Thursday 5 September: Pim Island, Buchanan Bay, Ellesmere Island – Sylvia

We cruised south overnight, occasionally crashing and shuddering as we broke through the ice. We arrived this morning at Pim Island. This is the site where the remaining members of  ill-fated Greeley expedition team were rescued after wintering over with limited supplies in the 1840’s. It is a very barren and rocky place.

After breakfast Bud announced that the scouting party had been ashore but it was too rocky and steep for us to land safely. No remains of the shelters from the expedition were visible. Instead we all boarded zodiacs for a cruise around the island. It has impressive rock formations and there are always beautiful ice forms around. We also found a few walrus hauled out on the ice. Rather smelly they were too.

Returning to the ship and warming up over lunch, we headed into the fjord system of Buchanan Bay, on Ellesmere Island. There were incredible reflections of the red rock on the clear blue water. We eventually stopped at the end of Alexandra Fjord to go ashore.

This bay hosted a Royal Canadian Mounted Police camp in the 1950’s. The old huts were clearly visible as we arrived but unfortunately we didn’t have the necessary permits to visit so had to stay at least 100m away from them.

We headed off with the long hiking group, hoping to reach the glacier we could see at the end of the bay. It didn’t look that far, about 2 miles or so. We were walking on frozen tundra and I was mesmerised by the variety of flora that grows in this harsh environment – algae, moss and lichen of course, but also heathers, cotton and even willow. The willow here grows flat along the ground rather than up… strange to see a ‘tree’ growing that way. The colours vary from almost white, through yellow, orange, red and brown with varying shades of green as well. The ground is far from smooth. As the glaciers have advanced and retreated over the years they have left mounds and hollows and the plants have grown up in tufts between the harder ground. We continued walking but the glacier didn’t seem to get much closer.

With the glacier still about 1200m away we eventually had to give up and make our way back to shore to make it in time for the last zodiacs at 6pm. As it turned out the last zodiacs left a little later. While we were out walking the tide had gone out, quite considerably and zodiac loading was a little trickier. The first one we boarded got stuck in the mud and we had to disembark. We walked a bit further down the bay and tried again – only 5-6 passengers per boat, but of course made it safely back on board. It was a great afternoon. It is always good to stretch the legs and we thoroughly enjoyed the ±9km stroll.

 

Friday 6 September: Alexandra Inlet, Buchanan Bay; Crossing to Greenland – Roger

Last night the ship had dropped anchor in a bay not far from our walk spot yesterday. The plan was for a long walk up a nearby hill for part of the group, the other part a zodiac ride close to the shores. Mist put paid to that; it rolled in and out all morning.

Mid-morning we went to the Ice Lounge, where Jonathon gave us a very informative talk on sea ice and how it forms, starting as grease ice, which rolls with the current, gradually getting thicker and going through many other phases before becoming sheet ice.

It was around noon when we set sail for Qaanaaq, in Greenland. After lunch we headed up to the bridge to watch the captain and first officer pick a route through the, at times, solid ice, always making a way toward some clear water even if it was just a crack in the ice. The ship shudders and jumps around as more power is applied to the props to split the ice. There were only one or two times the ship had to back up and try another approach. The ice in places looked well in excess of the 1.5m thick stuff the ship can handle easily.

At 2 pm we went on a galley tour. We started in the galley, behind the main dining room on deck 5, where a team of 23 kitchen staff keep the 204 people aboard well fed, across 3 kitchens, one for the crew and two for guests. The main galley has a bakery with fresh bread etc baked every day. There are seperate areas for veggie and meat prep. On the deck below provisions are stored in carefully monitored freezers and cool rooms. We passed through a passage that runs across the ship to outer doors on each side. A gantry crane must help with the loading of supplies.

We were back in the Ice Lounge watching a very informative movie “The Last Ice” on the life of the Inuit people where we are going tomorrow, when we got a call that a bear had been spotted up front. The bear, who looked like he had just had a big meal, was lying on pack ice just over 200m from the ship, 30 plus miles from land. Many people watched from the bridge as others ventured out on deck to get some good pics. It was -3.5 degrees with a clear blue sky and little wind. After sitting up and looking at us for a bit the bear decided sleep was more important and lay down closing his eyes. After about 30 minutes we backed away quietly and continued bashing our way southeast through the ice.

After watching the rest of the movie, we had some more informal presentations on both photography and the underwater life, filmed by the deep-sea drone at our last stop. The amount of underwater life in this area is  surprisingly varied and plentiful.

 

Saturday 7 September: Qaanaaq, Greenland – Sylvia

It was a very early start this morning with wake up at 6:30am on the second day in a row that we have lost an hour as we adjust back to Greenland time. Bleary-eyed, we had a quick breakfast before assembling in the Ice Lounge for a briefing on the morning’s activities in the Inuit village of Qaanaaq.

We bundled into warm clothes and then into zodiacs for the short trip to shore. There, we wandered up the hill to the community sports hall. The morning light shone yellow on the many large icebergs in the bay. It is nearing the end of summer. Next month this village will lose the sun for about 4 months.

