1425: Sea of Okhotsk 11 Jun 2014

Day One – 11 June 2014 – Departure and at Sea
 
Position at 13:00 – 46º 37 N 142º 45 E
 
The majority of our expedition party had spent many hours and in some cases many days journeying across the world before convening in the city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. This morning the group met up in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and bundled into a bus to journey south to the Port of Korsakov and join the ship, meeting up with Ann, Lynn and Heather who had joined the ship two weeks earlier in Petropavlosk-Kamschatskiy and were now continuing their adventure further west.
 


Logs awaiting their destination at the Port of Korsakov. © Alex Fergus
 
We were aboard shortly before 13:00 and with formalities completed our captain began repositioning our ship the Professor Khromov before beginning the steam south and out of Aniva Bay. Folks spent the early afternoon settling into their cabins, exploring the ship and watching the ever-diminishing coastline of Sakhalin Island. At 16:00 Rodney summoned us down to the Lecture Room for an introduction to the staff, the ship, a general safety briefing and the all-important introduction to the use of the Zodiacs. At 18:00 the abandon ship emergency sirens rang and folks marched to their respective life boats and piled on in. The Russian crew rumbled the engines into action and we got a glimpse of how trying lifeboat conditions might be if we ever needed to use them. Shortly afterwards, under a falling cloak of fog, the ship rounded Cape Aniva and we began our run up the east coast of Sahkalin Island. Bruce and Jimmy treated us to the first of many fantastic evening meals and a small avian-enthused complement joined Chris in the bar in the late evening for the reading of the bird log as we continued north and east towards our first destination of Tyuleniy Island.
 
Position at 18:00 – 45º 57 N 143º 17 E
 
Chris’s top three birds for the day:

1. Least Auklet
2. Red-faced Cormorant
3. Ancient Murrelet

 
Mammal of the day:
Dall’s porpoise
 
 
Day Two – 12 June 2014 – Tyuleniy Island
 
Position at 06:00 – 47º56 N 144º24 E
 
Overnight we continued steaming up the eastern coast of Sahkalin, staying well off the coast in order to avoid the shallow waters that surround the island. Shortly after breakfast we approached the island of Tyuleniy. Tyuleniy sits at almost the eastern extremity of Sahkalin, beyond Terpeniya Cape at the very tip of the Terpeniya Peninsula. A gusting north north-west wind had begun catching the tops of the already heavy, rolling swell, indicating that today we would not get the opportunity to get off the ship and explore the island. We approached the south west corner of the Tyuleniy and could distinguish through the mists the shape of the island, noting a low plateau to the south and west littered with Steller Sea Lions and the research station (built to monitor the Sea Lions) positioned on the higher, rocky, northern end of the island. Hundreds of common Guillemots, Pelagic Cormorants and Black-Legged Kittiwakes hovered around the ship as we turned away from the island and began our course north to Pil’tun Bay.
 
A cup of tea later we joined Leonid and Karina in the Lecture Room for a presentation about the indigenous people of the Russian Far East. Leonid explained the different main groups of people across the different geographic components of the region. He touched on some of their traditions and their origins, including speculating on the origin of the mysterious Ainu people who have been present in this part of the world for upward of 7000 years.
 
In the middle of the afternoon Chris delivered a lecture providing an introduction to the seabirds of the Okhotsk Sea. He described the geography of the region, its immense size, the variation in climate and the fact that we were heading into one of the best areas in the world for observing representatives of the Auk group with11 species of Alcid up for grabs (at least in terms of observation). Beyond the Auks, Chris covered the Albatrosses, Shearwaters and Petrels, Gulls, Skuas and Terns, and finally the Cormorants, Sea Ducks and Phalaropes.
 
 
Position at 18:00 – 49º51 N 144º17 E
 
Chris’s top three birds for the day:

1. Common Guillemott
2. Northern Fulmar
3. Black-Legged Kittiwake

 
 
Mammal of the day:
Steller Sea Lion
 
 
Day Three – 13 June 2014 - Pil’tun Bay
 
Position at 06:00 – 52º 15 N 143º 54 E
 
After breakfast Alex introduced the plants and the ecology of flora of the Sakhalin and Okhotsk region. He discussed the factors controlling the distribution of species in this region and some key morphological traits useful for identification before ending with a selection of some of the fantastic species we might see. Rodney then took over with a briefing about the morning’s activities which included a Zodiac cruise, a Gray Whale search off the coast of Pil’tun Bay and a potential landing in the bay itself. The Gray Whale population here Rodney explained, is a bit of mystery. It is not clear if the whales in Pil’tun Bay represent a distinct population aligned with eastern or western populations of Grey Whales.
 
