On August 11, at about 7 pm, we saw our last of the Kuril Islands as the Iskatel-4 lifted anchor shortly after the small field crews were returned from Rasshua at around 6:30 pm and we headed south before turning west to cross the Sea of Okhotsk on our way back to Korsakov. Compared to last year, it had been a short field season (about 20 days compared to by about 16 days), but a very productive one. We had found and mapped known and new archaeological sites and gotten good work done at three major archaeological sites and 4-5 tsunami sites, and that was just the American crew!
But while the field work was complete, our work is far from done…..
We arrived in Korsakov harbor at about 6 am on August 14, but had to wait until shortly after 8 am for the harbormaster to tell the Iskatel’s crew where to berth and by a little before 9 am, we were tied up at the dock. There was a lot of hustle and bustle on the ship as everyone finished packing their personal gear and each of the different groups began organizing their field gear. The American crew pulled samples and gear from the forward hold and transferred it to the dock.
The day alternated between waiting on the dock, lifting and lugging, waiting/playing cards/reading/napping, loading trucks, more waiting, more loading, more waiting, getting on and riding the bus/waiting/napping, unloading trucks, more riding/waiting, a bit more unloading, a bit more riding and then finally arriving at the apartment near Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.
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