This village of some 646 inhabitants had prepared some very interesting exhibits in the hall. Hand crafts were on display along with traditional hunting equipment: kayak, harpoons and seal floats; and a tent had been pitched. A couple of the elders in their traditional dress sang some songs and gave a bit of a talk. One of the local men shared a lot of stories about how hunting is done here. They still hunt in the traditional ways except the final kill is by rifle. For narwhal and beluga, kayaks are used as they are quiet enough not to scare the animals. The animal is harpooned with a seal skin float attached and then shot when it resurfaces. Polar bears are hunted on sleds pulled by dogs. When a bear is spotted, the dogs surround it and nip at it, holding it in place long enough to be shot. There is a quota system in place to manage wildlife numbers. All the meat is shared among the villagers. All the skins are used for clothing and equipment. Apparently polar bear fur still makes the best pants for hunting in.

After the presentations we could wander around the exhibits some more. One of the young men demonstrated some of the local sports activities. These are designed to mimic the skills needed for hunting. Some of the cultural ambassadors joined in, then the naturalists, and of course Roger couldn’t hold himself back.

Local delicacies like raw and cooked beluga whale blubber, and salted dovekie (small sea birds) were available for tasting. I left that to Roger. The blubber apparently was chewy but tasted good. The dovekie, very salty.

We then wandered around the village and visited a small museum. This is housed in a building that was originally built for the explorer Knud Rasmussen in 1910 and later moved to Qaanaaq. Many interesting relics and photographs were on display. I was particularly taken by the snow goggles that were made from the tusk of a walrus that had been dated to about 1300.

A little further down the road we visited the Women’s Institue where many different furs and fur garments were displayed, and a half-prepared seal skin was laid out. On the wall was an example of the windows used in traditional times, made from seal intestines. It was interesting to get a close up look at the different types of fur and skin and how they are used in different garments. The hides are not cured but the skin is chewed to make it soft. Apparently they store the skins and skin boots in the freezer over summer to protect them.

We wandered down through the village. It is pretty rough and makes me very glad to live in NZ. Even at this time of the year it was about 3 degrees and there was ice on the roads. In the winter it must be bitter and the houses look pretty basic. There is lots of ‘stuff’ around. Dog sleds (and dogs), fishing gear, and junk. We saw some narwhal meat hanging to dry and passed some very cute puppies on our way back to board the zodiacs back to the ship for lunch and a gentle afternoon.

We will be on board at sea now until Sunday, cruising slowly down the Greenland coast, watching for whales and other wildlife on the way. We are pretty much out of the sea ice now but we are regularly passing quite large icebergs with all their different shapes and colours.

This afternoon I had a great massage and then Peter gave a demonstration on making an igloo.

 

Sunday 8 September: At Sea, West Greenland – Roger

Today is a sea day as we cruise south down the west coast of Greenland.

At breakfast we were joined by Dan, the ship’s archeologist, who has spent his life digging up the past. After this trip he is heading to White Sands national park in New Mexico, where human footprints dating back 23 thousand years have been discovered, along with the tracks of giant sloths, mammoths and camels, among other prehistoric beings. He, along with a number of others, has been studying tracks in a plaster type soil there since they were discovered in 2020.

At 9:15am we headed up to the Ice Lounge for a talk by Erland, one of the ship’s naturalists. After his military career he served as a policeman on Svalbard. He gave us a great presentation on his life on the island, dealing with everything from polar bear attacks to a major Russian airliner crash involving recovering some 140 bodies, an investigation of an accident in a Russian mine that killed 20 people, and various other anecdotes.

During this talk the ship slowed down so the two scientists on board could take some samples for the study they are doing on plankton. Chatting to Amalia and Giannina Last night, they said they had applied on line and had been selected, I presume from many applicants, to join the journey as the ship’s scientists. Amalia Skrifvars is completing her PhD and Giannina Hattich is her supervisor.

Later we had a talk from Captain Aaron Wood, who gave us a rundown on the ship’s design and build process. The hull of the ship was built in Poland, then in April 2019 it was towed to Ulstein Verft in Norway, where it was floated into a shed and fitted out, finally making its first voyage in July 2021, after a roughly year-long delay due to Covid.

The shape of the hull with its 36mm plate steel welded onto a ribbed frame, puts it at the lower-end of the top category of icebreakers. With retractable gyro-controlled stabilisers it gives very stable cruising while still maintaining the ability to break its way through most first year ice. As I have mentioned before, there is a huge amount of technology on board including links to satellites, giving both photos of ice conditions and radar mapping when the sky is cloud covered. The ship has many back up systems, including a full camp facility that can be set up on land or ice should the ship be damaged and unsailable a long way from help in a place like the Ross Sea, where rescue maybe over a week away.

After lunch with Mary and Jan from Canada, Carlos Navarro gave us a talk on marine mammals of Nunavut and Western Greenland. From Mexico, he has studied marine mammals all over the the world.

Later, photographer Ralf Lee Hopkins, who has spent years as a National Geographic photographer, shared some of the photos from his favourite voyages and gave us some pointers on taking pictures in various environments. His pictures are truly outstanding.

Doug Gould, another naturalist, finished off a story he had told us last night about the iceberg that hit the Titanic. This lead on to a story about Violet Jessop, who was onboard Olympic, the sister ship to the Titanic, when it was hit by a naval vessel in 1911, and was evacuated by life boat. Then she survived the Titanic sinking, going on to work as a nurse on the other sister ship, Brittanic, which, while used as a hospital ship during WWI, was sunk by a mine in 1916. Once again she survived.

The knowledge the team has on the ship and the research they carry out is truly outstanding.

After dinner the crew put an a concert. Their band called the ‘Shackletones’, with crew from all over the ship, put on various acts and dances.  By the end of the night the majority of people were up dancing.