By 11:30 the Zodiacs were in the water and we were patrolling the heavy swell for Gray Whales. A Gray surfaced just ten metres in front of Chris’s Zodiac and released its blow of air. A few more of these inshore bottom-feeders could be seen amongst the swell, but with turbid water almost matching the colour of the whales, distinguishing them was not always easy. We headed inshore, skirting sandbanks and breaking swell as we got close to the mouth of the bay. Hundreds of Harbour Seals regarded us curiously as they bobbed about in the lumpiest patches of sea, while the greatest congregation could be seen once we finally reached calmer waters in a southern arm of the bay. Good numbers of Steller’s Sea Eagles could be seen on the muddy banks and there were some fantastic opportunities to snap Aleutian Terns in action feeding in the bay. Meanwhile Judd and his kayaking crew had ventured unknowingly into the fog offshore, where they could smell the breath of Steller’s Sea Lions and Gray Whales before they could see them, making for an interesting paddle. They eventually came within and arms reach of both species!
 
We landed the Zodiacs and plodded across a muddy beach to the raised, vegetated plateau beyond. Some folks joined Chris in the Stone Pine (Pinus pumila) searching for the Pine Grosbeak, while others took the opportunity to climb up the belly of the lighthouse and look out over the breaking fog. After a short time we boarded the Zodiacs once more and headed back toward the mouth of the bay, where the breaking swell made for what would be our most interesting Zodiac escapade of the expedition. By 15:00, perhaps a little later than we had hoped, we were back on board the ship for a late lunch. The afternoon was whiled away downloading photos and reading before the bar opened and dinner was served. As we retired the captain pushed the ship north and west, in the direction of Iony Island, a tiny speck all alone in the middle of the Okhotsk Sea.
 
KAYAKERS LOG:
Late morning: Sakhalin Island, Piltun Bay. Conditions were overcast and very foggy at times with 5-10 knots of wind. Very exposed anchorage with 1-2m swell. We paddled west to the shoreline and followed it south looking for Gray Whales. There was too much swell on the bar for us to get through so we continued south before returning to the ship. One Gray Whale was seen in the distance, one Steller Sea Lion in the water very close to us. There were loads of Harbour Seals around too.
 
 
 


Meghan gazes longingly out to sea – from her rusting lighthouse retreat.  © Alex Fergus
 
Position at 18:00 – 53º 22 N 143º 26 E
 
Chris’s top three birds for the day:

1. Aleutian Terns
2. Steller’s Sea Eagle
3. Pine Grosbeak

 
Mammal of the day:
Gray Whale
 
 
Day Four – 14 June 2014 – Iony Island
 
Position at 06:00 – 55º 80 N 143º 23 E
 
We enjoyed a late breakfast today at 08:00 while the ship continued to punch north and eastward at 13 knots toward Iony Island. A large patch of ice had been spotted in the early hours, boding well for our ice search the following day. By 10:00 the Zodiacs were disappearing into the mists again, following a bearing from the captain towards a rocky isle a few nautical miles from the ship. Iony Island appears to be a granitic intrusion and is really just an isolated speck in the ocean as there is nothing else for 150 nautical miles in any direction. We preceded to circumnavigate the island in the Zodiacs, exploring rocky inlets, following floating rafts of Least, Crested, Parakeet and Whiskered Auklets while being in awe of the massive size of the bull Steller Sea Lions studded on rock promontories around the island.
 

