Author: Kenzie Hilburn

Week 2 – Mackenzie Hilburn

By

On November 2, 2025

In R/V Sikuliaq, University of Alaska Fairbanks

Happy (belated) Halloween!

A line of carved pumpkins, all backlit with indigo LED lights. The first one is a an orange grinning cat, the second is a warty gourd with a seasick expression, the third is a white pumpkin that has been painted to resemble Wilson from the movie Casaway, and the fourth is a depictions of two penguins with a chicklet.
The galley staff picked up some pumpkins in Seward before we left!

After fighting some rough winds through the Bering Strait, the Sikuliaq has arrived in the operations area as planned! And the rumors are true: the arctic is very cold. The ocean is green and black and so cold that every wave hurls sleet up onto the deck. We all stay inside as much as possible, except for a few nights ago when everyone gathered on the bridge deck to view the northern lights.

This second week has been all about getting into a steady routine. The science team is busy monitoring the multibeam seafloor map and sub-bottom profiler in between casting CTDs, collecting samples, and servicing meteorological buoys. Up on the bridge, the mates and the captain have been fighting the wind and waves (up to 40 knots and 10 feet tall, respectively!) to keep us stable and on the correct heading. And the engineering crew runs the tightest ship I’ve ever seen- a ship like the Sikuliaq requires a labyrinth of machinery to operate in extreme climates like the arctic, and they keep it spotless and running smoothly every single day.

We found ice!!!
The science team takes the work boat out to gather ice samples

As a marine tech, my job is to collaborate with all of these groups and to help with operations in any capacity I can. I especially enjoyed helping the engineers service the A-frame hydraulics; machinery of that scale is fascinating to me, and I appreciated the chance to get some grease on my brand new work gloves! Another highlight was joining the crew in one of the small boats to recover a meteorological buoy. It’s hard to really appreciate the sheer size and power of the Sikuliaq until you’re sitting in a three-person raft and watching it bear down on you.

The A-frame, lowered for maintenance
Buoy recovery, viewed from sea

I’m excited to see what this coming week holds!

Week 1 – Mackenzie Hilburn

By

On October 24, 2025

In R/V Sikuliaq, University of Alaska Fairbanks

My first week aboard the R/V Sikuliaq has flown by! After arriving in Seward, Alaska, I leapt at the opportunity to do a bit exploring. Seward is a beautiful town with a lot of history, but it’s quiet this time of year as the tourist season winds to a close.

The R/V Sikuliaq is visible through the haze of mist at the UAF dock.
Through a starboard window I could see the steep pine tree-covered slopes of the mountains Seward sits at the base of.
The Seward library was a pop of color against the overcast sky!
The fog makes the snowcapped mountains on the other side of Resurrection Bay look distant and dark. This picture was taken at Mile Zero of the Iditarod Trail.

The weather cleared up as the Sikuliaq got underway! The extended maintenance period at the dock in Seward turned out to be a blessing in disguise: the delay prevented us from sailing through an intense storm cell in the Bering Sea. So, we began our transit that would take us through Unimak Pass, along the western coast of Alaska, and eventually through the Bering Strait and across the Arctic Circle.

This is my first time being in Alaska; it is just as beautiful as I'd always heard!
A range of gray, snowy mountains in front of the twilit sky.
A bird flies across the blue sky as we leave Resurrection Bay. The mountains are very distant on the horizon.
A view of the jewel blue water over the side of the ship.

Today is day 8 of our transit. Winds around 30 knots have been whipping up the waves and slowing our progress towards the Bering Strait– and the turbulence was enough to knock my sea legs right out from under me! I have noticed that the color of the sea has changed the further north we have gone; I have some theories but if anyone happens to know why this is, I would love to learn!

The water has gotten choppier and colder, and the sun rises much later in the day this far north. Here, the sun through the clouds makes everything look monochrome.
A picture of some very frothy, frigid waves.

During the transit, I have been getting acquainted with the ship, the crew, and my duties and responsibilities as a Marine Technician. Some projects I’ve tackled so far are installing and calibrating sensors on the CTD array, replacing batteries in universal power system banks, and learning the daily maintenance of tools like the uncontaminated seawater system that allow for the continuous collection of valuable environmental data. In the next week or so, I expect that we will have crossed the Arctic Circle and reached the operations area; I hope to see some ice fields and maybe a polar bear (from a distance.)

Introduction – Mackenzie Hilburn

By

On October 11, 2025

In Host, R/V Sikuliaq, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Vessel/Laboratory

Hi everyone! As a long-time follower of this blog, I am very excited to be sharing my upcoming experience aboard the R/V Sikuliaq as a Marine Technician Intern!

There’s not much ocean to be found in Missouri, but I make do.

My name is Mackenzie Hilburn. I love visiting new places, jamming out on my bass guitar, and watching/reading/writing/all things horror! Little known fact about me: I am afraid of deep water. In spite of this (or maybe because of it!) I have always had a profound love for the ocean. Vibrant shallow reefs, bleak and mysterious abyssal plains, teeth-chatteringly frigid polar shores– every part of Earth’s largest habitat is fascinating to me. My dream is to explore every unseen corner of the oceans; in other words, to boldly go.

Photo from a prior expedition; I absolutely love being out at sea!

I’m on the edge of my seat waiting for the beginning of this expedition! No small part of my excitement is due to the research cruise objectives, which have to do with the seasonal formation of coastal ice and how it affects the strength and frequency of waves impacting other coastal regions. This is a subject that is particularly close to my own heart; you can read about the specifics and further objectives here.

A large part of my excitement also comes from the fact that this will be my first time visiting Alaska! Earlier this year I had the incredible experience of sailing aboard Ocean Exploration Trust’s EV Nautilus in an expedition to the Mariana Islands backarc. In terms of geography, climate, and my own personal learning objectives, these expeditions are in such stark contrast, and I definitely intend to take this opportunity to broaden my experience in the field of marine engineering on the whole.

I just hope the winter jacket I ordered arrives before I have to travel!

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén