nome sweet nome
Day 0 | Thursday June 15
After months of planning and preparation, the day is finally here. As of 10 PM last night the entire science party has boarded the R/V Sikuliaq. Our home for the next 6 weeks, it’s incredibly exciting and somewhat surreal to know that we are finally on board and about to embark tomorrow…!!
Our adventure begins in the town of Nome, Alaska. Only accessible by plane or boat, this little town is home to the finish line of the Iditarod, Alaska’s annual 1,000 mile-long sled dog race (sadly the race takes place in March so we’ll have to come back to watch it). Located on the Seward Peninsula alongside the Bering Sea (see the map below), Nome will be our gateway to the Arctic.
After landing in Nome’s very small and efficient airport yesterday morning, we were supposed to go directly aboard the Sikuliaq. However, unexpected bad weather meant the ship had to pull away from port (to prevent any damage from getting pushed around by wind/waves), leaving us stranded in Nome. Well that’s a bit dramatic, thankfully Ethan from the Sikuliaq crew & Gay from Alaska Sea Grant are quick problem-solvers and incredibly kind, as they shuttled us from the airport to an empty conference room on the University of Alaska Fairbanks Northwest Campus where we could wait for the weather to clear and the boat to come and pick us up.
The conference room was definitely cozy and we spent many hours (from around noon to 8pm) mentally preparing ourselves for the possibility of having a sleepover in there if the boat wouldn’t be able to come to port, and passing the time tying up loose ends from the quarter, taking some deep naps, reading books, learning about salmon sharks (s/o to the Strait Science Series) and playing some intense games of bananagrams.
We also got to explore a bit of Nome – we had a warm lunch at the Polar Cub Cafe, heard a lot about the history of this region and the incredible ivory carvings made by Indigenous folks in the region (they carve from walrus tusks and whale bone/baleen) from some incredible gift store employees, and even saw the Sikuliaq off in the distance slowly making its way towards us.
And now here we are, it hasn’t even been a full 24-hours but we’ve all settled into our rooms, had two very tasty meals, and *almost* finished setting up the lab spaces. All that’s left is to get a safety briefing and official tour from the captain and crew and then we’ll be off. Our planned departure is for right around 0900 (or 9 AM) tomorrow morning. Our first destination – the Bering Strait!
