Across the Top of the World

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Across the Top of the World - #1128

Across the Top of the World - #1130

Trip Log
Across the Top of the World
27th July to 10th August, 2011
Voyage # 1128

27th July, 2011: Anadyr, Russia   

After arriving from Nome, Alaska on various charter fights, and from the Eurasian side of the Bering Strait as well, we were taxied from the airport to a ferry and crossed the Anadyr River to the town of Anadyr. We were lucky enough to spot our first wildlife species as White beluga whales and Largha seals were seen in the river.
Just before 1700 we collected on the dock where we were met by the ship’s Zodiacs and shuttled out to our floating home for the next two weeks, the Spirit of Enderby (Professor Khromov, as she is also known). Originally a research vessel and still serving in that capacity on occasion, the Spirit of Enderby was a welcomed sight after the many hours of travel most of us endured to finally reach the Russian Far East.
The last of our expedition party did not arrive at the ship until later in the evening, at which time we were welcomed onboard by our Expedition Leader, Aaron Russ and we then enjoyed our first dinner together. Considering the long travel day most of us had had, he explained he would postpone the expedition briefing for the following day. After dinner most people went off to bed early for a good rest in preparation for the next day’s adventures.

28th July, 2011: Cape Achchen

Our first full day on the ship began with Aaron’s expedition briefing in the lecture room. He gave a short history of the ship, and began the staff introductions by introducing himself then Julia, the Assistant Expedition Leader from Travel Pacific. Marie then took the microphone and explained some of her background before joining Heritage Expeditions as Cruise Director and Hotel Manager. Adrian and Joanna -- representatives of Polar Quest -- also introduced themselves, and joining everyone onboard were former staff members Dean and Tess, who were filming for a future Australian television documentary. Last, but not least, Rodney Russ, the founder of Heritage Expeditions, gave us some of his background, and Katya told of her work and experience in the area. Rodney and Katya would only be with us until Wrangel Island where they would be staying for several weeks to work with researchers, photograph, and explore.
Later in the morning we participated in the mandatory lifeboat drill which all went smoothly, with all guests accounted for.
In Anadyr the ship had cleared Russian formalities far ahead of schedule which now gave us a little extra time for some Zodiac cruising along the bird cliffs of Cape Achchen. We saw many species including Harlequin ducks, Tufted puffins, Black-legged kittiwakes, and Pigeon, Common, and Brunnich’s guillemots.
In the early evening we gathered in the bar for drinks and a staff recap of the day’s activities. Aaron showed us a photograph of a Tufted Puffin he had found floating in the water so we could get a better idea of its actual size; to the surprise of many, it was a much larger bird than it appeared in flight.

29th July, 2011: Yttygran Island and Gilmimyl

We awoke today to calm seas, we had reached Yttygran Island overnight and anchored within view of it. This was the location of the renowned “Whalebone Alley,” possibly the foremost archaeological site in all the Arctic. The scattered white columns of Bowhead Whale jaw bones could be seen from the ship, and we eagerly anticipated going ashore after breakfast.
Onshore we separated into small groups to walk carefully around the site. At the far end was an intriguing rectangular pit, walled up with carefully stacked flat beach stones and encircled at the top by three huge whale skulls. We could only speculate as to the purpose of the pit, obviously constructed with a lot of thought and care. In the grassy area in from the beach the whale jaw bones that still stood were far fewer than shown in old photos of the site when there were enough to demarcate a kind of alleyway that gave the place its popular name. Closer inspection of the jaw bones showed that they had been sunk in ground and braced with large stones. It is thought that boats were stored off the ground on the line of bones.
Among a jumble of rocks back from the shore were many rough stone “cellars” that had been constructed and these were thought to have been used to store meat. Studies of Whalebone Alley indicated it had never been a permanent settlement, but rather a temporary summer hunting and fishing camp, possibly used by many surrounding clans or groups.
After investigating the site, one group took a long hike to the top of a saddle between two hills for a view of the tundra stretching down and away towards the distant hills. From the top we could hear Sandhill cranes, but try as we could, we could not find them on the slope.
In the afternoon it was back into the Zodiacs and into a river mouth to a grassy shoreline at a place called Gilmimyl. Morton had a spotting scope focused on a Red-necked Stint as well as some Plovers. Some people set off for a hike to the local hot springs where several took a dip in the rustic bathing “tub”; others hiked farther on and saw several pairs of Sandhill Cranes along the way, as well as a small Northern Wheatear. Laurie led a tundra crawl with a small group of people all interested in studying the tiny plants and lichens in more detail, and The Enderby Ladies’ Botanical Society was thus initiated. Although mostly concentrated on the ground, the group looked up occasionally to catch sight of some birds: an Arctic Skua stayed nearby, walking along the higher ground up from the river, and a pair of Sandhill Cranes were heard and then finally spotted on a distant hillside.
Some of us walked over to see a house near the beach and met Ivan, a Chukchi fisherman who was netting and drying salmon. He came from a village nearby, but stayed at his camp most of the summer. He made us a present of a few dried salmon and some fresh ones as well. With such delicacies as fresh salmon and wild mushrooms readily at hand, we could understand why Ivan would choose to pass the summer here.

30th July, 2011: Cape Dezhnev and Uelen

In the misty cold morning we anchored off Cape Dezhnev. It was a splashy landing on a steep stone beach, but with all the help at the Zodiacs it was not too difficult to get onto shore. Morton led us up the beach to a path that took us up a steep slope and then across a small stream, and then up another, easier slope. On top the most amazing collection of dwellings spread out in front of us, below the monument to Simeon Dezhnev. There were a few ramshackle modern dwellings still clinging to the hillsides that were used previously by border guards but now only occupied in summer by the occasional hunter. The original stone dwellings were homes for the Eskimos who occupied the village, called “Naukan,” for about 300 years and mainly hunted whales. Most of the foundations and some walls of the dwellings were intact, and a few even retained the jaw bone roof trusses that supported a cover originally made of hides. Modern touches to the stone houses included metal stove boxes and the crumbling remains of typical Russian brick heating and cooking stoves. The Eskimos were moved out by the Soviet authorities in 1958 with sad consequences to their clan and family relationships, as well as their traditional way of life and sense of place.
There were wildflowers all over the slopes and in the boggy streams of water flowing through the grass. This was the first place we saw the Arctic Forget-me-not and its beautiful sprays of bright blue flowers. Overhead we spotted a couple of ravens that were calling to each other and wheeling in the wind blowing upslope from the sea.
Back at the ship before lunch, Morton gave an “Introduction to the Birds of Chukotka and Wrangel Island.” He showed photos of many of the birds of the region, including the Spoon-billed Sandpiper, an iconic species of Chukotka, and explained how Rodney and Heritage Expeditions were spearheading some conservation initiatives for the species.
After lunch we found ourselves moving northwards into some ice that had come out of the Chukchi Sea, north of the Bering Strait and then followed the coastline south until disappearing near Cape Dezhnev. We soon reached the town of Uelen, the Zodiacs were lowered from the ship into open spaces among the small ice flows and we loaded up and wound our way through the ice to shore. Once in Uelen we walked to the museum at one end of town where we saw some old and modern examples of walrus ivory carving and scrimshaw. We next visited a school where Katya translated for Alyesia, a teacher at the school, who explained the school system and the Chukchi language and culture classes she taught.
In front of the school some boys were kicking around a soccer ball and Simon and some others joined in the fun. Across the street there was a stage with some chairs set up and we enjoyed an enthusiastic performance of traditional dances by a group of local men and women, as well as some youngsters. It was nice to see dancers of all ages participating, from children to grandmothers. The dancers’ movements were accompanied by chanting and the rhythmic beating of an instrument consisting of a hide stretched over a large, round frame and struck with a stick. The dances depicted the traditional life of the Chukchi: hunting stories, whaling expeditions, and men trying to gain the attention of women. At the conclusion, the dancers invited us to join them and we tried our best to keep time and follow their movements, to the laughter and amusement of everyone.
The fog had moved in when it was time to return to the ship, and finding the  really challenged the navigational skills of the Zodiac drivers. Not only was there ice floating everywhere, it was astounding how easy it was to hide a huge blue boat in all that fog and sleet and drizzle. Finally, however, we were all back on board after an interesting afternoon spent in town.
During our recap in the bar, Katya explained a little about the Russian and Eskimo history of Cape Dezhnev, and Adrian showed off a sling that he obtained from a man in Uelen who was using it at the landing. The man on the beach could launch a stone a good distance and with great accuracy, but Adrian admitted he had a hard time even getting a rock to stay in the sling’s pouch. Aaron then gave us the briefing for the next day, and put us on notice to expect a true expedition morning. He explained that we knew where we wanted to go, but due to the ice, weren’t sure when we would get there. We were advised to listen for announcements.
After dinner we found we were rapidly approaching the Arctic Circle at 66.33.66 degrees North latitude. Everyone was urged to come up to bar to celebrate the crossing into the Arctic, with a proper Arctic vodka toast. Nicki initiated everyone with “the mark of the polar bear” stamp she had carved from a potato, and everyone was duly imprinted with a blue paw print on their forehead.

