Ship Spirit of Enderby: Alaska - Russian Far East Cruise, Ocean Cruise 25 Aug 2010 - 08 Sep 2010

Route description:

Itinerary

Day 1	Anchorage Today you will arrive to Anchorage. The capital of Alaska, Anchorage was named 4 times All- American city. It takes a second place, after New-York, for highest concentration of state residents living in a city. Despite other Alaska cities, Anchorage was found not as mainly fishing or mining town, but as a steel supplier to the region. Also in 1960 the oil was found in Prudhoe Bay, which made it a rich and prospective city. Program for an evening is simple: have a dinner and rest, tomorrow is a big day.
Day 2	Port of Nome After breakfast and checking out you will take a flight to Nome. Beside claiming to have a Worlds biggest gold pan, Nome is also famous for its dog sled traditions. By the way, Worlds most popular annual Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race is held here from 1925. Today you will board expedition ship and meet the crew members.
Day 3	Providenia Bay We will enjoy the hospitality of the people of Provideniya this morning. This is a small town situated on the north western coast of a picturesque fiord and was an important strategic town and seaport and during the height of the Soviet Union. Many military personal were stationed here but today the population is much reduced. The local people are proud of their history and it has one of the best museums in the region with over 12,000 exhibits.
Day 4	Lavrentia Bay Today you will explore Lavrentia Bay - the biggest estuary on Earth. In fact it is so big that it could be considered as a Sea. This is a busy area where you will meet a lot of fishing and transporting ships. Here the contrast between civilization and wild nature is especially strong.
Day 5	Cape Dezhnev We land at Cape Dezhnev on the extreme North-Eastern edge of Eurasia on the border of two oceans the Pacific and the Arctic. The site is marked by three magnificent monuments. This afternoon at the village of Uelen, the center of world famous Chukotka ivory carving you will be welcomed by the locals and have an opportunity to visit the museum and workshop where this traditional skill is practiced and taught.
Day 6	Kolyuchin Island This morning we land on the small island of Kolyuchin. This island which is the site of a Russian Polar Research Station lies about 25 km off the northern coast. It is also a recognized walrus haul out area as well as an important seabird nesting island.
Day 7	Wrangler islands We will spend three full days exploring the remote and seldom visited high arctic Wrangler Island. Wrangler Island was declared a Nature Reserve in 1976 to protect its rich biodiversity. We will enjoy some of the 400 plant species and the 160 bird species that have been recorded from the Island. Species to watch for include Ross’s, Sabine’s and Ivory Gulls – all of which breed and feed in the surrounding waters. The shores of Wrangler Island house the highest density of Polar Bears in the world, earning it the title of the “Polar Bear Maternity Ward”, and with such high concentrations we hope for some great encounters.
Day 11	Cake Vankaren Cape Vankaren is located in the Chukchi Sea, at the Nothern part of Sakhalin. Here you will have a perfect chance to get familiar with a culture and traditions of Chukcha. Did you know that Chukcha were living in this lands for more then 4 thousand years? Spread on huge territories of Russian Far East there are only 15727 representatives of this nation.
Day 12	Kolyuchin Today is another expedition day with opportunities to explore the Kolyuchinskaya and Belyaka Inlets. Emperor geese breed here and although the breeding season will be well advanced we can expect to see many other migratory species as they begin to lead southwards. Our naiads and zodiacs are the perfect craft for exploring these shallow sheltered waters.
Day 13	Yttygran One of the many highlights of the expedition will be time spent in the Arakamchechen archipelago. Here as recently as 1976 on Yttygran Island Russian anthropologists discovered an astonishing ancient ceremonial site nicknamed “Whale Bone Alley”. Must mystery remains about this unqiue site. The surrounding waters are home to large concentrations of Grey Whales and walrus both of which we hope to encounter. Later this afternoon in we follow in the wake of Capt. James Cook entering Layrentiya Bay, which is also a favoured area for marine mammals.
Day 14	At Sea An opportunity to catch up on sleep (with 24 hour daylight and with so much to see and do your sleep pattern will be disrupted) or catch up on your diary and notes. There will be recaps and lectures throughout the day as we head southwards through Bering Strait to Provideniya and then to Alaska.
Day 15	End of The Cruise This is the last day of you cruise at the top of the world. It's time to say goodbye to your new friends and get ready for a trip back home. You will arrive to the Port of Nome. Thank you and have a safe flight back home!