Arctic Ocean
Arctic Ocean
Though the breeze was fresh on deck, my jacket, gloves and hat were all I needed. The Sea cleaved by the Russian ice-breaker’s bow formed a frothy-white wake astern, where both sooty and short tailed shearwaters followed the ship. In fact the air was full of birds and it felt like the whole Arctic was emptying as thousands upon thousands of migrating birds streamed south through the Bering Straits flying singly or in formation. Close by the ship, common terns dipped into the water only to reappear with small sliver fish. Glaucous-winged gulls swept so low over the sea that every detail of their body and under-wing stood out clearly reflected back as if in a mirror.
Formations of birds filled the horizon with a blackened “haze” a living mass of red phalarope’s and fork tailed storm petrels moving like shifting, undulating smoke across the sea.
The contrasts both at sea and in the coastal waters were remarkable. We had just left behind the muddy brown waters of Anadyr Harbor, where sparkling-white beluga whales filled the bay, gleaming ghost-like in the brown silted water as they fed on the flooding tide. At sea, gray whales, surfaced to blow misted breath high into air.
As we cruised north into the Arctic Ocean the days lengthened, the sun lighting the porthole well into the night as we travelled into the land of mid-night sun. The weather changed from sunny to overcast and foggy, gunmetal-gray seas roughening as we cruised further in to the Arctic.
Arctic Seals
