Nome, Alaska

Paul was, unfortunately, woken up for fog duty. I say "unfortunately" because the call woke me up, and I had a hard time getting back to sleep again. Eventually....

We are anchored just off Nome Harbour and tendering into the harbour to a jetty.

Paul eventually woke up and had to see the Captain for a discussion about the sailing schedule this evening and tomorrow - to the Arctic Circle. The ice charts and satellite photographs are not helping and seem to contradict each other, so it will have to be a case of "wait and see" as to how far we can get.

The fog lifted before we reached our anchoring point. The weather is lovely, sunny and warm - believe it or not! A balmy 17C.

Paul and I went ashore for a bit. We had intended to follow a river as far as the path would go, but unfortunately, halfway along, we couldn't continue because the track became a mini lake. We couldn't get around it because of dense bushes on either side of the track and boggy/muddy ground on either side of the bushes.

We cut our walk short and walked around the outskirts of town, past an airfield and near a hospital. We then walked down to the coastline and followed the road into town. We stopped at a church that is no longer a church - it is used as a meeting place. We then saw a monument - the world's largest gold pan. There is gold offshore, and many townsfolk dredge the ocean bottom for gold. Some of the dredging boats were in the harbour.

Our impression of Nome? There is really not much to see. It was unkempt and bleak-looking. Many houses looked ramshackle and run down. They could do with repairs. Maybe the harsh winter conditions make it difficult, I'm not sure.

When we got back to the harbour, there was a very long queue of guests waiting to get back to the ship. Paul wanted to visit the cemetery nearby, but I said I wasn't bothered, so we joined the queue. Needless to say, by the time we got a tender back to the ship, the queue was much longer.Read more