At 8:00 p.m. lastt nigth (ship's time) we passed from the Bering Sea through Unimak Pass into the Alaska Basin in the northernmost part of the Pacific. The mountains of Fox Island (Unimak Island to one side and Ugamak Island to the other) loomed at the horizon with the obligatory snow covered Volcano to starboard.
The pass is the widest one of all the Fox Island Passes of the Aleut Chain, the only one deep enough for deep draft ships and the only one with 'Aids to Navigation', i.e. lighthouses. We are again, as in Antarctica in remote waters. However, the pass is used frequently by freighters and fishing boats.
The feel of the sea changed almost immediately south of the pass, from lumpy accompanied by freezing winds, to long rolly with silver white caps, and pretty strong winds. Luckily the swells push us along, instead of having the ship fighting head winds with the dreaded pile-driving motion. It has warmed up to around freezing point, almost tropical!
Hard to imagine that we are at about the same latitude as Burns Lake in British Columbia, North 54 degrees or thereabouts, still a lot of landmass and sea to go before the Arctic circle...
We won't see any land now until we enter Juan de Fuca Strait on the 25 April, just rolling seas, biting winds....and a heating system on the ship, that seems to konk out at various locations at the most inconvenient times - ergo people run around parts of the ship dressed in parkas.
However, have yet to hear anyone say that they are ready and happy to disembark...suddenly there is cooking, cleaning, gardening, laundry, cars, gas prices, junk mail...quite a change from our present fortunate situation.