 
Kosta and the Cossacks – Dwarfed by a bull Steller Sea Lion. © Alex Fergus
 
We were all back on board by 12:15, had lunched within the hour and were ready for an afternoon of entertaining education at the hands of Evgeny and Fabrice. Evgeny introduced us to the topic of the East Asian Flyway, one of eight key global flyways, and the massive declines in migratory birds along the flyway. Evgeny explained the issues of management of a flyway and touched on a number of bird species that have undergone horrendous population declines due to habitat loss in one or more parts of the flyway. Evgeny told us about one of the species he has been working on with the support of Heritage Expeditions. The Spoon-billed Sandpiper, a species that breeds north of here along the Chukotka Coast, currently only numbers about 100 pairs. The situation is obviously dire, but there is hope with a captive rearing programme and education programmes along the East-Asian – Australasian flyway to save this species.
 
In the middle of the afternoon Fabrice took over from Evgeny and moved the theme from avian to historical. Fabrice delivered the first of a two-part (cliff-hanger) presentation about Vitus Bering and his great expeditions. Fabrice nested Bering’s Great Northern Expeditions in the historical understanding of the time, both in terms of geography and life sciences. We came to know Georg Steller and the officers of the St Peter and St Paul as one tragedy followed another. At the end of Part One, Bering’s wounded ship is limping toward the Commander Islands, scurvy is rife, the outlook grim… Our own ship was now heading south and west, toward the Shantar Archipelgo, our destination for the next two days.
 
Position at 18:00 – 56º 00 N 141º 41 E
 
Chris’s top three birds for the day:

1. Whiskered Auklet
2. Least Auklet
3. Created Auklet

 
Mammal of the day:
Steller Sea Lion
 
 
KAYAKERS LOG:
Morning: Iony Island. Conditions were very foggy but no real wind. Large swell and we were dropped off adrift. We paddled about a NM to get to the island then circumnavigated it clockwise twice before returning to the ship. Dozens of Steller Sea Lions on the rocks and in the water around and under kayaks and four types of Auklet and many other birds nesting on the island. Some current running from the east.
1 kayaker, 10.7km
 
 
Day Five – 15 June 2014 – the Shantar Archipelago
 
Position at 06:00 – 55º12 N 139º10 E
 
We awoke to overcast weather, poor visibility, wind gusting onto the shore, no birds and no seals; a despairing start to a day that could only improve. A swell out of the north east determined that the bay we had hoped to explore on the northern coast of Bol’shoy Island, the largest island in the Shantar Archipelago, was out of the question, so we headed south along the west coast of the Island following the straight between Bol’shoy and Feklistova Islands. After breakfast we joined Rodney in the Lecture Room for a briefing about the day’s activities and the Shantar Archipelago in general. Our current weather stymy he explained was the result of a high pressure system north of us, between Magadan and Kamchatka, pinning down a low pressure system in the south west corner of the Sea of Okhotsk. Moving north should alleviate this, but currently his intention was to explore the archipelago which was new territory for Heritage Expeditions. In the past pack ice had remained around the archipelago until early July, so Heritage had been unable to move as far south in previous years to truly explore these islands.
 
The weather began to ease by mid morning and to the south the two islands of the Utichy group could be seen, while to the east we could make out the conifer dominated coast of Bol’shoy Island. We rounded the southern peninsula of the western ark of Yakshina Guba, a protected gulf on the south of the island. On the hillsides above us a strongly defined ecotone (boundary between two vegetation classes or habitats) separating meadow from forest was easily seen. This ecological phenomenon is most likely driven by temperature and in this case the likely cause was extreme winds coming up off the ocean onto the southern edge of the coast.
 
In the early afternoon we took five Zodiacs across the calm waters of Yakshina Guba. Once ashore we split into four groups. Chris’s birding team followed the track along the ecotone between the delta and the forest, and then headed deeper in to the forest and followed a stream towards the interior of the island. The Russian team headed to the river, crossed tundra and then returned along the shore. Likewise the French team aimed for the river, in search of a pair of nesting Steller’s Sea Eagles. The final group with Alex were officially the botanists, but would perhaps be better described as seekers of the most varied natural history experience. They headed up into the forest where they followed a bear track along the edge of the coastal cliffs, through the most beautiful Larch and Spruce forest that continuously opened in dips and troughs into colour flushes of purple Oxytropes and Beach Peas, flashes of white Lapland Cornel, yellow and red crowns of Roseroot stonecrops (Rhodiola). They returned along the coastal cliffs and followed another bear path along the delta – forest boundary, until finding a small hut and the remnants of what appeared to be some sort of hay-cutting setup. The walk continued further along the wetland edge until they reached an open swathe of grassland, where eagles could be seen nesting in the distance, while frogs and mounds of ants’ nest surrounded the feet.
 