31st July, 2011: Kolyuchin Island

This morning found the Spirit of Enderby north of the Arctic Circle. A narrow band of pack ice was hugging the shore, but the ship was already close to the Kolyuchin Inlet and making good time to our morning destination, Kolyuchin Island.
Kolyuchin Island soon became visible in the distance and became larger and larger as we approached. The abandoned buildings of an old meteorological station stood out on the top of the island, and farther along the cliff face flocks of birds could be seen wheeling over the ocean. Soon we were even able to make out a number of Polar Bears lying or wandering about the tundra, about ten in total, including a mother and two 2-year old cubs. The number of bears meant that we wouldn’t be landing and instead planned for a Zodiac cruise along the bird cliffs.
With Aaron, Morton, Katya, Kostya, and Marie driving, everyone got great views of Horned Puffins, Pigeon Guillemots, Brunnich’s Guillemots, and other species. We caught sight of a mother Polar Bear swimming with her two cubs, as well as a Polar Bear in a cave dug out of some of the remaining snow on the coast.
In the afternoon Rodney presented his talk on the “Russification” of the Far East, and Laurie later lectured on the ‘tundra plant community’. Katya followed up with ‘Wrangel Island History and Nature’ in preparation for our upcoming visit to the island nature reserve.
A short while after the last lecture of the afternoon we gathered in the bar for some liquid refreshments. Katya led off the recaps by expanding more on the information she had already given us about Polar Bears on Wrangel Island. She also explained that the snow cave in which we saw the Polar Bear during the morning Zodiac cruise was not a maternity den, but just a resting place a bear had carved out of the snow. A maternity den, we were told, would never have been made so close to the water. Morton followed up with news of a few whale sightings from the bridge -- two grays and a bowhead -- but explained that they were only seen for an instant. He encouraged us all to be up on the bridge to catch even a brief glimpse of these and other marine mammals. Marie continued with the enlightening observation that, while most of our focus has been on just a single phylum of organisms -- the vertebrates -- we walked by invertebrates on the beach at Cape Dezhnev from six separate phyla without so much as a glance. She showed us some of the sea creatures she had collected earlier, and left them displayed for later examination. Aaron wrapped up the talks with the briefing for our exploration of Wrangel Island, a destination many of us had only dreamed of reaching, but was now just a day’s sailing away.

1st August, 2011: Doubtful, Wrangel Island

Overnight we experienced rough seas during our crossing of the Long Strait between the mainland and Wrangel Island. This morning we still had a way to travel until Wrangel was in sight.
After breakfast, Katya spoke on the ‘Future of a Polar Bear in the Greenhouse World’. Considering the adaptive-ness of Polar Bears and their evolutionary history, there is hope for their future in a warming Arctic. Polar Bears can likely meet the challenges of changes in ice patterns and prey shifts, but their biggest problem is going to be the increase in human activity in the region, bringing bears and people into conflict. More protected areas, better management of poaching, and increased education of peoples living in regions with polar bears will improve the outlook for the species’ survival.
We finally reached Wrangel Island, an area renowned for its biological diversity and more than ever the Alaska-Chukchi population of Polar Bears. It was made a strict nature preserve in 1976, and is also a World Heritage Site. The marine area surrounding the island is also strictly protected.
Later in the morning we were able to make a landing at Doubtful, a small settlement that is used by researchers and rangers of the preserve. On the Zodiac drive to shore we saw a polar bear swimming, and the island staff who greeted us told us that five bears had come ashore just the day before. We walked through the settled area with Irina Menyushina, a Senior Scientist and long-time researcher who studies Snowy owls and Arctic fox. She showed us the “guest house” that is used as living quarters. We continued out onto the tundra and walked to the old military base and airstrip. Bright purple clumps of wooly Louseworts were everywhere, along with poppies, cotton grass, and many different saxifrages. Irina told us that a wolverine makes its maternity den every spring in the snow that fills one of the rusted metal hangars, and that the cubs are born in May. Three other island researchers and rangers who joined us on shore came aboard with Irina and they stayed with us for our tour of Wrangel Island.
In the afternoon the Captain repositioned the ship to Predatelskaya Bay and the Mammoth River where we took the Zodiacs in behind the spit and landed allowing us to walk through the tundra. We saw Snowy owls and were shown how their favorite perches are easily spotted from the greener vegetation beneath where they sit. We learnt that this year had not been a good one for the nesting owls because the Lemming population had crashed due to disease and many baby owls did not survive. We also saw Snow geese and Brent geese on the other side of the river, and despite the drop in their numbers, Lemming tunnels and holes were everywhere.
We returned to the ship for a late dinner, afterwards most people retired to their cabins as it had been an exciting first day on this incredible island.

2nd August, 2011: Herald Island / Dragi Bay, Wrangel Island

Today we reached Herald Island, a remote, forbidding rock to the northeast of Wrangel. Its natural claim to fame is as a prime denning site for Polar Bears, with even higher den densities than Wrangel Island. It is also known as the last landing and ultimate resting place of four of the Karluk’s expedition members.
After breakfast, the Zodiacs were loaded and we set off to cruise the shorelines beneath the towering cliffs of Herald Island. Pigeon and Common Guillemots whirred overhead on their way out to, or in from the sea, with many Black-legged Kittiwakes circling above and the occasional pair of Horned Puffins perched on ledges. We saw a solo Polar Bear on the beach, and then another in a snow cave just above the beach that we watched for a long time. Bear and people observed each other for a quite a while, with the Bear becoming bored with the whole business and laying its huge head back on its paws to continue the nap we had disturbed. We drove off happy that our encounter had left the bear snoozing as we had found him.
After lunch Vasily gave us a lecture on ‘Snow Geese and Other Wildlife of Wrangel Island’. Wrangel Island is the main breeding area for the species in Russia and Asia. There were approximately 150,000 birds on Wrangel, and about 60,000 nests in a good year.
In the afternoon we headed off to Dragi Bay back on Wrangel Island. As we were cruising in the Zodiacs we spotted two bears resting next to each other along the top of the ridge jutting out into the bay. Then a young bear, a female it was thought, began a cautious walk down a steep path to the shore where it began to feed on a walrus skin. Another bear came down the slope and displaced the younger one at the food, and it was joined by a third adult bear. Despite some cautious supplication gestures by the younger bear, she apparently was given no encouraging sign by the larger ones and the nervous youngster decided to leave the beach and swim around the point. We got some excellent group photographs of all three bears, but then left them to their snack and motored on into the harbour and pulled up on a long beach. Some of the Wrangel Island staff got off first to check out the landing, and with the all clear sign given, we climbed up the beach and into amazing tundra, patterned with irregular polygons from the frost heaving of the soil. The centers of the various shapes were clay and mud, and the borders were packed with moss and all kinds of flowering plants. Pieces of White Worm Lichens were strewn all over the tundra, looking more like bits of bleached twigs and sticks than a living organism.
In the evening the ship headed out of Dragi Bay, around the island towards the west side where there might be pack ice with wildlife.

