Posted by jessmil on 08/08/2006 2:22 pm

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

9am – We are out of the shelter of the islands and are fully exposed to the Pacific Ocean. Surprisingly, what little weather there is happens to be coming out of the North with winds about 15kts, 2ft wind waves and virtually no swell. There are very few high clouds and steering directly into the early morning sun reflecting off the water is hard on the eyes.

As we are approaching the north end of the Semidi Islands, we are about half the 200 mile distance between the shelter of the Shumagin Islands, which we left about 10 hours ago, and Sitkinak Island at the southern end of Kodiak Island.

Willie had the wheel watch from 3am-8:30. He’s getting some sleep now so I’m once again sitting here thinking about this trip. At the moment I'm thinking about the natives that live up on St. Lawrence Island. I'm thinking about how they live in an environment so harsh that most of us couldn’t possibly imagine living in. They and their ancestors have lived there for literally thousands of years where the sea completely freezes around them for many months out of the year. While some of the conveniences of the lower 48 have made their way here like 4 wheeled atv’s (no cars), refined heating oil delivered every so often by fuel barge, weather permitting, electricity and improved housing, they still greatly depend on the health of the environment around them for subsistence. They still have to fish and hunt to survive as their ancestors have for thousands of years. I saw genuine pride in their island home and their traditions. As we are all brothers and sisters on this one earth, it would be a great tragedy if we couldn’t all come together to properly manage and protect the whole earth for the benefit of all who live on it now and in the future. Wouldn’t it be nice?

11am – Just passed Semidi Islands and in just under 24 hours we’ll be tied up in Kodiak. It looks like we’ll be spending a full day and perhaps overnight there. We need to change the oil and filters in the engines prior to heading across the Gulf of Alaska to Canada. I think we’re also overdue for a Chinese food dinner.

The wind has come way down to about 5kts and there are no white caps and very few high clouds left. The sun is much higher now so the glare isn’t as bad. We can still see the snow covered mountains on the peninsula. It looks like they go on forever. Looking ahead, way off in the distance, I can see a fog bank. I’m not pleased with the prospect of fog but we’ve had such beautiful weather so far, I guess I can put up with a little. We had enough fog during the expedition to last a lifetime but here it comes again. Oh well…life happens and we move on. I just spotted another whale about a quarter mile off our starboard side. Life is good.

5:50pm – It looks like the fog is dissipating before we got into it. Go figure.

- Captain Bob