 
The seekers of the most varied natural history experience at the Larch-forest edge overlooking Yakshina Gulf.  © Alex Fergus
 

 
The Okhotsk Clematis (Atragene ochotensis) - a fantastic purple-flowered climber seen sprawling, in flower, over the mixed Larch and Spruce forest floor of Bol’Shoy Shantar.
 
After dinner Rodney announced that ice had been found on the radar and small pieces could now be seen in the water around the ship. As we were now in heavy fog, with only a few metres of visibility, this was not a tenable position for the ship for the evening. The Captain began to move the Spirit of Enderby north a few miles, where we would drift overnight and return to the ice boundary at 05:00.
 
Position at 18:00 – 54º35 N 137º39 E
 
Chris’s top three birds for the day:

1. Steller’s Sea Eagle
2. Spectacled Guillemot
3. Dusky Warbler

 
Mammal of the day: 
Red Fox
 
Alex’s plant of the day:
Atragene ochotensis – Okhotsk Clematis.
 
 
Day Six – 16 June 2014 – Seal Passage (Proliy Lindgorma)
 
Position at 06:00 – 54º18 N 138º10 E
 
When we woke that morning there was ice around the ship and early risers were rewarded with the first sighting at 07:00 of a Ribbon Seal on ice around the ship. Within fifteen minutes more animals were seen both to port and starboard. Captain Alexander continued to push the ship south into the ice until 09:30 when we reached our southernmost limit in Akademii Bay.
 

 
The Professor Khromov amid ice. © Alex Fergus
 
The Captain turned the ship and we followed a different route out of the bay and the archipelago. Rodney had suggested to the Captain to exit via the passage (Proliy Lindgorma) between Seneka Point (a peninsula off the mainland) and two islands to the north, Malyy Shantar and Belichky. Soon after lunchtime Ribbon Seals had once again appeared around the ship and as we wound through the ice over the next three hours, hundreds more were seen. Best estimates by our various counters place the afternoons tally at 350+ Ribbon Seals, 350+ Largha Seals, 40+ Bearded Seals and 30+ Ringed Seals!
 

 
One of the 350 or so Ribbon Seals we encountered on our afternoon in Seal Passage. © Alex Fergus
 
A truly phenomenal afternoon was spent spotting the four ice seal species on the ice floes around the ship, with 57 individuals seen on a single floe. Shortly after 16:00 we broke clear of the ice and continued north to Feklistova Island, where a small exploratory party landed in the early evening. By 20:45 the ships anchors were up and we were heading toward the Mal’minskiye Islands to our north.
 
Position at 18:00 – 54º43 N 137º03 E
 
Chris’s top three birds for the day:

1. Spectacled Guillemot
2. Tufted Puffin
3. Steller’s Sea Eagle

 
Mammal of the day: 
Ribbon and Bearded Seals (first equal).
 
 
Day Seven – 17 June 2014 – Mal’minskiye Islands
 
Position at 06:00 – 56º13 N 138º06 E
 
Overnight we had moved from sea ice and heavy fog to a calm, clear, balmy (8.5ºC) morning as we followed the undulating coast of the mainland north. Shortly after breakfast we met with Rodney in the Lecture Room for an outline of the day ahead in the Mal’minskiye Island group. This small group of offshore islands lies between L’gotnyy Point in the south and Nurki Point in the north of the mainland. Rodney introduced us to the island group while Evgeny expanded on the level of protection these islands have as part of the Dzhugdzhursky Zapovednik Federal Reserve and the generalities of reserve systems in Russia. Around 09:00 all five Zodiacs were in the water and we were heading towards the masses of rock that make up the eastern most of the islands. Good numbers of Tufted Puffins, Spectacled Guillemots and Parakeet Auklets were seen at sea before we surveyed the jagged coasts of the small rocky islets.
 

