Arctic
Arctic Wrap-up
Now that I am home from my trip to the Arctic, I have had time to add some photos to the text only posts that I was able to make whilst I was away. It was quite challenging to keep my news up to date when I could only send text messages through the ship’s […]
Read More
Last Day on the Ship
Today, Sunday June 5th, is our final day on the ship. We started, as usual, with Hayley’s voice (our expedition leader) coming from the speaker in the ceiling at 7.00 am with a wake up call. She told us that the temperature outside was 12 degrees and it has been a nice sunny day all […]
Read More
Walrus & Relics
It’s Saturday, July 5 and we are positioned on the opposite side of the Fjord to the little settlement of Ny Aleson that we visited earlier in the voyage. When I looked out the dining room window and saw the same architecturally significant concrete grey colored blockhouse from the mining site, I knew exactly where […]
Read More
Stalking Bears
Today, Friday, July 3rd has been a top day. Te weather has become fine and even though it is still cold, we have had sunshine to brighten up the scenery, some scattered clouds to make the sky interesting and some animals that have made the day exciting. We are back in Woodfjorden, the same place […]
Read More
Zodiac Cruising
We found ourselves positioned in Raudfjorden this morning (Thursday, July 2) on the very north-west corner of Spitzbergen. We have clearly given up trying to circumnavigate this island group because the sea ice is simply too thick. Two other ships have tried and been turned back by the Norwegian Coast Guard. It looks as though […]
Read More
Polar Bear Sightings
We found ourselves positioned near Worsleyneset in Woodfjorden with a plan for going ashore after breakfast on one of the small nearby islands. Our scouting party had found a bear on the island and some people looking out from the bridge saw three or four others in the surrounding area. It wasn’t safe to land, […]
Read More
Glaciers, Whales and Polar Bears
It’s Monday, June 29. We finished our day last night in Lillehockbreen with a visit to an enormous glacier of the same name. We cruised right up to its face after our BBQ dinner and stopped with the bow pointing to the glacier about 500 metres away from it. There was one other ship there, […]
Read More
Good Photographic Days
Our last two days have been very enjoyable days in terms of taking pictures. I’ve taken over 300 with a lot of ‘experimenting’ with settings and trying out different compositions. We sailed until lunch time yesterday ( Saturday, June 27) and reached our first stop near Bourbonhamna on Recherchefjordan by about 4.00 pm. We […]
Read More
A Wet Day with the Walrus
Wednesday, June 25th and we awoke to a grey wet and rainy day. We had a wake up call at 7.00 am and the breakfast as usual at 7.30. The ship was positioned off Dollerittnesset / Kopp Lee and we had a landing with a reported sighting of walrus on the beach. We were ready […]
Read More
Sailing Along
Our day on Friday June 26th was somewhat inactive. By mid morning we were off AEkongen Island near Tusenoyane and attempted a landing. The sea seemed quite flat, but there was a gentle swell. On the ship it was hard to perceive, but in zodiacs it was more noticeable. It was creating waves on the […]
Read More
Kittywake Landing
Day three (Wednesday, June 24) started out as a foggy day and ended as a beautiful fine day with warm sun. The temperature was a warm 5 degrees and there was very little wind. We were still at sea in the morning with our adjusted schedule. To fill in the time, we had some interesting […]
Read More
First Days at Sea
It’s June 24 and I have been as busy as a one arm paper hanger. There are so many activities on the ship, that it’s hard to fit them all in. I woke up yesterday to find that we were in a broad fjord (Sundefjord) with some ice near the shore and large mountain peaks […]
Read More