Tokimata's Travels

We?re hiding out at Nelson Island, 50 or so miles north east of Nunivak Island, not quite sheltering from strong northerly winds, this coast is very exposed for miles around here. We?ve been anchored here now for 36 hours, two enormous barges nearby, our anchor is holding well as the boat shudders and rocks and is slapped around by the waves, wind howling about us.

As we came in on Thursday night lots of friendly locals in open aluminium skiffs gave friendly waves, offered us fish, and took our photos from their iphones! We had talked to a few off shore one of whom said "We?re Yupik eskimo" clearly that's not an insult here. We're anchored near one of their fishing camps spread along the shore.

Tom and Dan and I found sun and shelter ashore yesterday, climbing up above the fishing camp that is sheltered by a big cliff, still banked with snow. We walked up above the camp having greeted some locals on shore, onto lovely smooth tundra hills, all gold and green and brown, soft and spongy with moss and lichen and wild lavender and flowers. So soft Dan and Tom walked barefoot for miles. We spent hours up there enjoying wonderful views of this vast low-lying bay spread out below, each delicate line of the land so visible as David had pointed out, without the trees, just delightful!

Not far from the cliffs we looked up to see an odd "spike" on the very top of a pointed hill. Looking through Lin's binoculars it seemed oddly shaggy - surely not a musk ox right there on the peak!? Too strange to be true surely in this bare landscape, but we had seen (and collected) their soft warm wool lying on the lichen, and so indeed it was, a great head reared up and stared at us, curved tusks on each side, the most ridiculous hairy blanket laid over his big humped shoulders and neat little white ankles below - extraordinary fellow, long coat blowing in the breeze, for a moment alarming as he reared up and might have charged down, his partner also joining him? it's hard to get a sense of scale on those bare and beautiful hills, they could have been enormous if close or small if far away - but it turned out they were quite near and though the size of a cattle beast, not enormous. Eve a woman we met on Nunivak wore a head covering she had spun from musk ox fur, collected from animals she killed, its amazingly soft like cashmere and she had dyed it in reds and greens.

We walked about these glorious soft hills for ages, enjoying this landscape which had a Margot Philips feel to it, such gentle rolling hillsides with in the distance, tin roofs along the coast catching the sun, showing there were villages and even perhaps a town in this enormous land? big wind turbines too not far away.

By the time we got back the sea was very choppy, we were glad to be off Portia and onto our good ship Tokimata. We're unsure now of our next move as we need to be in Nome soon as our cruising permit expires on July 13th. There are 300 miles to go on this very exposed coast, but it is north where this wild wind is coming from. It is though less extreme than last night, hopefully dying down. We've watched this morning as one barge has joined another behind us, huge cranes on the new barge unloading other boats, a kind of babushka of boats on board, now with small, middle-sized and big tugboat all neatly side by side. Pete heard on the radio the big fuel barge had dragged, heard Russian boats talking too.