Okhotsk Russia
Russia
Frequently Asked Questions
No. Landing is by inflatable boat, depending on the swell and the bar at the river mouth, and nothing is ever guaranteed. Okhotsk is a fishing settlement, not an equipped port of call.
At the mouth of the Okhota River, on the western shore of the Sea of Okhotsk, in the Russian Far East. The town has a few thousand residents, houses of wood and sheet metal, and a hard climate.
A Russian Far Eastern town as it exists far from any itinerary: modest monuments recalling the founding expeditions, low houses with carved window frames, a grey shingle beach where nets dry, and a small local museum open at its own hours.
Because for two centuries it was Russia's only window on the Pacific. Cossacks reached this shore in the mid-17th century, a stockade went up in 1647, then a port: everything Russia sent to the Pacific passed along the Okhotsk trail.
The only overland route linking Yakutsk to the Pacific coast: months of horse and sledge to bring men, anchors, sails and flour. That colossal effort is what made the Russian expeditions to Alaska possible.
In the 18th century, holds left loaded with sea otter and Arctic fox, and American furs passed through its warehouses on the way to Chinese markets. It was the capital of a trade now forgotten.
Because everything moved on: trade shifted to the Amur, the navy to Petropavlovsk, and Alaska was sold in 1867. The town went back to fishing, salmon and silence.
The real spectacle is the sea itself. Cold and ice-bound much of the year, it feeds colonies of seabirds, seals and whales. Fog rises and tears apart within minutes over a coast of low, bare hills.
Very few. It is an isolated fishing town with no tourist infrastructure. The currency is the Russian rouble, foreign cards do not work and English is essentially absent. Rely entirely on the ship.
During the short summer season, roughly June to September, when the Sea of Okhotsk is ice-free. Even then, swell and the river-mouth bar decide the landing at the last moment.
