Traveling from Burlington, VT to Nome, Alaska isn't exactly coast-to-coast, but it's close. The actual distance is 3,577.5 miles as the crow flies. However, Burlington is a small airport, and most trips out of Burlington are via an indirect route. After starting at 9:45 this morning, I arrived in Newark, NJ at 11:00. It's now 2 PM and I'm at the gate where my next flight leaves for Seattle, WA at 3:45. That flight will take nearly 6 hours; I'll have 2.5-hour layover in Seattle, and then I'll board a flight to Anchorage, Alaska, arriving at midnight. If I add in the extra check in time at the Burlington airport and the time change (Anchorage is on Alaska Daylight Time, four hours behind VT), I will have been awake and traveling for 22 hours. Tomorrow morning I'll fly to Nome, arriving there shortly after noon. It's not the fastest way to get there, but it works.
Packing for this cruise was a little easier once I decided to slip my laptop into my backpack and carry a small duffel in addition. Putting my heavy work boots and a few other items into my small duffel meant that my checked duffel was only 41 pounds. Yea! I actually had room for a few extra T-shirts and other odds and ends.
The weather in Nome hasn't been great for the past week or so, but it is supposed to be clearing even now. For the RUSALCA cruise in 2009, the Leg 2 team of scientists was delayed for more than 2 days due to a bad storm that kept the Khromov off shore. The question this time is whether all of the equipment and supplies that the scientists have shipped through Anchorage will arrive in time for the ship to depart on Monday. There have been lots of cancellations on the Anchorage to Nome flights due to the weather and the fact that only one runway is open in Nome. With nearly 50 scientists on board, there will be all manner of equipment and gear to be loaded before the ship sails, and everyone is hoping that their equipment is in Nome, not left behind in Anchorage. I'll try to get a picture of the loading process before we head out.