From Greenland to Tahiti

Lori is in Tahiti
http://www.oceanlori.com/tahiti08.html

Photos from SCUBA Dive

Today I received some photos from the dive I did in Iceland. One of them happened to be of me, so I have attached it. At this point in the dive, I was in the lagoon area, a totally aqua blue and green shallow area. I was amazed by the colors. The other photo is of the deeper part of the dive. There are no photos of the swim through rock formations and deeper canyons, but you can get a good idea of what it looked like. There was algae growing on the rocks and on the bottom, but no fish to be seen. All in all, a very interesting experience.

September 13, 2008

Today was my HOT day. I spent the day at the Blue Lagoon, relaxing in the thermal pools. Here is a description of the Blue Lagoon from their website (www.bluelagoon.com):

The Blue Lagoon geothermal seawater is a part of an ecocycle where nature and science work in harmony. The seawater originates 2000
meter/6562 ft beneath the ground where it is heated by earth’s natural forces. At this depth the temperature is 240°C/464°F and the pressure is 36 times the pressure on the earth’s surface. The geothermal seawater comes into contact with cooling magmatic intrusions and captures the earth’s minerals, resulting in this unique natural source known for its healing power and actives.

The composition of minerals in the water is very distinctive and has a high level of silica. Its environment is characterized by high temperature and salinity level of 2.5% which is 1/3 of the ocean’s salinity level.


Aerial view of the Blue Lagoon

It was an incredibly relaxing way to spend my time before getting on the plane. What a nice way to end this journey and adventure in the Arctic!

September 12, 2008

Today was my day of COLD! I went SCUBA diving today at the place where the North American plate meets the European Plate (www.dive.is). The dive takes place in the fissure between the continents and has 100 meter plus visibility. It was incredible, but difficult. It was my first dive ever in a dry suit, which was awkward to say the least. I felt like I was diving for the first time and just couldn’t get the hang of it. There was a lot of laughter as you can imagine, most of which came from just getting into the darn suit.

Here is a photo of me trying to pull up the dry suit over the insulation layer.


Getting geared up

The dive itself was cold with the water being around 2-3 degrees Celsius. The dive master said that it was a good temperature and we wouldn’t want it warmer. Huh? This didn’t make immediate sense to me, so I asked why. He said that if it were warmer than we would feel our faces, which would be cold; this way, the water is so cold, our faces numb. Interesting, but it turned out to be true. I wasn’t actually cold believe it or not.


The dive site

In the evening a few people from the dive went out to dinner at a Thai place and then we went out for some drinks. I stayed out only until around 12:30, which was when things were getting started in the rest of the city.

September 11, 2008

We arrived in Reykjavik this morning and disembarked the passengers.
Once I was all done with my duties, my “vacation” started. I have planned a few days to explore Reyjavik. I spent most of today working out my plan for the next two days and shopping. Reyjavik is an interesting city. I have noticed a few things in my short time here.
One, is that the women leave their baby carriages outside of stores when they go in to run errands. Obviously, being from the USA, where something like this will get you arrested, it struck me as odd. I asked some people about it and their response was “where are people going to take the baby?”. I love that there is trust and low crime here, even though it was hard to get used to seeing.


Yes, there is a baby in there!

The other thing that I noticed was the clothing. Now Reykjavik is a very expensive place to live, but people dress extremely well and drive nice cars. I found out that many people have two jobs to help with this. By day, a good number of people are wearing one of the two main Icelandic outdoor gear brands, with the most popular being 66 north. Everyone wears it, even infants! I loved the store and have never seen such a selection of merino wool, fleece, down, and foul weather gear sized for infants and kids. The adult clothes were pretty cool too. I, of course, bought a jacket that has a built in balaclava – very unique! At night and for work, the outfits are mainly black, with high black boots, leggings and frilly coats, dresses or shirts. I haven’t spent much time looking at fashion in Europe, but these clothes are exactly what I would picture.

The other thing I noticed is that the restaurants are very international and many of them are high end. The only issue I had was that some served whale meat and puffin. I did not try it, but did have a nice dinner of salt cod with capers, tomatoes and potatoes.

September 10, 2008

Today we spent the entire day at sea crossing to Iceland. The seas were incredibly rough – force 8! This means gale force winds with speeds of 39-46 mph and waves of 18 feet. To put it mildly, it was rough. Half way through the crossing, the winds died down, which was nice. I gave a lecture, but mostly just laid low and worked on the end of the trip slide show.



Rough Seas

September 9, 2008

This morning we landed at Ammasalik, the largest settlement in East Greenland. I’ve attached a photo of the massive iceberg that blocked the entrance to the harbor. It is amazing to see these icebergs close to town, as it really gives some scale.


Ammasalik

We had arranged to be there from 9am until 12:30 pm. Like we normally do, we sent the staff over first to get the landing ready. We decided to use the gas dock so that we could do a dry landing. Ursula and I decided to investigate to make sure that it was ok to park there. As we were trying to figure this out, a man walked by and told us that the office didn’t open until 10am. To make sure we understood him, he showed us his watch… that oddly read 7am instead of the 9am our watches read. Hmmm….So after a little investigation, we learned that Ammasalik is two hours behind the rest of East Greenland. Not sure why, but it sure made the morning interesting. People rolled with the punches and we were able to stay a little longer so that everyone could explore while the town was open.

Ammasalik was very interesting. I visited some carvers that were making things out of reindeer. I also spent some time at Post Greenland’s Philatic Department looking at all of the amazing stamps.

I even had some time to visit the grocery store, which for me is always interesting. I like to see what people eat and how much things cost. For the most part, much of the food was similar to what we find in our stores. My last stop was at the visitor center, where I was surprised to see so many marine mammal products – seal claws, polar bear claws, and seal fur clothing. Many of the passengers purchased these products which was upsetting to me since I cannot support the selling of polar bear or other marine mammal products to tourists.


















Polar Bear and Seal claw necklaces


















Seal fur clothing


We left Ammasalik in the late afternoon to head back to Iceland. For dinner we had the Musk Ox. The chef prepared it two ways – braised and roasted. I have to say, it tasted just like brisket and steak. It wasn’t tough or gamey.