Post Date: 11 April 2008
Kodiak, AK
Latitude: 57.78
Longitude: -152.42
Posted By: Josh London

Delayed in Kodiak

The NMML contingent from our research team taking some time to visit a Kodiak Island beach and observe local marine life.  From left to right: Shawn Dahle, Dave Withrow, Josh London, John Jansen, Heather Ziel, Gavin Brady.
 

We've been in Kodiak for almost one week now and are hoping to leave for the ice edge as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the Dyson has some mechanical issues that need to be repaired before we can safely sail. We were originally scheduled to leave last Wednesday, but the repairs and mechanical issues were not fully resolved. We are now all hopeful that the ship will be able to leave port on Monday. While the loss of nearly a third of our cruise is not insignificant, we are grateful to have a group of dedicated researchers and crew who will work together to maximize the time we do end up with.

During our extended stay in Kodiak we have remained in touch with the office back in Seattle via our internet connection and tried to be productive. Today, we visited the Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak to get some insight into the helicopters our counterparts on the USCG Polar Sea will be using for their aerial survey work. On Thursday, we drove to one of the coastal areas out of town where there had been reports of whale's near shore. We had great visibility for sighting and saw several grey whales and a few fin whales. We also observed a few harbor seals within the kelp beds and several species of sea bird.

The crew of the Dyson have been great hosts during the delay and have provided us with a few activities to prevent us from going stir-crazy. Kodiak is the home port for the Oscar Dyson so they know the area well. The CO and members of the engineering crew have been putting in plenty of extra hours trying to get the ship safe and operational as soon as possible. Hopefully, things come together as planned and we'll be on our way soon.

More from the Oscar Dyson survey>>>