3rd August, 2011: Cape Florence

During the night at 0243 the ship reached the most northerly position it would on the voyage.
On the bridge our ever-vigilant wildlife spotter, Morton, reported eleven bears in the tundra and on the sea ice, as well as some walrus. Ahead of the ship the ice stretched farther out to sea. Small flocks of Snow Geese flew by, seals popped their heads out of the open water in front of the ship, and on the distant edge of the ice floes walrus were hauled out enjoying the sunshine. We anchored at Cape Florence among the floating pieces of pack ice and loaded all five Zodiacs for a stealthy approach to the estimated 300 or so walrus we had viewed from the bridge on the ice and in the water. We approached several groups and got great views and photographs of walrus interactions and could hear them snorting at one another, and probably at us. As we were leaving the walrus, we pulled up onto a large, solid ice floe for a little walkabout before heading back to the ship.
After a taco buffet lunch, Morton implored us to come to the bridge for a glorious afternoon cruising by the mountainous western coast of Wrangel. We had made our way around the island again to Cape Blossom and into Long Strait. The sun was brilliant on the sea and on the ice, with high, snow-dusted mountains in the distance, an altogether glorious sight. The pack ice that remained up against the shore precluded shore landings so Sergei offered to present a talk on what life was like on Wrangel Island, ‘Living side by side: Humans and Wildlife on Wrangel Island’. Sergei remarked that instead of noisy traffic, people on Wrangel have a continually changing National Geographic view of the world outside their windows everyday.
Eventually the ship rounded Cape Blossom where a small shelter and marker were visible back from the beach; this was the famed “field of bones”. This area got its name from the decades of accumulated walrus remains that polar bears occasionally snacked on when little else was available. Because it is a strict protected area we could not land on the Cape proper, but just a little farther down the coast we went onshore for some planned long and short walks. However, the plan changed as a group of Musk oxen were spotted and the Wrangel Island staff led the whole group on a slow, quiet approach to get as close as possible for photos and observation. We got within far telephoto range of the herd of about 15 animals, that included some young that looked like perfect miniatures of the adults. We crouched and sat for a long while with great views of them alternately grazing and standing and staring back at us. They eventually moved on and our attention switched to a young Arctic fox that was seen trotting towards us, but then changed course. In the tundra vegetation someone discovered the tip of a mammoth tusk protruding above the moss and we wondered if the rest of the mammoth was somewhere below it, still attached. Small flocks of Snow Geese appeared in the sky, on their way somewhere in a hurry. The evening light on the tundra was magnificent and our shadows grew longer and longer as the angle of the sun decreased. Soon it was time to hike back to the Zodiacs and return to the ship for a late dinner and early bedtime for most.

4th August, 2011: Cape Hawaii

We headed east all night along the southern shore of Wrangel Island and morning found us anchored east of the town of Ushakovskoye at a place called Cape Hawaii. Calm seas prevailed and after breakfast we shuttled to shore to explore. Our walks took us along the edge of a river where we were not disappointed with the morning’s sightings: Snowy owls, Arctic fox, polar bear, and several lemmings, one of which sat at its burrow’s entrance under a rock ledge and posed for nearly an hour of endless photo taking by engrossed observers. A species of coltsfoot, in the daisy family with large triangular leaves was common in amongst the tundra mosses and other vegetation.
In the afternoon we came ashore at Rodgers Inlet and the town of Ushakovskoye, another former Wrangel Island community. It was obvious why it had been sited here in 1926 because the inlet provided a calm and sheltered harbor for the town. At its busiest, the town had about 200 residents, but with the break up of the Soviet Union, support and resupply of it, along with many other arctic settlements -- slowed and then stopped. Ushakovskoye persisted for a number of years on its collective stores, but eventually the residents had to leave.
On shore we were introduced to Grisha Kaurgin who has lived on the island for 50 years, since he was seven years old. He has herded reindeer, hunted marine mammals, traveled the length and breadth of the island by dog sled, writes poetry, dances, and sings. He worked for the preserve for many years, and now is employed at the meteorological station. The station was once the largest in the Arctic, and there are weather records from this location stretching back many decades.
Despite persistent rumors to the contrary, there was never a gulag, or prison labor camp, on Wrangel. In 1981, however, when Vasily first came to Ushakovskoye, he might have felt as if he had been sent to one: “... but after the first five years, it wasn’t too bad ....” he told us. He gave us a personal account of life in the town in better days. There was a school, a preschool, library, post office, and a market where every family could buy one bottle of vodka on Saturdays. There was also a “club” where films were shown, and dances and other community events were held. Ushakovskoye was now a bleak, cheerless jumble of structures in various stages of collapse, with piles of empty fuel barrels, metal scraps, and household items literally everywhere. Just outside of town, however, we were again in unspoiled tundra. Morton led a stealthy approach towards a Snowy Owl and everyone was able to get a photo of the bird.
Back in the center of the settlement there was a collection of skulls and bones and a mammoth tusk recovered from the tundra. Irina brought out a traditional reindeer garment and Grisha modeled it for us, explaining that the fur was worn on the inside in winter, and on the outside in summer. He was asked to demonstrate some of the dances we assumed he had learned as a boy, and he gave a spontaneous presentation of a couple hunting scenarios that we really enjoyed and appreciated. Grisha’s dog, Chuk, joined in at one point as well, apparently also enjoying the show.
We returned to the Zodiacs for the short ride out of Rodgers Inlet and back to the ship. A recap of the day’s activities was followed in the lounge, by Aaron sharing some interesting observations of the rocks he had found onshore. They included a piece of slate and another composed of slate and sandstone with a seam of white quartz running through it. The sedimentary layers had originally formed on the sea floor, but had been heated and pressed and tilted by geologic forces over the ages with the later intrusion of the quartz. Next followed a question-and-answer session with the Wrangel Island staff who would be leaving us the next day. Aaron then concluded with a brief “precap” of the next day’s activities, and it was off to another great meal prepared by super chefs Nicki and Simon.

5th August, 2011: Doubtful Spit and Bay

Morning found the Spirit of Enderby anchored again off Doubtful Spit for a morning excursion. After breakfast we were promptly loaded into the Zodiacs and motored off only to come up short of the shore by the nearby blow of a Gray Whale. It had likely been feeding in the area, but after seeing us began to swim back and forth in front of the line of boats. Some of the boats were able to get closer, perhaps as the whale grew a little more confident we meant no harm. Adrian and Johanna later commented that it was the closest whale encounter that either of them had ever experienced.
Once on shore Vasily provided an introduction to the site, explaining that a hunter had lived there in the 1960s and 1970s before the island became a protected area. The house in which he lived had been removed, but scattered fuel drums, walrus skulls and bones, and a pile of rusting leg-hold traps told of a long occupation of the site.
With the rangers leading the way, we approached a flock of about a dozen Black Brent Geese feeding on the far side of a small lake. We got fairly close as they calmed down after each quiet advance. Finally they flew off and we divided up with a couple rangers leading each group on a short tundra walk and a longer hike down the beach and to the far side of another body of water. The tundra walkers came upon two Dunlins and two Red-necked Stints feeding in the mud of a wet patch of tundra. They poked their bills repeatedly in the mud, searching for tiny creatures to eat, and Morton explained how different species of waders with different bill lengths divided up the resources at a single feeding spot. We also saw some Ruddy Turnstones, and Laurie pointed out the striking oyster plant growing in the gravel with its dusky blue-gray leaves and long, spreading flower stalks with clusters of dark blue flowers at their ends.
As we were returning to the ship, Rodney and Katya were making final preparations for leaving it for a month’s stay on Wrangel Island. We wished them and the Wrangel Island staff, who were also getting off here at Doubtful, the best of luck.
‘Everything Walrus’ was presented by Morton in the bar as an informal talk along with a question-and-answer session. Evening drinks and a recap followed, along with the next day’s expedition briefing by Aaron. Dinner was duly announced and we moved to the dining rooms to continue sharing our experiences of the day.

6th August, 2011: Southbound

The rough seas that rocked us in our bunks all night would likely continue and our planned landing after breakfast was not possible, so we continued heading south and hopefully, out of the worst of the weather. The first part of the BBC documentary, Spy on the Ice, was shown in the lecture room, after which Morton led another natural history discussion, this time about Polar Bears. The high interest level was measured by how long we sat in the bar, engrossed by the fascinating details of their life on the ice, the threats they face, and management issues. The Russian approach is to allow no rifles and insist on behavior that puts neither people nor Polar Bears in harm’s way. In Svalbard, Canada, and the United States there is a totally different mindset and rifles are standard issue. Morton is working to change what he and many other enlightened Polar Bear biologists perceive as mismanagement of Polar Bear-human interactions, but concedes that it is not an easy thing to do.
After lunch we viewed one of the BBC’s Wild Arctic series’ documentaries on Wrangel Island. Later on Laurie and the ‘Enderby Ladies’ Botanical Society’ held a plant identification workshop in the bar to research and put names to some of the different flowers that were seen and photographed during the voyage.
At recap, Adrian talked about the Swedish explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiold’s exploration of this area, and Marie conducted a short course on latitude and longitude, and how to measure distances and timings from charts on the bridge. The best recap of the evening, however, was a summarisation of the day’s sailing by Erik with the traditional mariner’s saying “We joined the Navy to see the world and what did we see, we saw the sea.”
Dinner by Nicki and Simon was again a sumptuous feast, but how they ever managed to prepare such meals in a rolling galley was nothing short of miraculous.

