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> July 18, 2006 - Anchors Aweigh! (part 1), Who will be the first to get sea sick? Not me!
Misty_Nikula_Ohlsen
post Jul 19 2006, 08:34 PM
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July 18, 2006 - Anchors Aweigh!
Who will be the first to get sea sick? Not me!

*****Special Announcement*****
Today is Dena Berkey’s birthday! She turns 22 years old and has written a special note home at the bottom of this journal post.
*****************************

We are at sea! Yesterday at about 4 pm, we pulled away from the dock and headed out of the Korsakov harbor. It had turned into a beautiful day. It had been cool and foggy in the morning, but was sunny and warm by the afternoon. We don’t expect to be at our first stop in the Kuril Island – Ketoy in the central Kurils – to drop off a Russian volcanology group, until tomorrow (20 July) at about 2 pm.

Tuesday, July 18 – Aboard the Gipanis in Korsakov
We spent the morning sorting and inventorying the rest of the gear, so that we could keep track of what was in the hold, what had been distributed to each group member and where things were so we could find them once we were in the Kurils. I worked with Matt, Beth and Bre to organize the first aid gear. We added to each person’s individual first aid kit some of the over the counter medications from the large COSTCO bottles into smaller Ziploc bags, an emergency blanket and whistle and some other odds and ends. Each member of our group will have a small, personal first aid kit, and then there are also two large first aid kits that will go ashore - one with each group. Other people worked on sorting the remaining gear. We were finished before 11 am and had the rest of the day to ourselves.

Matt, Dena, Jesse and I walked into town real quick to make last minute purchases before our long journey. We got back just in time for dinner (Russians call lunch – dinner and dinner – supper). Then we had the rest of the afternoon to hang around on the ship. We couldn’t leave again since we didn’t know the exact time of departure, but knew that it was imminent.

As we pulled away from the pier, they played a very inspiring, traditional Russian song over the loudspeakers. I tried to record a snippet with my camera and hope to upload it in the future.

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One of our last views of Korsakov as we headed south around the end of Sakhalin Island on our way to the Kuril Islands.

We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing. Mike and I played some cribbage (5 rubles to play and 1 ruble a point). I beat him by 10 points. There are many “betting pools” going on, including the cribbage pool and the first to be seasick pool. Yesterday, Paul and I beat James and Mike in partner’s cribbage by 24 points, so thus far I am cleaning up in the cribbage pool. No one has been seasick, yet, so that pool is still open.

We thought that supper would be either at 5 or 6. By 6:30 we were starting to wonder. We then learned that supper wouldn’t be served until 7:30! Plus, we started eating meals in two shifts, because there is not enough space for everyone at once, and I am in Group 2, which eats about 20 minutes later than Group 1. So I still had about 1 ˝ hours before I could go eat. Now, while eating at nearly 8 pm is not a problem, eating that late when you were expecting to eat at 6 can be disconcerting to your stomach! We all went back to our cabins for snacks to tide us over.

After dinner, we all went up to the top deck to see the last bits of Sakhalin Island go by. We had amazing views of the terraces, eroded cliffs, volcanic peaks and even a landslide. There was fog on the other side (eastern side, toward the Sea of Okhotsk) and it was blowing around the end of the island and over the top of the hills. I learned that the scientific term for the fog coming over the top of the hills and rolling down the other side is “shriving”.

We watched the sun set one more time and enjoyed talking about how we would go about figuring out the age of the landslide and if the trees and vegetation on the part that had slid were there before or grew after the slide. It was geology through binoculars at its best. smile.gif

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Most of our expedition group members on the top deck of Gipanis as we head around the southern tip of Sakhalin Island.

Eventually, the ship moved into the fog bank and was enshrouded. We started to get cold and it was getting dark, so we headed in. The students gathered in the mess hall to play cards and I went to my cabin to work on my Journal, etc.


Talk to you soon from the Kuril Islands!
Mrs. N-O

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Message home from Dena Berkey

Hello everyone! Today’s my birthday so it seemed like a good time to drop a line (thought I’m not actually the one dropping the line, Misty is – Thank you, Misty!)

Our boat left Korsakov (a very dismal place) and we have been steaming (dieseling) toward the Kurils ever since. The trip so far is good – there has been beautiful scenery and with the help of my Scolpamine patch, I have not yet been seasick. Everyone has been very nice and has made sure my birthday was not forgotten.

I think of everyone often and miss you a bunch, especially today.

With all my love,
Dena
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