Posted by jessmil on 07/27/2006 12:22 pm

The following posting is from Carroll, who is onboard in the Bering Sea...

Not much to report today.  We got tossed about quite a bit last night, as we headed south from St. Lawrence toward Nunivak Island and the Etolin Strait.  With no land in sight, and things still too rough for whale spotting, we spent most of the day relaxing, doing emails, and catching up on much-needed sleep.  About mid-morning, as we were still bouncing around, we noticed a spill that had run all over the galley floor.  We had gotten such a shaking that a can of 7-Up had actually exploded.  Several others were about to follow suite.  Not seaworthy apparently.  Who knew? 
It’s been calm and clear since early afternoon, but the radio tells us there’s worse on the way.  The forecast is for a storm tomorrow with fifteen foot seas and forty knot winds.  It’s the sort of weather more associated with winter on the Bering Sea than summer, and a little more than this ship can comfortably handle.  Certainly more than we can work in.  So, we’re headed for Nash Harbor on the north of Nunivak Island, where we can wait out the storm in the shelter of the surrounding hills.  Hopefully, the bad weather will come and go quickly, so we can move on to Bristol Bay.  We’ll just have to play it by ear.

Carroll

Posted by jessmil on 07/27/2006 12:19 pm

The following posting is from Adam, who is onboard in the Bering Sea...

It’s a day of straight passage making with nothing else on the agenda. In fact we are racing as fast as the big ol’ diesel below me will take us (8kn plus or minus current), to a safe little bay on the north side of Nunivak island, about 170nm south south east of St Lawrence. The reason I call it a safe little bay is that there is a storm approaching from the south west, 40kn winds and 15 foot seas, and we really don’t want to have to be out in that if we can possibly avoid it. When they give those numbers in a forecast it can mean a lot worse. If you have a 15 foot swell that coincides with another swell and the wind waves get piled up on top of that, and at the same time you happen to get a stronger than 40kn gust, it can all add up to mean a terrifying moment for our little ship. A nice deep bay on the north side of a mountainous island is exactly where we want to be. All things going well (touch wood) we will be in way ahead of trouble.
Not much to talk about campaign wise today. It’s a mental day off from the world of climate change and sea mammals. A day for getting the domestics done, maintenance on the boat, reading, writing, and watching vids, catching up on sleep. Sleep is a wonderful thing at sea. The rocking of the boat makes it possible to go to sleep anytime you want to. You can sleep 6 or 8 hours, get up, do a few things and if there’s nothing else to do, lay back down and fall right back to sleep. Something I cant do on land.
Well I guess that’s about it for todays update. If something interesting happens I’ll add it before we do our evening up/download.

I hope the Yup’ik are having a lovely day!

Adam