August 30 – September 2

I am a little behind, so I am combining the last few days of the cruise into one entry. Today, we are in Iceland doing the turnover to the next cruise. The next trip will take us south of where we were before, so I will get to see many new things.

On Aug 30, we started the day in Holm Bugt by doing a tundra hike. It was a slower paced hike, so we really had a chance to look at the flowers and eat the berries. At the end, we did get a bit of elevation which was nice – the views are always spectacular when the skies are clear. In the afternoon, we did a zodiac cruise in Alpefjord by a large glacier. The ice was fantastic and we were even lucky enough to see a bearded seal.


Bearded seal

On August 31 we spent the afternoon in Ittoqoortoormiit. If you can’t say that word, don’t worry – I’ve heard it spoken so many times now and I still have trouble pronouncing it. Ittoqoortoormiit is one of the two settlements in East Greenland. I did not get to see much of it as I was driving zodiacs for most of the time. The weather was pretty rough which made for fun zodiac driving and landing.

In the evening we set sail for Reykjavik. We spent the whole day at sea on September 1. I did another lecture, but spent most of my time working on the end of the trip slideshow that we all put together for the passengers. By mid morning the seas had calmed down enough for us to spot some marine life. We saw a few Sperm Whales, a Humpback Whale and some dolphins in the distance.

So today I spent my off time wandering around Reykjavik. It is a really nice place. I have two days extra here after the next cruise, which is great. I’m really looking forward to it.

The blog for the next cruise can be found at: http://www.oceanlori.com/arcticblog208.html

August 29, 2008

This morning we landed at Blomsterbugten. I went ashore and did the “poodle” hike with Hannah. It was lovely to go slow and identify the flowers. The plants are so incredibly tiny that if you do not look down, you will step on them and crush the delicate flowers. The berries are out at this time of year, so I did a little snacking along the way. On the hike we also saw some Musk Ox and some Arctic Hare.

On shore, there was also a hut that is used by the Sirius Sled Patrol during the winter. We were able to go into the hut and sign our ship name in the book. It was very interesting to look inside the hut. It is all set up for someone to go into, complete with toilet paper, fuel for the stove, and matches. One thing I noticed about the matches is that the boxes are left with a few matches hanging out of the closed box. This is so that when you get to the hut and your hands are cold, you do not have to fiddle with the matches – all you have to do is pull and strike.

This afternoon we landed at Ella Island, only to abort the landing about 5 minutes later. When we landed there were two tourists there waiting to be picked up by a plane. We went to talk to them and they told us that they had seen a Polar Bear at the beach just a half an hour before. So we promptly called off the landing. We then spent a few hours looking for the bear (and watching the plane come and go), but did not see it.

However, after dinner, as we were moving the ship around the corner, what did we see….yes, our friend the Polar Bear. It was cool to see it, and I’m glad we had some inside scoop before we went off on our hike.


View from Ella Island

August 28, 2008

This morning we woke up early for a pre-breakfast landing at a place called Mygbukta. It is an old Norwegian weather station where the first wireless message from Greenland was sent. The weather was calm, but the fog was socked in, so we canceled the landing for safety reasons. The fog was no problem, but the low visibility would have made it difficult to look for bears.

During breakfast we entered the Kejser Franz Joseph Fjord and the fog lifted. The sail into the fjord was beautiful and by the afternoon we had sailed up to the Walterhausen Glacier, which has a 6 nautical mile face! It was just spectacular and I’ve never seen a glacier as large.

For the expedition afternoon, I was able to join the hike up the side of the glacier to get a view from above. All I can say is WOW. Being able to look down at the glacier top was incredible, and with the fog gone and the sun out, I had panoramic views of the ship and the zodiacs below that were doing a zodiac cruise. The photo is of me with the glacier in the background. It is impossible to show scale.


At the Walterhausen Glacier

In the evening, we stayed anchored off of the glacier and had a BBQ dinner. My contribution to dinner was a chunk of glacier ice that Joel and I hauled into the zodiac. We hacked chunks of it off with an ax so that people could enjoy their cocktails with ice that was possibly a few hundred thousand years old. I’ve attached a photo of most of the staff eating outside. After the BBQ, we stayed on deck watching the sun dip below the horizon, producing a pink sky. It was lovely.


BBQ dinner with the staff

August 27, 2008

This morning the wind laid down and the sun came out in time for our landing at Daneborg and the headquarters of the Sirius Sled Dog Patrol.