7th August, 2011: South of Kolyuchin Inlet

After breakfast, the weather conditions made for a bit of a wet ride, but all five Zodiacs made it ashore at Kolyuchin Inlet where we anchored one in the sand and tied the others together just in case the wind picked up. The shoreline just up from the stoney beach was thick with a grass that looked like a stalk of wheat. Just inland, however, the landscape changed to peaty clumps of moss and grass, scattered flowers, mostly in the Compositae plant family that includes Daisies, Goldenrod, and Dandelions and relatively bare elevated areas that were colonised by Lichens, some Mushrooms, Cloudberry, Crowberry, and willows. Looking the length of the spit we could make out ribbons of vegetation in long, sweeping arches that delineated the outlines of old beach dune formations. On the far side of a more distant water body we spotted one Polar Bear and kept a watch on its movements, but he never headed in our direction. We later heard and then saw a beautiful pair of Sandhill cranes lift off from the ground and wing their way just above the tundra and out in front of the sea.
After making a large loop around the narrow peninsula on which we landed, we returned by picking our way down a muddy gully to the beach and back to the boats. The beach was littered with large pieces of kelp, small sponges that had been scraped off their moorings, and mussel shells. Once again in the Zodiacs we moved a little distance down the coast towards a navigation marker and small house, and pulled up on the beach again. Morton put the scope on a small flock of Emperor geese and we all had good views of this strikingly colored goose. A few White-billed divers were on the water, and several were seen flying in from the sea, honking softly as they flew. Some of the group decided they had walked enough for one morning and returned to the ship while the rest of the group walked farther along the shore of the lagoon. Along with a few more bird sightings we also saw two people walking out to meet us at the boats. They were Aleksey and his wife Natalia who lived in the small house we saw and have been doing walrus and other marine mammal counts in the area of the inlet and Kolyuchin Island since May. We were giving Natalia a ride to Anadyr from where she was flying to St. Petersburg. Aleksey would continue to work the whole season in the area.
After lunch Adrian gave a talk in Swedish on Nordenskiold and his ship, the Vega, and then we viewed the second part of the “Spy on the Ice” documentary. Laurie’s lichen lecture was postponed a half hour because just at that time we passed closest to the point where 130 years earlier Nordenskiold got stuck in the ice. We gathered on deck to toast the Swedish explorer and to take photos of the coast and each other. Laurie’s presentation ‘Lichen Biology and Ecology’ then began in the lecture room and we learned some fascinating facts about these composite organisms that were a symbiosis between fungi and algae.
At recap Julia introduced Natalia to the whole group and briefly summarised the work she and her husband did censusing walrus and recording bird nesting and abundance in the area. Aaron briefed us on the next day’s plan, and then it was downstairs to the dining rooms. The seas were a little calmer this evening than the night before, and maybe tonight they would gently rock us to sleep and not out of our bunks.

8th August, 2011: Big Diomede (Ratmanova) Island

The ship dropped anchor off Big Diomede Island, known in Russia as Ostrov Ratmanova. The sun shone brilliantly in the sky with high clouds but a long, dense fog bank had settled in off to the east on the American side. By Janne’s estimate there were about thirty Gray whales blowing all around the ship where we anchored, this estimate was later revised to more than fifty. The steamy exhalations were visible everywhere, with an occasional sighting of a long, lumpy back and sometimes an arched tail and raised flukes signaling a deep feeding dive. The air and water were full of birds from the cliffs of Big Diomede.
There was one good walrus sighting, but an unfortunate one as it was a carcass that floated by on our port side. It still had its head and tusks, so likely died of natural causes.
The numbers of birds wheeling and darting overhead was astounding: Horned and Tufted puffins, Pigeon guillemots, Crested, Parakeet, and Least Auklets, Cormorants, and a flock of Harlequin ducks were among the more noteworthy. The cliff face of Big Diomede seemed to have more soil and vegetation than other bird cliffs we had seen, as well as evidence of seemingly recent landslides. A rusty-orange lichen coated the surface of most of the rock faces underneath the birds’ roosts, and Laurie pointed out that its abundance was likely due to its preference for sites with more nutrients.
Too soon, it seemed, we had to return to the ship to continue motoring south. On the way back, however, we had the additional pleasure of some close views of Gray whales that were feeding some distance from the ship, as well as right off the bow and gangway. We saw even more whales after lunch as the ship slowed to pass through an area where an estimated 100 Gray whales were having theirs. To the port, starboard, bow, and stern there were whale sightings, blows, long dark backs, and sometimes a pair of flukes. The tally for the day was an estimated 300 animals. Flying or floating among the diving and surfacing whales were Shearwaters, Kittiwakes, Phalaropes, and Fulmars. The water color in the area was a greenish brown, perhaps an algal bloom combined with the bottom sediments stirred up by all the feeding activity.
There was a lively crowd already in the bar in the early evening, and after everyone settled with drinks, recap followed with Aaron talking about a family label of wine, Morton speaking about Phalaropes, and Laurie with a note on permafrost and tundra CO2 losses contributing to global warming. The evening seemed shorter as indeed it was, with darkness coming earlier the farther south we traveled.

9th August, 2011: Southward

A bright blue sky and slightly rolling seas greeted us today as we motored westward, having sailed passed Provideniya during the night.
Breakfast was slightly later after which Aaron gave the expedition departure briefing in the lecture room. Nicki then presented a slide show she had put together with contributing staff members’ photographs and all set to music. It was really a nice presentation, and copies were available for purchase. One by one the staff took a minute and wished everyone onboard a safe journey home, and hoped to see us on a future voyage. Wildlife lists for the trip recorded 51 bird species, 11 species of marine mammals, and 73 polar bears!
The main activity keeping everyone busy in the afternoon seemed to be organising and packing. In the later afternoon a much needed break was offered by Dean and Tess for anyone interested in viewing a couple of short documentaries they had filmed on Macquarie Island.
At the regular social hour in the bar complimentary cocktails were served, a special drink prepared by Julia called “Border guard Knockout”. The seats were filled as everyone, it seemed, joined in around the tables for our last get-together before the voyage’s end tomorrow.

10th August, 2011: Anadyr

It was a bright, but overcast day for our departure. Anadirsky Liman was calm and the sun broke through the clouds every now and then and shined off the estuary’s waters, while a few belugas swam about the ship. After some last minute reorganisation of our luggage, we enjoyed an early breakfast and then left the ship in groups depending on our flights to Nome or Moscow. The Zodiacs shuttled us to shore and then we were off to the airport for our respective flights home.

This Trip Report can be downloaded as a pdf at the bottom of this page, contact us for further Trip Reports

Trip Log
Across the Top of the World
10th to 24th August, 2011
Voyage # 1130

10th August 2011: Anadyr, Russia   

The flight from Nome arrived into Anadyr, Russia to what began as a nice day.  From the ferry to town we saw Beluga whales and Largha seals in the river. While waiting to board our ship, the Spirit of Enderby we explored the town and visited the museum, shopping center, and photographed a large, impressive wooden church.  There was a kind of ship graveyard offshore that appeared to serve as a breakwater. 

The weather, unfortunately, quickly deteriorated over the course of the day and when the ship’s Zodiacs picked us up on shore later in the afternoon it was wet and windy. The flight from Moscow arrived after the Nome flights, and the weather had become so rough that the Harbor Master suspended the Zodiac shuttles.  Instead, the ferry brought the last group of guests directly to the ship.  Finally we were all aboard and settled into our cabins on the Spirit of Enderby, also known as the Professor Khromov, our home for the next two weeks’ during our exploration of the Russian Far East.  We were advised that a hot dinner awaited us in the dining room, after which most of us were off to our beds for a good night’s sleep following the long travel day.

11th August 2011: Cape Achchen

We had rough seas all night sailing from Anadyrsky Bay into the Bering Sea and northwards along the coast.  We were given a trip briefing by our Expedition Leader, Aaron Russ. After which Marie, our Cruise Director and Hotel Manager, gave us the details of shipboard life and an explanation of how things worked on the cruise.  The rest of the staff introduced themselves, including our guides, Adam and Laurie, Chefs, Brad and Simon, our physician for the voyage, Dr. Tom and our onboard photographic specialist Ewen.

Later in the morning we attended the Zodiac briefing in preparation for cruising and shore excursions.  After lunch we finally came to a calm anchorage behind Cape Achchen and boarded the Zodiacs to put into practice what we had learned in the briefing. 

A really rare and noteworthy wildlife sighting was credited to Dean who saw a wolverine at the top of a ridge during the walk.  Several other people got a good look at it before it disappeared.  We walked to the top of the ridge and other nature observations included Northern wheatears, a Dunlin, and many arctic wildflowers.  We got to taste crowberries, blueberries, and cloudberries.  The constant drizzle did little to dampen our excitement of our first Zodiac cruise and shore excursion, and we returned to the ship looking forward to our next adventure.

