Justine’s Blog

After 3 hours we were still lost. We thought it would be straightforward to follow the coast and reach the cabin but we hadn’t counted on the mist or having to detour around cliffs. Why didn’t we bring a map or gps!? The day had started promisingly, after 2 days off at the puffin palace waiting for the wind to drop below 20 knots, we waved goodbye to Stacie and Amanda and launched into the calmest sea we’d seen for a few days. It turned out that Ugamak Island to our North was sheltering us and after a mile we were in the path of a stronger than forecast northerly wind and rows of white caps appeared. It could be a blustery crossing I thought. Once we rounded the SW corner of the island we were hit by 25 knot northerly gusts which made it hard to make progress. We weren’t sure if the wind was being accelerated around the coast but the gusts were powerful and we decided today wasn’t a day for a 10 mile crossing paddling directly into that wind. The vertical cliffs on the east coast
offered no camping options so we turned back, hoping we might be able to land by a cabin on the south coast where 3 guys are researching the sea lion colony. We think we saw someone in a yellow jacket on top of the cliffs and I was tempted to land on some rocks in between 2 beaches full of sea lions and run up to say Hi. I think I could have avoided disturbing any sea lions but is there’s a 3 mile exclusion zone around the colony so I thought better of it. We landed at the first available beach, an awkward, sloping gulch full of slippery seaweedy boulders, just a mile away from the sandy beach of the puffin palace on Aiktak opposite us. It was tempting to return to the friendly smiles of Amanda and Stacie but we thought we’d go and say hi to the sea lion researchers instead and maybe learn a bit about what they’re doing.

We should have taken a gps or map as we totally failed to find them or their cabin. We climbed up into the mist and spent 3 hours tramping up hills, traversing grassy slopes, scrambling up rocky gullies and peering into a whiteout, ever hopeful of a tiny cabin or the lake that it sits near appearing from the gloom. Perhaps we saw the lake as we saw water 200 metres below us a few times but thought it was probably the sea. By the time we descended from the whiteout, we’d missed them a second time and were nearly back at our kayaks. Time to make the best of a lumpy, hard campsite and not think about the awkward launch tomorrow morning (fingers crossed for lighter winds ).

Sarah and I played at being field biologists today. When we woke up we could hear the wind rattling the “puffin palace” cabin. Looking out the window at the white caps marching across the bay and the long green grass rippling vigorously, we knew we weren’t going to paddle the 10 mile crossing to Unimak today. Instead we trundled through the grass up the South side of the island, following Amanda and Stacie to the cliff tops with their telescopes. We paused to look down at a bald eagle on top of a pinnacle of rock, one of his chicks just visible in the criss crossed mesh of twigs. At the top of “Gull mountain” we were abreast with dozens of nesting glaucous winged gulls. Perched on the cliff edge, Stacie and Amanda looked through their scopes at different species of cormorants and murres (guillemots to my Atlantic friends! ) that were nesting in the cliffs while Sarah and I wrote down the results. It was a fun job with the bonus that we got to see close up the difference be tween
common and thick billed murres, and red faced and double crested cormorants. It was relaxing sitting watching a procession of clouds hide and reveal the white volcanic cone of Shisheldin on Unimak, and a never ending stream of puffins fly by in circles, the blond locks of the tufted puffins looking suave as they cruised by. In the afternoon we watched the girls check ancient murelet nests. Apparently the chicks only stay in the nest for a couple of days before their dad takes them out to sea to learn to fend for themselves so we weren’t expecting to find any. Most nests contained 2 eggs or shell membranes where chicks had successfully hatched. But one muddy burrow housed 2 tiny fluffy chicks who were adorable.

We’ve just had dinner, or as Sarah put it, round two of the great American/ British bake off! It’s so nice to have a range of cans, fresh food and a kitchen so we Brits produced roasted sweet potato soup with flat bread, bean burgers with fries and apple and BlackBerry pie. Good job there are no scales here!

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!

It’s great when you wake up and it’s raining and you know you can go back to sleep again! In fact I didn’t get out of the tent until after midday, except for a quick dash to the loo in between showers! We’ve been given a few interesting books about the history and culture of the Aleutian Islands and I read some of “Aleuts: Survivors of the Bering Land Bridge”. This afternoon I took binoculars and cameras for an explore and managed to creep up really close to an otter who was feeding in the kelp. He’d dive down beneath the water with a flick of his tail and pop back up again a few seconds later clutching an urchin in his little paw. Floating on his back he’d use his tummy as a table and crunch at his spiky meal. I know we shouldn’t project our emotions onto animals but I couldn’t help feeling he looked happy! I discovered a white tundra swan with a black wedge for a nose floating about on a small pond looking quite lonely ( there I go again! ). And I watched 3 sea lions pros tate on
the beach, every whisker visible through the binoculars. Their rodent-like faces look so small and out of place besides their gigantic bodies rising mountainlike behind them, they remind me of a body builder who has taken too many steroids.

The forecast was for strong NE winds today but it didn’t seem that strong this afternoon and part of me felt we should have paddled. On the positive side, we’ve recharged our batteries and enjoyed just being in a wild corner of the world. I love our days off on a small island somewhere.