The winds calmed down today and we made a short hop to Aiktak island where 2 biologists are studying the birds. It was just a 3 mile crossing but the current was due to be shooting south at 6 knots this morning so we waited until an hour before slack. It was a great day for wildlife as usual. Two snorting, sparing sea lions gave us a display on the beach as we left and an otter swimming by on his back didn’t see us until we were close enough to see individual hairs on his face. Dozens of seals lay basking on offshore rocks, some with little babies. There was very little current in the pass until the last half mile when it started pushing us North at a couple of knots. We ferry glided to a small offshore rock draped with sea lions.

Hundreds of puffins swarmed over us as we neared land. It was a taste of things to come as this island where introduced foxes have been irradiated is home to thousands of nesting birds.

” There’s a person”, Sarah called. Amanda was waving to us from a small hill. We pulled up onto the beach and followed her up a narrow path through the grass to a tiny wooden cabin. The sign above the door read “Puffin Palace”. Stacie was inside cooking up deer stew and homemade bread. She later told us she hunted the deer last year.

After lunch we followed them as they went “grubbing” which was checking inside burrows for nesting petrels, eggs and chicks. We got to see the two different types that nest here – leeches and fork tailed, and a couple of little chicks. Amanda collected the egg membrane from an oyster catcher chick that had just hatched for DNA testing.

Right now I’m in the puffin palace while Stacie magics up some salmon sushi. I’m not sure yet whether we’ll move on to Unimak island tomorrow. That’s our last big crossing and one that will have us digging out our bear spray as from there onwards we’ll have some new neighbours to try not to attract!