 
One of the rocky islets making up the Mal’minskiye Island group. © Alex Fergus
 

 
Tufted Puffin near the largest of the Mal’minskiye Islands. © Alex Fergus
 
We went ashore on a gravel spit to the west of the largest of the Mal’minskiye Islands to explore a small patch of coastline and to observe the Tufted Puffins nesting atop columnar rock slabs above the beach edge. A small patch of birch forest held together a steep slope on the south-west of the island, while another spit of gravel extended westward into the sea. Judd and his kayak squad pulled ashore for a quick cricket match, before we all returned to the ship.
 
At 12:30 two engines roared into action and we were away north toward Okhotsk. In the afternoon Meghan opened the sea shop before Fabrice delivered Part Two of his story on the adventures of Bering in the late afternoon. In this final espisode Bering immediately perished, Steller came into his own finally having the opportunity to discover and describe new species and the remnants of the expedition finally returned to Petropavlosk-Kamschatskiy.
 
KAYAKERS LOG:
Morning: Malminskie Islands. Conditions were calm and sunny, with a very large swell at a very exposed anchorage. One knot current from the south. We paddled to the islands and circumnavigated them anti-clockwise. We had a stop on one of them that had a sandy spit and returned to the ship. Large numbers of Tufted Puffins, Speckled Gullimonts and some Horned Puffins. Some Harbour Seals in the water and onshore.
3 kayakers, 8.5km
 
 
Chris’s top three birds for the day:

1. Spectacled Guillemot
2. Steller’s Sea Eagle
3. Parakeet Auklet

 
Mammal of the day:
Dalls’ Porpoise
 
Position at 18:00 – 57º23 N 139º51 E
 
 
Day Eight – 18 June 2014 – Okhotsk
 
Position at 06:00 – 59º11 N 143º06 E
 
An early breakfast saw us all in the Lecture Room by 07:15 where Rodney held a briefing about the unashamedly history-focused day ahead in the seaside town of Okhotsk. Within half an hour we were in the Zodiacs heading towards the mouth of the estuary that leads to Okhotsk town. After negotiating the bar with some local assistance we landed to find a small crowd amassed to welcome us. Our visit began with dancing from a local troupe followed by a breaking of bread of sorts, before we made our way to the museum via a number of local monuments.
 
 
 
Our welcome in Okhotsk.  © Alex Fergus
 
We crossed Lenin Square and met Viktor Morokov, the director of the museum who took us on a tour of the natural and human-history based exhibits which included information about the indigenous people, Bering and the more recent history of the region. We then headed back into town to the cultural centre of Okhotsk. There we were warmly greeted with more baked goods before being invited to tie a ceremonial ribbon around a larch in the hope of our wishes coming true.
 

 
The Larch-wish ceremony.  © Alex Fergus
 

 
One of the fantastic local dance troupes. © Alex Fergus
 
We visited the cultural museum where we were treated to a local dish similar to crepes before settling in for a wonderful cultural performance. This featured multiple local dance troupes and singers, who showed off their great talents and showed their joy in performing for us. From indigenous themes such as fox-chases to Cossack classics, we were treated to a huge variety of song and dance encouraging many of our complement to join in. We returned to the ship, via a quick herring bag grab courtesy of Leonid and Evgeny, abuzz with cultural richness. A minor blip in the afternoon saw a lecture replaced with essential Zodiac repairs as we changed track and began heading east for Talin Island.
 
Position at 18:00 – 59º13 N 144º46 E
 
Chris’s top three birds for the day:

1. Steller’s Sea Eagle
2. Slaty-backed Gull
3. Aleutian Tern

 
Mammal of the day:
Largha Seal
 
 
Day Nine – 19 June 2014 – Talin Island
 
Position at 06:00 – 59º19 N 149º02 E
 
Mercifully, the pea-soup fog surrounding the ship at 04:00 dictated that the majority of us would remain happily asleep until 05:00, by which time the clag hanging over the island had abated. By 05:30 those who had emerged from their cabins were aboard the Zodiacs and making a line for Talin Island, the home of hundreds of thousands of Crested Auklets. Across the dawn skies flurries of Crested Auklets flickered directionally like snow, while a pack of eight Steller’s Sea Eagles proceeded to harangue the resident population of Black-Footed Kittwakes. We circumnavigated the island before landing near the researchers hut and taking some time to get a more personal feeling for the island, be it from ferny slopes amid Horned Puffin nests or from the coastal rocky beaches watching the fans of puffins and auklets sway between land and sea.
 
