22 Jun 2014

Yamskiye Skies

We arrived this morning at the historic Port of Magadan, gateway to Kolyma Gold Fields and farewelled our passengers from the Sea of Okhotsk voyage. Some of the group are continuing on with an expedition following the notorious Road of Bones (Kolyma Highway) while others are taking a personalised Goldfields and Gulags tour.

Before our arrival in Magadan we explored the Koni Peninsula area to the east where the highlight was undoubtedly the time spent in the waters around the Yamskiye Islands. Reminiscent of our day on the ice with the Ribbon Seals, it was here we had another once in a lifetime assault to the senses. Mere words do not really do this experience justice, but imagine a glassy calm sea with literally hundreds of thousands of Crested and Least Auklets continuously winging their way through the clear blue skies above us. We postponed dinner until after sunset at 10pm to make the most of our front row seats for this incredible performance. It is something only a small handful of people have ever witnessed, so we felt immensely fortunate to be there. We took time to reflect on our expedition at a special farewell dinner last night and numerous highlights were mentioned. The overwhelming conclusion was unanimous, that the Sea of Okhotsk is an incredible destination we had been privileged to experience. 

We are now steaming for Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy where we will meet the expeditioners who will join us to cruise northwards following the spring into the Arctic tundra.