I felt quite sad paddling away from the small crowd of people who gathered on the beach at Atka to wave us off this morning. We had a fun 3 days getting to know some of the folks.

Today’s weather was more typical of the aleutians with a layer of fog sitting 100 metres above sea level hiding the peaks and spires of the coastline. It sometimes drifted down to sea level shutting out the view totally or lifted tantalisingly for a few moments revealing a glimpse of a rocky mountain or grassy hill. We crossed Amlia pass a mile North of the narrow part, avoiding the breaking waves that guarded the entrance on the Amlia Island side. The highlight was a glimpse of a whale’s back – Sarah thinks it was a bottlennose whale.

The wind was NE but not as strong as expected so we were able to paddle 20 nautical miles. The coastline was really pretty with spires, stacks, small islands and lots of rocky or pebble beaches.
Thousands of birds sat on the sea and swirled around our heads; puffins, eider ducks, black guillemots and many others.
As we came ashore tonight Sarah spotted steam rising from the sea and suggested it might be a hot spring. I was sceptical but we went to check it out. The sea water was indeed warm, almost warm enough to go for a dip.. But not quite. We searched for the source of the heat but couldn’t find any one spot. It seemed to be seeping up over a large area. Very exciting none the less!

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