Back on the ship we set sail for the Koni Peninsula and mid-afternoon in the Lecture Room Chris introduced us to the Migratory Birds of the Far East. He ran through the migratory seabirds, shorebirds and landbirds in this part of the world, explaining the reason why each species migrates, be it for food, to moult or to breed, and where many of them come from or go to. Later in the afternoon Rodney took over the Lecture Room and relayed one of the saddest chapters in the history of the Okhotsk region, the time of the Gulag system. Rodney provided us with a background to the Gulags, the evolving groups targeted as political prisoners and the system and its purpose as it was established in this area. It was hugely valuable to have this background to the legacy of sorrow that dominates recent history in the Okhotsk region. The melancholy of this sombre presentation was lifted however by the opening of the bar before dinner. At 18:36 Chris’s voice resounded with glee across the ship’s PA system as an immature Short-Tailed Albatross was spotted near the bow, 1770 nautical miles from its home of Torishima Island to the south. The highlight of the evening was the appearance of a celebrity chef in the form of Leonid, who delivered on the haul of (someone else’s) herring acquired the previous day.
 
KAYAKERS LOG:
Early Morning: Talan Island. Five knots of wind and overcast. There was some current between the island and the coast running south on the outgoing tide. We circumnavigated Talon Island anti-clockwise. Heaps of Horned and Tufted Puffins and Crested Auklets in the air and on the water. Nice cliffs.
1 Kayaker, 11.1km
 


Crested Auklets at Talin Island. © Alex Fergus

 
Fabrice and his Tufted Puffin. © Alex Fergus
 
Position at 18:00 – 58º47 N 151º34 E
 
Chris’s top three birds for the day:

1. Short-Tailed Albatross
2. Crested Auklet
3. Horned Puffin

 
Mammal of the day:
Dalls’ Porpoise
 
 
Day Ten – 20 June 2014 – Harlankina River and Yamskiye Islands
 
Position at 06:00 – 59º11 N 154º49 E
 
On the heels of breakfast came the briefing for our very action-packed day. We would begin with a landing at Harlankina River before continuing on to the Yamskiye Islands. On our clearest, crispest, most summery morning yet, we headed towards the beach at the mouth of the Harlankina River. In three groups we wandered in the direction of bird life, photographic wonders, or upwards in search of views. While Fabrice and Chris’s groups wandered along the true right of the river, Alex’s team followed a bear track across multiple habitat types and advanced to an open summit looking down onto the bay below.
 

 
Team faster, longer, higher.  © Alex Fergus
 
As they attained the targeted summit news came via radio that the teams below had spotted bears and within a few minutes Meghan had one on her heels as she beat a track to the beach. Helena breathlessly relayed this news to us but we were helpless to give assistance being some 300 vertical metres above her, watching the procession. Fortunately everything ended well. We wandered back down hill, spying Pika amongst the rocks as we walked, as well as some incredible plant life. Everyone was back aboard for lunch as the ship steamed towards the Yamskiye Islands.

 
Pika at Harlankina River.   © Alex Fergus
 
 
 
Exotic Bleeding Heart – Dicentra peregrina – a very rare Far Eastern species limited to open disturbed habitat (Harlankina River).   © Alex Fergus
 
We arrived at the Yamskiye Island group by mid afternoon and began exploring the coast of the largest of the Yamskiye Islands by Zodiac and kayak. Angular volcanic towers, buttresses and arches created a fantastic craggy coastline to explore as we made our way to the Steller Sea Lion colony where something incredible happened. We maintained our distance from the colony in order not to disturb the animals, but within minutes the water around our craft began to murmur as Sea Lions advanced upon the Zodiacs in a frenzied, frothing armada. For the next few hours we watched in awe as time and time again great groups rose in the water around us, barking with curiosity, often porpoising beside us. We finally managed to tear ourselves away and explore a little more of the coast before coming to the joint decision that we would briefly return to the ship before spending the evening around the islands. Before 19:00 we had returned to the largest of Yamskiye Islands and begun a circumnavigation from the east. As the light began to fade, ever increasing flotillas of Crested and Least Auklets began amassing on the calm coastal waters around the island. As the sun began to set, the air around us was alive with twisting flocks toing and froing above the islands rock spires and open grassy swathes. We returned to the ship for a late night feast and a mental rest, a chance to start to digest the natural history phenomena provided by both the bird and mammal life on the Yamskiye Islands.
 

