October 8

Temp: 32

Weather: Mostly cloudy, 20 knot winds

This morning, now north of the Arctic Circle and well into the Chukchi Sea, the ship was rounding the Lisburne Peninsula, starting with a glowing sunrise over Point Hope, then the distant snow-covered Lisburne Hills. We spent the afternoon between Cape Lisburne and Point Lay, passing by the offshore edge of Ledyard Bay, a major migration area for seaducks, seals, walrus, and whales. The weather has really changed now, from the cool, damp Bering Sea, to the crisp cold of the Arctic.

See more photos on this map of the Healy's voyage.

During our first day in the Chukchi Sea, the waters were relatively quiet, most birds having vacated already for warmer places down south. But what we did see was spectacular. Several flocks of Spectacled Eiders flew past, leaving their breeding and staging grounds behind to head to the Bering Sea to spend the winter in an open ice area south of St. Lawrence Island. Ross's Gulls came by in strings of five to ten birds, their bellies noticeably flushed pink, an apparently rare sighting sometimes caused by their diet. Then a Sabine's Gull flew past mixed in with some kittiwakes, my third life bird for the day. Later in the afternoon two walrus swam close by the boat as both crew and scientists scrambled to the windows for a peek.

I'm getting accustomed to the rhythm of ship life and the moving floor beneath my feet. Tonight we'll transit far offshore past Wainwright and Peard Bay on our way to the shelf break past Hanna Shoal. We're headed for our first oceanographic research destination, where the true purpose of this expedition begins.

Melanie Smith, Landscape Ecologist, Audubon Alaska