The next adventure, however -- if you could call it that -- was the mandatory lifeboat drill.  Everyone executed the drill with precision and then it was off to dinner as the ship weighed anchor and set off from Cape Achchen.  We were again rocked by southerly winds and swells, but it was definitely calmer than earlier in the day.

12th August 2011: Gilmimyl and Yttygran Island       

This morning we disembarked at a place called ‘Gilmimyl’ for hiking, tundra exploration, and even a dip in a hot spring.  On our hikes we could hear Sandhill cranes, but they were difficult to spot.  At the hot springs a number of people climbed into the rustic tub that had been constructed and soaked in the warm, steaming water.  The tundra was bright with many late summer flowers including the yellow Bog saxifrage, many daisies, willowherbs, and tiny, red cranberry leaves that looked like flower petals.       

On the tundra back from the shore a Chukchi fisherman, Ivan, had his summer camp.  He netted and smoked salmon that he caught at the mouth of the river.  He was there with his sister, Tonya, and some other people from Moscow who were hunting whales with another Chukchi.  Tonya invited us into an “Uranga,” a large tent made of reindeer hides stretched over a wooden framework, and she told us it had taken her a long, long time to sew all the skins together.  We sat down on bear and reindeer furs around a smokey fire stoked with dried heather, and then Ivan invited us to see the main house and how he lived. 
The wooden house was very cosy with a long table and benches on either side and a bunk bed along the wall. His tomcat had run up to greet us in the tundra, and now scurried ahead into the house and up to the top bunk where he playfully grabbed at Lynn’s hand.  There were family photos on the wall, and a stove with a kettle in the corner.  Outside the house several ground squirrels almost ran over our feet and we thought it odd they were so unafraid until Ivan told us they fed them.

Ivan was a very gracious host and offered us bread with butter, tea, and a tart salad made of scurvy grass collected from the beach.  He proudly showed us his salmon smoker and explained that the fish were split, cleaned, smoked overnight, and then air dried when the weather allowed.  He gave us several of the dried fish and we pulled chunks of the delicious pink meat from the skin.  We offered some to Tonya who just made a face and a slashing motion over her throat, indicating that you could get too much of a good thing.

Later in the day we anchored off Yttygran Island and “Whalebone Alley,” one, if not the most significant archaeological site in all the Arctic.  The white columns of the few Bowhead Whale jaw bones still standing could be seen from the ship.  On shore it was obvious that there were far fewer than shown in old photos of the site when there were enough to demarcate a kind of alleyway that gave the place its popular name.  In other places such lines of jaw bones were used to store skin boats off the ground, but here it is believed the bones served purely ceremonial purposes.  Just along the beach crest there was a rough line of whale skulls, but it was a mystery whether or not these had been positioned intentionally, or were just left where they ended up from the whales that were hauled in.  At the far end of the site there was a rectangular pit encircled by three whale skulls and carefully walled in with flat beach stones.  We could only speculate as to the purpose of the pit, obviously constructed with a lot of care.

After exploring the evidence of the human history of the site, we turned our attention to the surrounding natural history.  Huge, furry bumblebees visited the deep blue Monkshood flowers, Pika’s chirped and skittered across the jumble of rocks in the center of the site, and on a long hike up to a ridge between two low hills we spotted a Gyrfalcon.  Even the beach was interesting with scattered walrus bones and many intriguing marine invertebrate egg cases and remains. 

Back at the ship the day concluded with recap and dinner and the continuation of our journey northward to the top of the world.

13th August 2011: Cape Dezhnev and the Bering Strait

Shortly after breakfast we anchored off Cape Dezhnev, the easternmost point of the Eurasian Continent.  There were some large swells coming onshore at the Cape from the southerly winds, and two Zodiacs with staff were launched to check out the landing.  Closer inspection from the Zodiacs, and from the rocky beach as well, revealed there was no suitable landing spot, not even at a small section that was usually protected by a rock outcrop.  The scouting group returned with the news that we would cancel the landing for now and do an hour’s Zodiac cruise along the coast instead. 

It was a brilliantly sunny day.  Here in the Bering Strait whales, seals, and seabirds are concentrated into a narrow water passage as they travel north or south; at its narrowest point, the Strait is only 85 kilometres, or 53 miles wide.  Not only did the myriad of seabirds keep our interest, but the geology of the coastal cliffs as well.  Most of what we saw were sedimentary layers that had been compacted and heated and metamorphosed into dramatic forms and colors.  Cruising along we were treated to an ever-changing panoply of the rugged coastline of the edge of the world’s largest continent.

Back onboard the Spirit of Enderby Adam announced we were sailing through an area with thousands of Crested auklets and many Short-tailed shearwaters.  The announcement came just a little before we went down to the lecture room to hear his talk entitled “Seabirds of the Russian Far East, Tubenoses and Alcids.” 

After lunch the scouting party took a Zodiac to the beach at Uelen to see if we could land there to visit the town.  The winds were now out of the north, not south, as in the morning, but the beach was too rough to land.  The alternative plan was to make a landing in the Uelen Lagoon that usually offered a calm harbor behind the town.  After moving the ship a short distance, Aaron and Adam took a boat to the lagoon’s mouth but the breaking waves and currents precluded a landing there as well.  The Captain weighed anchor again, and because no other spot along the Chukotka coast was going to permit a landing either, we had to content ourselves with sightseeing from the ship. 

It was an absolutely gorgeous day and we sailed along under a bright blue sky.  Visibility was excellent and you could see far up and down the coastline of Chukotka with several high peaks on the horizon:  Mount Kitulin, Nenygelen, and Irgutunkan.  Although we were disappointed that the sea conditions did not permit safe landings anywhere along the coast, we would pass Uelen and Cape Dezhnev on the return voyage so there would be another opportunity for the weather and sea to cooperate with our plans.

Wildlife watching from the bridge and bow was rewarding.  A total of about 50 Sabine’s gulls absolutely made Adam’s, and others’ day as this beautiful bird is not that common.  There were also millions of Crested auklets on the water who were moulting just now and dived under the ship to escape because they couldn’t fly.

Ewen gave a talk on some of the finer points of photography in the lecture room.  As he was finishing up, Adam announced that a number of Humpback whales were off the port bow and we went out on deck to watch them.  Steamy blows and the occasional tail fluke were visible.  Some of the large blows were accompanied by a smaller one which we were told was a female and calf.  It was interesting to see how closely the young would stay next to its mother as the relative positions of the blows remained the same, and just a short distance apart in time and space. 

In the evening we celebrated crossing the Arctic Circle at 66° 34‘N with the “mark of the polar bear.”  Brad initiated everyone with a blue paw print (carved from a slice of potato) on foreheads, heads, and other body parts and we toasted the crossing with vodka and caviar.  Aaron reported that it was going to be a clear night and the bridge would be on alert to awaken us if there were a chance to see the aurora borealis -- the northern lights.

14th August 2011: Kolyuchin Island

This morning we anchored near Kolyuchin Island and spotted a small haul out of walrus as well as our first polar bear, even before breakfast.  The seas were rough with winds at 20 knots, but a Zodiac cruise was on schedule for after breakfast.  The Captain positioned the ship so we could load the Zodiacs in its lee, and with many helping hands  at the gangway we all made it safely into the boats and motored off to see the walrus.

The boats stayed in a group and very slowly approached the walrus with everyone remaining very quiet.  There were many animals piled together, resting on a small spot of beach and seemingly not very anxious about our presence.  There were also several groups in the water that were more curious than cautious, and we got great views and photos.  We also cruised along the bird cliffs of the island and saw both species of puffins, the three common species of guillemots (Common, Brunnich’s, and Pigeon), Black-legged kittiwakes, Glaucous gulls, and a few Pelagic Cormorants.

Jenny presented Part one of her polar bear lecture series, ‘Life on Thin Ice’ that covered Polar bear biology, ecology, and behavior.  After Jenny’s talk, Laurie gave an introduction to the tundra plant community, but a talk on Wrangel Island would be postponed as many were under the weather and we would wait for a time when more people could attend.

At around 18:30 folks gathered in the bar for drinks before dinner, and the staff gave short recaps of some of the highlights of the day.  Then it was time for dinner and to be delightfully surprised by another great meal by Brad and Simon.

15th August 2011: North to Wrangel and Ushakovskoye

We continued sailing north across the Long Strait towards Wrangel Island, a place few of us had ever expected to be able to visit.
After breakfast Alexander Grusdev, the Director of Wrangel Island, gave a presentation on this unique Arctic island and strict nature preserve that we would be exploring for the next five days.  Julia graciously translated for Alexander, and it was a very interesting talk covering the discovery, natural history, and some of the wildlife of the island. 

