On board the Silver Discoverer, we leave Hakodate and head northeast towards the Russian island of Sakhalin. The island has at various times been Russian or Japanese and last changed hands in 1945 at the end of WWII. It takes a good day and a half for us to reach the port of Korsakov at the southern end of Sakhalin where we have to complete all formalities to enter Russia. We're hopeful that we might be able to leave the ship and spend at least a short time walking around the nearby town, but it takes the officials most of the day to process the ship, passengers and crew and we're "confined to barracks".

The ship is carrying just 90 passengers, half of whom are traveling with a specialist adventure tour company and are a group of elderly, mostly American adventure tourists. Although essentially the same demographic as our usual travel companions on similar expeditions, this is a bunch of serious adventure travelers, many of whom have been exploring remote corners of the world together for 30 years or more and make our adventures seem almost unadventurous by comparison! The expedition staff are almost all from this company and are serious experts in their fields, including a British artist/ornithologist with a fascinating back story who has authored (and illustrated) several definitive birding guides. Boring as that may sound to most people, Peter Harrison among his many other talents is also a very passable stand-up comedian with quite a talent for turning a seabird lecture into an hilarious comedy routine!

A day and a half out of Korsakov, we arrive at the tiny island of Tuyleniy in the Sea of Okhotsk east of Sakhalin. Although it's mid-summer, the weather is awful. Persistent rain, intermittently heavy with what looks suspiciously like sleet and a fairly strong wind. The ship drops anchor a mile from the island and we go the rest of the way in a zodiac. Tuyleniy ("seal" in Russian) Island is home to an enormous colony of northern fur seals and one of the largest colonies of Stellars sea lions. The latter are massive creatures, particularly the male "beach masters" who jealously guard their harem of females. Mature male Stellar sea lions are about the size of a Fiat 500 and fiercely aggressive. Although there are several buildings on the tiny island (including one which was apparently built to be a hotel but probably only ever functioned as a seal processing factory) only Russian bird and seal researchers are permitted to land, the island being considered too "seal crowded" and dangerous for anyone else. We're not allowed any closer in than 100 meters from the shore but the sight, sound....and smell are impressive enough. We're back on board an hour or more later, very cold and wet....