 
Steller Sea Lions a froth with play around the Yamskiye Iskands.   © Alex Fergus
 
Position at 18:00 – 59º19 N 155º51 E
 
KAYAKERS LOG:
Afternoon: Yamskiye Islands and Matykil Island. Conditions were flat calm with 4 to 5 knots of current running to the east along Matykil Island. We ferry glided from the ship adrift to an eddy behind a large rock, then headed around the eastern side of the island out of the current. We paddled into a large cave then around to the Steller Sea Lion haul out. Had a mad experience with Sea Lions all around and under the kayaks. Eddy hopped back to the ship.
3 Kayakers, 9.6km
 
 
Chris’s top three birds for the day:

1. Least Auklet
2. Crested Auklet
3. Siberian Ruby Throat

 
Mammals of the day (from the kayak crew):
Stellers Sea Lions, and in second place, because they’re so damn cute, Northern Pika.
 
Alex’s plant of the day:
Dicentra peregrina - Exotic Bleeding Heart
 
 
 
Day Eleven – 21 June 2014 – Astronomicheskaya Bay, Koni Peninsula
 
Position at 06:00 – 59º03 N 153º31 E
 
An early start to a wonderfully calm and sunny Saturday morning. We dropped anchor outside Astronomicheskaya Bay at 06:30 and two hours later we were cruising the shores of the bay in search of Brown Bear on our last landing for the voyage. In the distance two cubs could be seen skiddooing over patches of snow while mama bear looked on. We edged our way around the rocks towards a small cove where we landed and split into our four groups. Chris and Fabrice headed towards the forest, while Meghan and Alex led a group to a rocky outcrop. A completely different landscape greeted us today. This ranged from tundra with many different species to open Larch forest which provides good nesting habitat for both the Steller’s Sea Eagle, (documented on the nest here) and a very pale Rough-Legged Buzzard some short distance away. Back on board the ship the afternoon comprised of lunch, the settling of accounts and the packing of bags. In the late afternoon Rodney called us all down to the Lecture Room for a disembarkation briefing and an expedition recap. Meghan had assembled a magnificent slideshow of staff photographs which served to remind us how fortunate we had all been to share in the natural and cultural history of this very remote part of the world. Bruce and Jimmy had prepared an enormous buffet feast for our last meal, which was capped on either end with bow-riding Dall’s Porpoise (the time of the meal, not the meal itself!). The reading of the final bird list and another slideshow complements of Nikolay ended another great day on the Sea of Okhotsk.
 
KAYAKERS LOG:
Morning: Koni Peninsula, Astronomicheskiy. Conditions were sunny with a little cloud coming through and up to 10 knots of wind by the end of the paddle. We paddled from the anchorage to the rocky coast NE of the entrance of the lagoon to see a bear and her three cubs. We then headed back past the entrance and had a stop on a beach. We then headed along the coast out to the far point and returned to the ship. One Bearded Seal on the rocks and two Steller’s Sea Eagles seen.
1 Kayaker, 12.2km
 
Total of 6 paddles for 63.5km

 
Pinguicula macroceros – Large-Spur Butterwort, an insect-eater found in wetter habitat types.  © Alex Fergus
 

 
Larch forest at Astronomicheskaya Bay. © Alex Fergus
 
Position at 18:00 – 58º48 N 152º10 E
 
Chris’s top three birds for the day:

1. Stejnegers Stonechat
2. Steller’s Sea Eagle (on nest)
3. Rough-Legged Buzzard

 
Alex’s plant of the day:
Pinguicula macroceros – Large-Spur Butterwort (an insectivorous delight).
 
 
Day Twelve – 22 June 2014 – Magadan, Disembarkation
 
With bags packed, we met for our final breakfast. At 08:00 the pilot boarded the ship and we entered the port of Magadan. Busses began to arrive shortly after breakfast and within an hour our company had disbanded and everyone headed off to their respective corners of the globe. Thanks to all for the camaraderie, the willingness to explore remote corners of the world and the passionate love of wild things in wild places.

Words and photos © Alex Fergus.