Paleoeskimos knew of Wrangel Island about 3,000 to 4,000 years ago, as evidence of their habitations revealed they were likely summer hunting camps.  The hunters co-existed with the last mammoths on earth that are believed to have died out on the island about 3,000 years ago.  In modern times, although never seeing nor setting foot on Wrangel, the Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov suspected that there must be land located there and named it “Doubtful Land.”  It was not until 1867 when the island was first sighted by Captain Thomas Long that its actual existence was confirmed and some of the first information was gathered about this remote location.  Captain Long, however, was never able to set foot on Wrangel either because of the pack ice.  It was not until 1891 that people first reached Rodger’s Harbor and several Russian and English expeditions followed.  Their explorations of the area gave rise to an international mix of place names as they recorded and named newly discovered features and water bodies on their maps.

Wrangel Island was made a nature preserve in 1976.  It is about 150 km long, 80 km wide, and located at 71° N latitude, straddling both the Western and Eastern hemispheres.  There are three mountain ranges, one in the north, another central range, and one in the south. The protected area includes Wrangel and Herald islands and the surrounding marine environment for a total of 19,163 sq. kilometres. In 2004 the preserve was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

About the time of Alexander’s presentation, we anchored off Doubtful Village to collect some scientists and staff from the island who would join us for our excursions: senior scientists Vasily Baranyuk and Irina Menyushina, and rangers Sergei Lantsov and Anatoly Rodionov. We left Doubtful and headed east to the former village of Ushakovskoye.  A thick fog literally enveloped the ship and precluded any view of shore, but we hoped for better weather later in the afternoon.

At 11:00 Ewen gave the second presentation of his short course on photography with the intriguing title ‘Why Size Matters’.  With his help we learned how size mattered with respect to camera sensors, lenses, and RAW files. 

The weather had not cleared by the time we anchored off Rodger’s Inlet, and the Zodiac drivers needed a heading from the bridge to find the entrance as nothing was visible more than five Zodiac lengths from the ship!  We climbed aboard and off we drove into the pea soup fog with the Spirit of Enderby literally disappearing in our wake.  Ashore at Ushakovskoye however, the sky was clear and we climbed the wooden steps up from the beach to gather in the town’s center to hear firsthand from Vasily what life was like in its heyday.

The village was founded in 1926 but Vasily first moved there in 1981 at which time there were about 150 residents, including many children.  There was a preschool and school, a library, post office, and a club where Vasily was in charge of organising dances and scheduling films and other community events.  He showed us the former market where every family could purchase one bottle of vodka on Saturdays.  We walked over to the monument to the town’s founder and mayor until 1929, Gregor Ushakov, and then divided into groups by interest and energy levels:  the long birding hike with Adam, the slower paced botanical survey with Laurie, and Ewen’s photography group that alternately moved quickly, and then stood around taking photos.

The wildlife and the wildflowers did not disappoint.  With Rangers Sergei and Anatoly, the botanical group was shown a Wrangel Island endemic, a species of Oxytropis in the legume or bean plant family that only grew on Wrangel Island.  Other groups saw Arctic fox, flocks of Snow geese flying to the northern part of the island, three species of jaegers, and both species of Lemmings (the Siberian and the Wrangel Island Collared Lemming, another endemic species).  Lemming populations had crashed early in the spring, affecting animals all down and along the food chain.  Even Snow geese were affected because when lemmings are not around to snack on, Arctic fox prey more on goose eggs.  The photography group made a couple of attempts to circle around and slowly approach some Snowy Owls for photos, but had better luck with the Lemmings.

Just before we all began making our way back to the Zodiacs, the northbound Overland Expeditionary Party finally finished preparations for their three-day crossing of Wrangel Island.  We wished them well as they set off in the island’s ‘Trekol’, a large, six-wheeled vehicle with oversized tires.  We all returned to the ship, again through a dense fog, and settled in to the evening routine of drinks, recaps, and dinner.

16th August 2011: Herald Island and Cape Waring

Herald Island was off our starboard while we enjoyed an early breakfast, and shortly afterwards we were in the Zodiacs to cruise along the impressive cliffs of this island, or rather, gigantic rock in the Chukchi Sea, even more remote and far less visited than Wrangel.  Polar bear maternity den densities were even greater on Herald than Wrangel Island.

We only went a short distance to the far end of the cliffs facing the ship and saw three polar bears in various stages of repose.  Two of them wandered off after getting a good look at us, but one large bear who had been sleeping on a ledge alternately sat up, stood up, and lay back down again after having satisfied itself that we were not interesting.  Eventually, however, she too decided to find a more private sleeping place and ambled off.  We motored in the opposite direction and marveled at the geologic formations and forces captured in the folds and layers of the cliff face.  At some places along the wall there were sedimentary layers at right angles to each other, the lower ones having been shifted 90° from the ancient seabed and topped by a presumed younger layer that retained the original horizontal orientation of the seafloor.

Farther along the vertical face of the island we came upon a group of Walrus hauled out on a small area of beach, with a few scattered individuals nearby on adjoining stretches.  Walrus of all sizes and ages were neatly snuggled in with one another, and ivory white tusks projected in every direction from the mass of brown bodies.  When one animal shifted position, it started a short-lived chain reaction with adjoining Walrus who wriggled and shifted their bodies in turn, adjusting tusks to avoid jabbing one’s neighbor.  All this was accompanied by loud protests of Walrus snorts and belches until all settled in together again.  We watched them for a long while, but then continued a little farther along the coast where we soon came across a fourth Polar bear.  It was a lovely, curious bear right on the beach, and we were able to approach this bear closer than the others.  Farther down the coast we could see two more bears, one quite distant, but with the wonderful view we had of this last one and the increasingly cold wind, it was time to head back to the warm ship and the hot lunch that awaited us.

After lunch Sergei, one of the Wrangel Island rangers, gave a presentation entitled ‘Living Side by Side:  Humans and Animals on Wrangel Island’. Sergei’s talk showed what it was like to live and work on Wrangel Island, and the challenges they faced in adapting to the wildlife that also made the island their home.

The ship anchored south of Cape Waring in mid-afternoon and a scouting party was dispatched to check out the landing.  Everything looked good to go until we finally got all the Zodiacs to the landing site and discovered that the wind had increased, along with the size of the swell making landings impossible.  Instead, we cruised along the coastline and spotted a beautiful Sabine’s Gull in the water, a large Polar bear far off in the tundra, and several small haul outs of walrus right at the Cape.  There were also many small groups of Walrus in the water, and to cruise any farther would mean disturbing them so we came about and headed back to the ship.

At evening recap Adam introduced two other people who had come onboard in Doubtful along with the rangers and scientists.  They were Aaron’s father and the founder of Heritage Expeditions, Rodney Russ, and Katya Ovsyanikova, a guide for Heritage Expeditions and a marine mammalogist who studies Sea Otters and has had many years’ experience in the region. 

Rodney led off the recap by briefly talking about Jennifer Niven’s book, ‘The Ice Master’, that he recommended everyone read for a truly exciting tale about the fate of the ship Karluk that sailed and sank in these waters in the early 1900s. Laurie related the results of a study that presented evidence against the presence of an East Siberian Ice Sheet over Wrangel Island during the last glacial maximum.  The evidence included isotope dating of bedrock, lack of glacial deposits in river beds, dating of mammoth bones, and the abundance of 10 m tall rock columns or ‘tors’ throughout the island’s mountains.  Aaron explained some of the striking geology of Herald Island’s cliffs, and concluded with the briefing for the next day.  Then it was off to dinner, and an early turn in for many.

17th August 2011: Cape Florence and Dreamhead, Wrangel Island 

You could not ask for a more glorious morning with wonderfully calm seas, bright blue skies, and brilliant sunshine at Cape Florence along the northern coast of Wrangel Island.  The tundra and sunlight swept up the slopes of the northern mountains making the landscape look painted in broad strokes with the colors of autumn.  A few Polar bears were seen long before breakfast by the dedicated wildlife watchers up on the bridge, but after breakfast the rangers ashore gave us the all clear and we landed with the Zodiacs to begin our exploration of Cape Florence.

Irina and Anatoly accompanied the photography/botanical group, and Vasily and Sergei went with the longer hikers.  This part of the island had especially harsh winters as the northeast wind kept snow from accumulating.  That meant little insulation of the ground or for the organisms that lived there in winter.  Lemming numbers were low here, as the vegetation was patchy, but we did see some old winter lemming nests.  We also found a polar bear day bed and Irina collected some hairs for DNA analysis.  Anatoly also collected some soil and lichen samples for another study.  

