26 August 2008 The shock of re-adjusting to civilization

Since my last posting a few days ago, we have successfully (and safely) returned to solid ground. We steamed 670 km (415 miles) across the Sea of Okhotsk from our last field site (Kompaneskii, north Urup Island) back to port at Korsakov, and then by vehicle/s north up the highway to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. We were told to expect 2.5 days for the crossing. But for lots of reasons-lighter loads of fuel, food, and water; a steady tail wind; and the motivation of heading home - Iskatel made great time, and we were back in Korsakov after about 1.75 days.So it was an easy crossing. But it wasn't necessarily an easy trip once we got to port. First, we had to sit at anchor for several hours just offshore of the dock on Sunday afternoon (it still is not clear to me what we were waiting for....). Then, once we docked, all of the non-local team members (i.e., Americans, Japanese, and Russians who had traveled from Magadan or Moscow) still had to stay on board until Monday morning.

Once Monday morning rolled around, it was just a matter of waiting for the transport vehicles (a flat-bed truck, a large passenger bus, and two smaller passenger vehicles) to come from The Institute of Marine GeophysicsThe branch of geology that deals with the physics of the earth and its atmosphere, including oceanography, seismology, volcanology, and geomagnetism. and GeologyThe science that deals with the dynamics and physical history of the earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the physical, chemical, and biological changes that the earth has undergone or is undergoing. (IMGG, which is where our Russian vulconologists are based) to come pick up us and our equipment. The early arrival on Sunday actually worked out quite well-it gave us plenty of time to get all of our equipment and samples packed and staged on deck for quick transfer to the wharf (see photo).

But as it turned out, there wasn't any particular hurry to finish quickly. The first bus load started heading to the apartment around 11:30. Because we had so much equipment for the expedition, and because we had so many different research groups on the trip, we ended up spending a lot of time waiting for the next load of people/equipment to head out. One group spent 8 hours on the wharf waiting for the vans from IMGG. And another group (mine) spent 3 hours coaxing IMGG's dying passenger bus up and over hills (it normally takes about 45 minutes to drive to Y-S from Korsakov). In fact, the bus didn't quite make it (see photo).

There is a series of large hills between Korsakov and Y-S. The poor engine was struggling really hard (we think it has a broken head gasket). We even got all eleven of the passengers out and walked up two of the shorter, steeper hills to help the bus out. But it finally died about 4 km away from IMGG. Andy made a valiant attempt to patch things together well enough for us to make it the final leg. But in the end, all we could do was wait a bit longer (see photo) for the IMGG busses to come get the passengers (two loads), and then tow the bus to IMGG to offload the equipment.

Our colleagues from IMGG felt really badly about the bus situation. But we all took it in stride. It added a bit of flair (but not TOO much) to the end of our research cruise!

Now that we're back in Y-S, we still have a lot of work to do. We have artifacts to clean and photograph. We have samples bound for Seattle to finish packing and clear through Russian Customs and the Russian Ministry of Culture. We have field notes and forms to finalize and scan.

And we have to re-adjust to being back in the land of cell phones, car alarms, televisions, etc. I think that all of us were initially excited to see the last day of the Olympics on the television in the ship's galley. But once we got in range of the cell towers, a variety of ring tones started to emanate from just about everywhere. After being in the field for so long, I had forgotten how pervasive some of these noises are in our life! I'm actually quite glad that we don't have a (working) TV in the apartment!

Over the next several days we will also be re-adjusting to high-speed internet and a steady stream of e-mail. Most of us will be visiting the internet café and trying to wade through all of the e-mails that have probably stacked up over the summer. I'll also take advantage of the faster internet connection to post another "mystery" sound or two....

Until then,

--Dr. E