular island. From Herald we cruised across to Wrangel Island and made landfall in Somnitelnaya Bay. We spent a great day there enjoying walks in the tundra with the reserve staff. The 5 passengers who had signed up for the Wrangel Overland Traverse remained behind as we sailed that evening. Next morning we spent in ice looking for wildlife and had some success in briefly sighting Polar Bears and Walrus. We sailed east and over the last couple days we have Zodiac cruised or made landings at Cape Warring, Ptichy Bazar, Cape Florence, Komsomol, Dream Head and Nahodka Island. As I write this we are cruising to Usnakovskoye to drop off the rangers and researchers who have accompanied us on our journey and pick up the second team of Wrangel Overlanders who joined at Cape Florence. We will farewell Wrangel this afternoon and begin our journey home.