The long hikers walked up into the tundra and around the lagoon.  Leaves of the creeping willow shrubs were starting to turn color, and most plants were done flowering. On the lagoon were a number of Long-tailed ducks, and a small group of Brent geese nibbled at the vegetation onshore.

At the side of the lagoon was a hut that had been originally used by hunters who had been moved off the island when it was made a preserve. Now it served as one of the many field huts used by rangers and scientists when they worked in various parts of the island.

Back onboard the ship and after lunch we awaited word of the Overland Expeditionary Party that had headed north from Ushakovskoye two days ago.  It was to meet up with the ship somewhere along the north coast.  Contact was finally made with the group and we arranged to meet them a little west of Dreamhead Mountain.  We planned not only to exchange a new southbound party for the northern route veterans, but also to make a landing inside the lagoon at the base of the mountain for an afternoon outing. 

At the appointed time and location on the coast we replaced the arriving Overland Expeditionary Party members with five new recruits who loaded up the ‘Trekol’ and headed off on the southern route.  The rest of us set off in the Zodiacs to find the lagoon entrance.  We surprised three Polar bears on the beach, who took to the water and quickly swam out to sea, so we motored slowly past them still looking for the lagoon mouth.  Eventually rangers Anatoly and Sergei disembarked to get a look from the top of the high gravel spit along the beach and reported that apparently the lagoon mouth had closed up.  With no way into the lagoon, we did a wet landing and anchored the boats offshore before heading off into the tundra.

On the steep slopes of Dreamhead we could see at least six Polar bears curled up and napping at various levels. Mosses and flowers and lichens were everywhere underfoot, and we had to step around small puddles of water that dotted the tundra, as well as the odd rock now and again tossed up by frost action.  A huge flock of Snow Geese grazed in the distance and among them was one lone goose of a subspecies of the familiar Canada Goose, known as a Cackling Goose.  It looked the same as a Canada Goose, only smaller.  Also in among the Snow geese were a few individuals of a color variety called a Blue Goose. 
 
We all had a good long walk on our afternoon outing and were tired by the time we made it back to the ship and sat down to dinner.  Our third day on Wrangel Island was as interesting and exhilarating as the previous days and we hoped the good weather would hold for a few more days.

18th August 2011: Gusinaya River and Ptichiy Bazaar, Wrangel Island

It looked like it was going to be another nice day as the Spirit of Enderby motored south and west along the coast of Wrangel.  Around breakfast time at the Goose River a good number of Polar bears were visible from the bridge so the possibility of a landing seemed unlikely.  Aaron, Irina and Vasily took a Zodiac to shore to assess the situation, and with some specific directives from the Wrangel Island staff as to our behavior for bear watching, we were given the all-clear and headed out.

At a good distance from the end of the spit where the bears were resting, we kneeled and sat for good views and photos.  While we were sitting there a young, thin bear swam on shore and walked down the beach to join the others.  After a time and with the bears showing no signs of anxiousness, we slowly approached in twos and threes along the water’s edge, out of sight behind the beach crest.  We gathered at a closer spot and dug in behind the beach ridge.  The bears were curled up or lying in day beds, raising their heads once in a while to test the wind, but altogether unconcerned about our presence.  We sat for a long time and towards the end of our observations, both bears and people were contently lazing on the beach in the warm sunshine under a blue sky.

Before lunch, Marie led the newly constructed ‘Wrangel Island Swim Team’ for a dip in the East Siberian Sea, the temperature of which was about 2°C.  Six hardy souls participated, five of whom were staff.  The only guest who took the plunge was Jane, and our hats were off to her for having braved the cold Arctic waters for the good of the team.

The unusually good weather continued and after lunch we went to explore a bird cliff called ‘Ptichiy Bazaar’. It means ‘bird bazaar’ or ‘market’ and is also the Russian term for bird cliffs in general.  There were mostly Black-legged Kittiwakes and Common Guillemots on the cliff face, with some chicks visible.  Our attention, however, was diverted from the birds by a number of Polar bear sightings. One bear in particular was very close on shore and completely oblivious to us.  For a Polar bear it was a hot day and he gnawed away at the patches of snow and ice still solidly frozen to the shore.  After slaking his thirst he walked into the water and swam towards the Zodiacs, perhaps just to cool off.  He passed very close and we got some incredible photographs.  The young bear was totally unconcerned and we were delighted with having quietly shared a small part of his daily life.

Later in the afternoon Vasily Baranyuk gave a talk on ‘Snow Geese and Other Wildlife of Wrangel Island’.  Vasily has been studying Snow geese on Wrangel for three decades. The main breeding colony can have up to 60,000 nests, with an average of four eggs in a nest.  In good Lemming years, however, they can raise more young.  He once found a nest with 12 babies of all ages in it because the female starts incubating the eggs as soon as the first one is laid.  Some Snow geese have learned to nest near Snowy owls in order to benefit from greater protection from Arctic fox.

We also learned that there were about 150 bird species on Wrangel, and that 45 of them breed there.  The island is also important for Walrus in the summer when they haul out after the ice disappears, and of course, it is important for Polar bears. The island is known as a Polar bear maternity ward, with up to 400 dens having been reported in the 1980s; now, however, there are many fewer.

At recap we learned that a whopping 115 polar bears had been counted onshore from the ship as we pulled anchor and motored away from Ptichiy Bazaar.  The grand total was 146 for what we would called ‘A Polar Bear Day’.”

19th August 2011: Doubtful Spit and Bay

We landed at Somnitelnaya (Doubtful) Bay at the site of an old hunter’s house for whom a large wooden cross and upturned boat had been erected as a memorial.  All around were the remains of many years of life on this harsh coast, including the bones and skulls of the Walrus and Reindeer that had been killed.  Laurie, Anatoly, and Sergei led the plant walk out into the tundra and around the lagoon, and Adam, Vasily, and Irina headed out on a longer birding walk.
Poppy plants dotted the gravel shore and were just about done flowering, and showy swards of white cottongrass trembled in the wind among the thick grass and moss beds surrounding the lagoon.  Along the water’s edge were signs of Eider ducks and Brent geese but, unfortunately, no birds.  The group did see a Parasitic Jaeger that hovered above the ground in one place for a short while, perhaps having spotted a lemming.  We occasionally caught glimpses of Lemmings that quickly scurried down well-worn paths from one burrow to the next before vanishing from sight.

On the way back to the ship all three Zodiacs stopped short in the water to watch a Gray whale that swam back and forth a couple times within the circle of boats, and then headed off the way we came.  One boat in particular got a very close view of this impressive animal.

Around lunch time we had to say good-bye to the Wrangel Island rangers and scientists who would be returning to the island.  At the same time they were dropped off on shore, the Zodiacs collected the Southern Overland Expeditionary Party members who met us there. Once everyone was back onboard, we said good-bye to this amazing Arctic island sanctuary as the ship headed back south across the Long Strait towards the Siberian mainland. 

Later in the afternoon Jenny gave Part two of her Polar bear lecture series, and Marie opened the Sea Shop briefly for some souvenir shopping and retail therapy. Shortly thereafter Laurie gave her presentation on Arctic plant adaptations and then it was off to the lounge for drinks and socialising before dinner.  Everyone wanted to hear about the Overland Expedition, and to compare experiences and photographs from our visit to Wrangel.  It was an animated group that sat down to dinner, and the conversations continued into the night.

20th August 2011: Cape Onman and Kolyuchin Inlet

Breakfast was later this morning, at 0800, so we all got to sleep in a bit as the ship continued sailing south to the vicinity of Cape Onman where we hoped to make a landing or a Zodiac cruise.  En route we spotted two pods of Orcas on either side of the ship.

Aaron and Adam scouted out the area of Cape Onman and returned to the ship with the exciting news that they had seen a Wolverine on shore feeding on a seal carcass. It was likely that it would be there for a while, so we loaded the boats and set off to see if we could catch a glimpse of this rare and elusive animal. Sure enough, the wolverine was still in the area and we were able to watch it for a long time until it loped up and across the slopes, and finally up a gully and out of sight. We could not believe our luck in having seen this, our second Wolverine of the trip, and the first Wolverine many of us had ever seen in the wild.

If that were not enough excitement for one morning, we also had some wonderful views of a few groups of Walrus in the water offshore. They hung around the Zodiacs and appeared more curious than concerned.  Heads of all sizes, with matching sets of large or small tusks, popped up and bobbed at the water’s surface as one after another of the group checked us out.  A huge flock of Common Eiders flew by while we were walrus watching, and one of the Zodiacs surprised a small group of Red phalaropes floating on the sea as we returned to the ship.

