Heading West

After finishing our surveys in the easternmost part of the Arctic Refuge Coastal Plain, we are now making our way toward the west, covering the entire distance along the coastline.  Because many parts of the cost require travel outside of the barrier islands, our trip must be timed to coincide with good weather conditions.  The Arctic Ocean can be a fierce place for a small boat.

We worked our way back along Icy Reef, but when it was time to exit through the small channel in the barrier islands, the waves were again very high, causing large breakers.  In addition, it was a very foggy evening, so we decided to be cautious and camp at the end of Icy Reef.  Luckily, no polar bears visited our camp while we were on the barrier island.  

We woke to a beautiful day on the barrier island, and much improved conditions for our boat passage back towards the west.  We had a remarkable day of wildlife sightings, which started with seeing eight bowhead whales while making our passage outside the barrier islands in the Arctic Ocean.  When we stopped for lunch, we were sitting quietly when a herd of 300 caribou began to make their way down to where we were sitting.  Because we were very still, they came extremely close to us, some of them only ten feet away.  It was remarkable to see so many caribou, particular the new year's calves, passing so close that we could almost touch them.

We finished our passage back to Kaktovik that afternoon, and saw a mother polar bear with two cubs on the last barrier island as we returned to Kaktovik.  After a quick evening repacking, drying our gear, and getting food ready for the next section of our journey, we headed out again the next morning.  We're pushing hard, because the weather is cooperating enough to allow boat access to many of the difficult to reach places we need to survey.  

They say in the Arctic, whenever you have good weather, like we did on our passage back from Icy Reef, you pay for it soon thereafter.  Today, we're paying for our good weather with very cold and drizzly conditions, with temperatures in the high 30's and steady rain.  My crewmates have gone to bed.  It's 11:30 as I write these notes for posting on the blog.  But we can't complain, because the weather is allowing us to do this important work. 

We'll send further updates as we make our way through the western part of the survey.