Bering Strait 2008

In October, 2008 I flew to Nome, Alaska to board a Russian research vessel. We sailed north to the Bering Strait and spent 11 days in Russian and American waters. We sailed towards Russia first and came upon rough waters. So we hid in a small bay on the Russian side.
It was a fun trip. Stepping on the ship was like stepping into Russia. Very few people on the ship spoke English.

We had some free time before sailing so I tagged along with some other scientists and drove about 30 miles on the road to Teller which is about 80 miles north of Nome.

The Bering Sea and looking at Sledge Island.

The mountains around Nome are really pretty.

Looking down on Nome.

Anvil Mountain, a few miles from Nome.
"Two of the four gigantic Alaska Communications Systems microwave antennas atop Anvil Mountain, built in 1957 as part of a long daisy-chain to link the Tin City military radar site with the outside world. The system was decommissioned in 1974, but the dishes remain as landmarks. "
From Tom Busch

There are some crazy looking machines, right out of the Mad Max movies, here. They are used to ply the beaches/shallow waters around Nome, sucking up the sand looking for gold. The beaches of Nome have been mined for gold for many years.

Our ship. The Lavrentyev. A 240 foot research vessel from Vladivostok.
There were about 10 US scientists on board and a half dozen Russian scientists then probably 40 crew.

The room I shared with a fellow technician from Seward, Dave Leech.

My lab space.

The dinning hall. Very nice and really homey. Plants in the windows.

The setting for lunch and dinner. Those meals always stared with a yummy soup, a potato/onion base with other things added, usually something from the previous day's meal.
There was no chow line. The food was all brought out to us.

The bridge.

Leaving Nome on a beautiful morning.

Nome.

Looking at the eastern most part of Eurasia. We hid from the storm just off the picture to the left.

Bringing in the moorings. We seemed to always have a snow squall for those recoveries! We recovered 8 moorings and deployed them again.

Cleaning off the barnacles!

Me and the Boss. It was fun to finally sail with my supervisor, Dr. Terry Whitledge. We are coming up on a mooring that will be "popped", meaning released from the anchor, and then we look for the floats and go get it.

Deploying the moorings.

Ready to trip the release and have the anchor sink to the bottom.

Lots of whale sightings. Mostly Bowhead whales and a few Killer Whales.

Snow squalls. Not my photo.

Big Diomede Island.

Big Diomede and Little Diomede on the left.

Our last day out in the Bering Strait. A storm was about to brew up so we high-tailed it back to Nome, cutting off our trip by a few days. I'll be back in the autumn of 2009.

Some of the crew.