After a delicious lunch, Adam gave a talk on marine mammals of the Arctic.  About an hour later we reached the mouth of Kolyuchin Inlet and planned a landing in spite of the thick fog.  Although the birding was not very promising because of the fog, experiencing the tundra and Siberian coast in yet another of its many moods was captivating. 

There was a large wooden orthodox cross on shore with an inscribed metal plaque commemorating something; the metal was too corroded to make out the words except that it had to do with a ship.  We slogged through soggy moss beds that felt like memory foam under our feet and occasionally would find some drier solid ground upon which to walk. This site, and all along the Chukotka coast, is important feeding grounds for many shorebirds. Adam explained that Kolyuchin Inlet, especially, is important for the Spoon-billed Sandpiper, whose population numbers have dropped precipitously in the last decade, mostly from hunting and habitat destruction of its coastal wintering grounds.
The only birds we managed to see were a Yellow-billed Loon (also known as the White-billed Diver) and a Northern Wheatear.  Lichens, however, were more cooperative and Laurie pointed out ‘rock tripe’ that is of historical interest as the starvation food that saved nine of the original 20 members of Sir John Franklin’s 1819-1822 expedition from Hudson Bay to the north coast of Canada.  We sampled the dry, leathery lichen that had little flavor until well chewed and then it tasted like a fresh mushroom. 

The return trip to the ship was again through the dense fog, but eventually the Spirit of Enderby came into view and we were all back onboard to continue our voyage south.

21st August 2011: Southbound

Aaron announced that it was a balmy 5° C out this morning and we knew we were farther south.  A thermometer, however, was hardly necessary if one went out on deck:  the cliffs as well as up and down the entire coast, as far as you could see, was bathed in glorious sunshine.  We were motoring south to the Chegitun River that emptied into the Bering Strait just at the Arctic Circle.

While waiting for the scouting report, a pod of Orca Whales swam between us and shore, their huge black dorsal fins protruding above the waves and whitecaps. On shore there were a couple small structures thought to be a hunters’ camp at the river’s mouth, and Aaron, Adam, and Julia went in to check out the river entrance and see whether or not a landing was possible.  A half dozen or so people appeared from the houses and spoke with the landing party.  Aaron’s assessment was that conditions were too rough and the scouting party returned to the ship.  With the wind strength, direction, and resultant swell, we would not be able to land or get into the river safely so we moved on south towards Uelen and Cape Dezhnev.

Adam and other wildlife spotters were up on the bridge a lot of the day and reported an enormous flock of Crested auklets, likely numbering about two million individuals.  Ten Humpback whales were also seen.

The second part of the ‘Spy on the Ice’ documentary was shown as we continued south. Laurie gave a presentation on the biology and ecology of Lichens. Aaron updated us on the weather and timings, but things did not look favorable for visiting Uelen. With winds of 100 kph as we approached the village, the decision was made to continue south, hoping for better conditions and maybe a calm anchorage in the lee of Cape Dezhnev.

We reached Cape Dezhnev before dinner and the Captain steered the Spirit of Enderby into the relative calm south of the Cape.  People gathered in the bar early and it was a spirited crowd despite the frustration with the bad weather.  Aaron briefed us on the plan for the following day, and then it was down to dinner to continue conversations with the many new friends we had made onboard.

22nd August 2011: Big Diomede Island (Ostrov Ratmanova)

Early in the morning the ship moved from the lee of Cape Dezhnev and made the short journey east across the Strait to anchor off Ratmanova, or Big Diomede Island.  Shortly after breakfast we loaded the Zodiacs for a cruise along the bird cliffs.  The border guard installations were nestled in a low, relatively level area behind a small hill on the north side of the island.  The site offered some protection from the sea, but it looked to be a rough place to live in winter. 

Along the cliff faces and out at sea were a myriad of seabirds: Tufted and Horned puffins, Pigeon guillemots, Black-legged kittiwakes, Glaucous gulls, Pelagic cormorants, and Least and Parakeet auklets.  They all seemed very busy flying in to ledges and grassy knolls, and out to sea or to soar overhead. 

We moved clockwise around the island and came to the north eastern side from where we got a good view of Little Diomede and the small settlement on its shores.  Not only was Little Diomede in another country -- the United States -- but it was also in another day, being on the other side of the International Date Line and 24 hours behind us.  Because of this, Little and Big Diomede are also known as ‘Today’ and ‘Tomorrow’ islands, respectively.  Alex checked her GPS and it showed that her Zodiac was only 0.6 miles from the international border that runs between the two islands.

While we were disembarking the Zodiacs, a young Bearded Seal popped up by Adam’s boat and hung around for some photos by Ewen, Jane, and others.  The youngster seemed very curious and swam back and forth, checking us out.

After lunch, which featured a delicious chocolate cookie piled high with equally rich chocolate icing, Dean and Tess showed two short documentaries they had made on Macquarie Island in the Southern Ocean where they had spent 12 months researching fur seals.  They were onboard with us making another documentary on the Russian Far East for Australian television, and promised to let us know by email when it finally aired. 

At 1700 we gathered in the lecture room to hear the final presentation of Jenny’s polar bear series, and then gathered early in the bar for the University of the Arctic’s final exam, administered by Marie. Each table in the bar worked as a team answering questions submitted by the staff.  All topics were covered, from history to geology to shipboard hotel management. Of the six teams that competed, ‘Jahday’ won with the greatest number of points for correct answers.  Aaron gave us a briefing of tomorrow’s plan and then it was off to dinner.

Shortly after we finished dinner, Aaron announced that we were being boarded -- not by pirates, but by border guards who wanted to inspect the ship.  The bridge was temporarily closed and the authorities came aboard for their look-see.  Satisfied that all was in order, they left the ship and at about 2245 we moved on towards Anadyr.

23rd August 2011: Kekilin Bay

Because we had made good time southward, we could try to wait out the bad weather this morning around Kekilin Bay to see if maybe a little later it would be possible to visit the bird cliffs. After breakfast the waves and whitecaps still appeared daunting, and it was even snowing in the distance, but Aaron decided to wait a bit longer.  Finally the conditions improved enough that we could load the Zodiacs and cruise to shore where we found it was much more sheltered.

The outing turned out to be the best bird cliff cruise of the trip and we were grateful to Aaron for having made the decision to wait.  There were mainly Common guillemots and kittiwakes, but also Tufted and Horned puffins, Pigeon guillemots, Pelagic cormorants, and Glaucous and Vega gulls. What was different here was that many chicks were visible in their nests or on ledges, and that they were low enough that we were able to get a good look at the young and photograph them. 

At one spot just above our heads a downy Kittiwake chick persistently pecked at its parent’s bill while the adult completely ignored it, being too distracted by our presence. On another ledge a Guillemot kept shuffling around to keep itself between us and its chick.  The Cormorant nests were higher up than the other birds, but with their long necks the young were easy to spot; they looked like perfect miniatures of the adult, except for their fuzzy gray head and neck. Flying far in the distance was a huge flock of Crested auklets, visible just above the water’s surface, and even farther away great sweeps of golden tundra alternated with looming dark mountain tops ringing the bay.

Lunch awaited us when we returned to the ship, and shortly after we all gathered in the lecture room for the disembarkation briefing and voyage recap, along with farewells from the staff and passengers alike.  Ewen put together a photographic recap of the voyage with photos taken by himself, Aaron, Julia, and Brad.  It was a very nice presentation and recollection of the amazing things we had seen and the wonderful time we had.

Everyone was in a festive mood in the lounge enjoying the complimentary cocktails before dinner. Chefs Brad and Simon, in formal chef attire, presided over a lovely buffet of poached salmon and baked ham that was so nicely presented that people lined up to take photos.

24th August 2011: Anadyr

It was a beautiful sunny day for our departure, and relatively calm inside Anadirsky Liman. The ship repositioned a couple times during the early hours of the morning, but by breakfast we were anchored in the estuary and awaiting departure. The buildings of Anadyr in the morning sun resembled a multi-colored Lego block construction, strung out along the coast.

The first group leaving for Nome had their bags ready outside their cabin doors for pick up before breakfast; people on the later Moscow flight had the choice of staying on the ship, or spending a few hours in town before their flight. We enjoyed a late breakfast and then left the ship by groups depending on our flights to Nome or Moscow.  The Zodiacs shuttled us to shore and then we were off to the airport for our respective flights home with memories of all our new experiences, our new friends, and a wonder-full voyage across the top of the world.

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