This is an elite Danish military unit that travels the East Greenland coast to maintain Danish sovereignty and police the Northeast Greenland Park, which is the largest park in the world. They also conduct military surveillance over 160,000 square kilometers – all by dog sled! It is an amazing operation! In one season a sled team generally drives about 4,000 kilometers. There are 6 two man teams, with 11 dogs each. Men serve for two years, so there is always one experienced leader with each team. The dogs originally came from the Greenland Husky, but have been specially bred to produce a unique dog that are heartier, stronger and heavier than the Greenland husky. There are no other dogs in the world like these dogs. I had the honor of petting some of the adults and even petting one of the new puppies. These dogs spend their entire lives outside, and have no problems withstanding the harsh winter Greenland weather. If you want to learn more about them, look it up on the web – it is fascinating.


Getting a kiss from a Sirius Sled Dog

In the afternoon, we ducked into some shelter from the swell and I went on a “medium” hike. Usually, we break the group into three – long hikers (or challenging hike), medium hike and a “poodle” (as Hannah likes to say) along the shore. The medium hike was beautiful and we were graced with clear blue skies and sunshine. Along the way, I saw many Arctic plants and flowers – more than I thought would be here in the tundra.

The photo attached is of the view of the ship from our highest point. It really is the first time since I’ve been here that I really got a good overview of the expansive landscape.


View from the afternoon hike

August 26, 2008

Today the weather did not permit us to do any landings. We awoke surrounded by sea ice, which is such an amazing sight. We spent a portion of the morning picking through the ice on our way to Nanok Bay.

As we were arriving, the winds picked up and we were unable to do the landing. So we headed off to Sabine Island in hopes that the conditions would get better. The ride to Sabine Island was very rocky and I felt a little seasick. After taking some seasick medicine, and promptly falling asleep, we arrived at Sabine to conditions that were just as bad as Nanok. Despite the fact that we could not do any landings, we did see a Gyr Falcon on some ice, which is pretty rare. No photo today, but I did find out the name of the rifle….Mauser.

August 25, 2008

We made it to Danmarkshavn - a Danish weather station which is celebrating its 60th anniversary. There are 8 year round residents and it is the most northerly populated place in East Greenland. The visit was very interesting. Twice a day, they launch a weather balloon (we got to see one launch). It helps predict the weather for Europe and is also used for aviation data for planes flying from Europe to North America. It is part of a global system of weather stations that all send up balloons at exactly the same time each day – pretty neat.

Because of ice, Danmarkshavn has been pretty much cut off from ship traffic – we were the first passenger ship to visit in two years. However, the ice did break up about two weeks ago. Since then a military ship and one schooner have also visited, but the supply ship has still not been there for a few years. They do get supplies from a small plane that lands about every 5 weeks or so, except for in the winter. In the winter, the military does parachute drops for them with supplies if the weather cooperates. I was even told that during Christmas, they will drop a Christmas tree!


Launching the Weather Balloon

In the afternoon we landed at a place called Slambugten to do a hike on the tundra. The weather was dreadful – wind howling, raining, foggy, and cold. It was difficult to get organized as I had to carry my radio, GPS, rifle, binoculars, flares and camera backpack. It was actually kind of a waste to carry the camera, as I never took it out of the backpack. The weather was a factor, but I’m not sure how to coordinate the looking out for Polar Bear, not putting down the gun, and taking photos. I’ll have to come out with some sort of system, but I fear I am going to look like a Christmas tree with all of this stuff hanging off of me. Of course, since it was the first day hiking with the guns, I was hyper vigilant, which made it all a bit stressful. The group was good though and really stuck together. I got many questions about the gun, and if I’ve ever shot anything, if it was loaded, etc.. For those of you that are interested, I can never remember the name of the gun, but I know its historic…I’ve only shot targets…and yes, its loaded, half cocked and ready to go. I’ll have to find out the name and post it. On the hike we saw a group of Musk Ox and one Arctic Hare.

August 23, 2008 – Polar Bears!

Around midnight a Polar Bear mom and cub were spotted on the ice eating what appeared to be a seal. It was amazing that it was spotted because the visibility was very low due to a heavy layer of fog. In addition, we were pretty far out in the middle of the Greenland Sea, so it was also a lucky spot. It was my very first Polar Bear in the wild – very very exciting! It was one of those nights were photos just couldn’t capture the scene. And because of the visibility, taking photos was pretty much impossible. I’ve attached a photo that I cropped and doctored some in Photoshop so you can share in the excitement.