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> July 20 – Ketoy and Urup Islands (part 1), or We finally see the Kuril Islands – well, sort of.
Misty_Nikula_Ohlsen
post Jul 27 2006, 10:05 PM
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July 20 – Ketoy and Urup Islands
or We finally see the Kuril Islands – well, sort of.

***** Message from Bre at bottom *****

In order to conserve satellite phone time, I will be doing journals for two days at a time for most of the beginning of our expedition. We need to use the same phone for uploading/downloading and for communicating to teams that have been left in field camps on other islands and we only have a limited number of minutes.

Thursday, 20 July – Aboard the Gipanis, offshore of Ketoy Island

Today we finally made it across the Sea of Okhotsk and to the Kuril Islands! We were told that we would be near Ketoy, where the first group of volcanologists would be dropped off, at about 2 pm or so. From about 1:30 until 2:30 we diligently assembled on the top deck and peered out into the fog – searching for some sight of land. We were seeing more and more birds, which indicated that we were getting closer to land, but no actual land. We observed many puffins, auklets, fulmars (see below for a picture) and even an albatross. This was especially exciting because albatrosses are considered by sailors to be good luck.

We were beginning to wonder if we would be able to see Ketoy at all, due to the heavy fog, and had just made wagers in our friendly betting pool (I said “no”) and not 5 seconds after James had recorded our bets, Ben announced “There it is”. Out of the fog, just off the port (left) side of the ship, we could make out the volcanic peaks of Ketoy. They were much taller than I expected – probably about 3500 feet at the highest point!

As we drew closer, the fog continued to lift and we could make out the entire island. Ketoy is one the smaller Kuril Islands, so I was surprised by how big it was in reality. It has been formed by a series of volcanic eruptions and there are many calderas (the craters left by a volcanic eruption) and volcanic peaks, some still active. The complex history of eruptions is one of the things that the volcanologists will be trying to unravel while they are on the island.

IPB Image
The image on the left is Ketoy Island as it rose out of the fog. The image on the right is a close up of the caldera that is to the right side of the large ridge that runs across the island.

Once the anchor had been dropped, they began to ferry people and gear across the mile or so of water to the shore. There are about 8 people staying ashore for nearly 2 weeks, so there was a lot of personal and camping gear as well as their field gear. There were 2 zodiacs to take the gear and people, but at least 3 trips with each were needed. After the first trip ashore, the fog settled back down to ground/water level. This made it difficult for the zodiacs to find their way back to the ship – particularly because one of the boats had no GPS or compass to help them navigate. They were also apparently hampered by thick kelp beds near the shoreline that they had to row through since the outboard motors would get too tangled up. The final trip to the shore took about two hours for them to actually find the shore and the correct landing spot!

IPB Image
The image on the left shows the loading of one of the zodiacs. The image on the right is a close up of one of the fulmars that were congregating around the ship while we were anchored off Ketoy.

After everyone was safely ashore or back aboard the ship, the Gipanis gave one long blast of her foghorn to signal good-bye, the anchor was raised and we headed south toward Urup.

Mrs. N-O

************************************************************************
Message home from Bre MacInnis:
Dear Friends and Family:
I never managed to send a postcard from Japan or Russia, so I hope a virtual postcard will suffice. Everything is going fine. Hokkaido was a very nice place to visit even
if you don’t speak Japanese. Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk was the exact opposite (culturally) from Japan, but we Americans entertained ourselves easily while waiting to go to the ship. We’ve been on board since Sunday and I no longer get lost trying to find the Mess. It’s already beginning to feel like home. We have a betting pool going to see who will get seasick first. Most people bet on me, but so far, I’m A-OK.

See you in September,
Love, Bre
************************************************************************
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