Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Yankicha, also known as Ushishir, is one of two connected islets in the center of the Kuril chain.The islets are the summit of a quiescent volcano which last erupted in 1884. One wall of Yankicha’s caldera has been breached by the sea, creating a crater bay.
In the morning, from our balcony we spotted a Sperm Whale, and a little later we saw an Orca. First activity for the day was a zodiac cruise on the outside of the caldera, where some of us had a close encounter with an Orca. The weather conditions were favorable, and later that afternoon, we were able to enter the caldera by zodiac and make landings inside. Hilde, Tricia and Stephen braved the almost vertical climb to the caldera rim; Caroline explored the inside closer to sea-level.
