North of 80° Greer & Tanquary Fjords
The winds died down overnight but the sky has been grey all day as we’ve sailed north into Greer Fjord and on to Tanquary Fjord. At the moment we are in McKinley Bay in Tanquary Fjord, north of 81 degrees, the closest I’ve been to a Pole!
This morning I was alone on the bow for about 45 minutes – it was just beautiful, and not overly cold at 3°C. We were in a very wide fjord, at least 10km across, probably more – on either side were snow-capped mountains running the length of the fjord. Unlike mountains we’d seen to the south, these seemed older – the constant battering by rain, snow, ice and wind has gradually worn them into smoother shapes.
The sea was very smooth, with small criss-cross patterns made by the breeze and the current. Occasional pieces of sea ice floated by and then small bits of icebergs. It was so quiet – other than the hum of the engines, there was nothing. What was really strange was the lack of birds – usually we have sea birds (fulmar and various gulls) flying around the ship, catching the updraft from the bow wave, swooping low so that their wing tips just graze the ocean, and then rising up and letting the wind carrying them to the back before flying forward again.
But we are now so far north that there are no sea birds visible – and with no seals, whales or walrus showing themselves, it seemed very different. I wondered what the explorers had thought as they sailed through this same place only 500 nautical miles from the North Pole, and what the weather had thrown at them. They must have felt so far away from the world that they’d left behind.
This afternoon Cheli and some of her team took zodiacs to the shore at McKinley Bay & found a suitable landing site. Although sea-days can be nice, it really was time to get some fresh air and stretch our legs on terrain other than the stairs (we’re typically up and down at least 15-20 flights of stairs every day, often more).
My cabin-mate, Laura, went outside to check the weather – saw that it was snowing and decided to stay inside. I pulled all my gear on and headed out – the snow was light and dry, and once we were on the zodiac we could see the beach ahead about a kilometre from the ship. The ground had a dusting of snow but the mushy/muddy soil had partially frozen making walking very comfortable.
The area we walked in had hills on either side, and a rise ahead leading to a saddle – that’s where the fast walkers went, and from the radio we could hear that they'd seen a herd of musk-ox.
We’re now in polar bear country and we received the usual reminders to not get in front of the person with the firearm, and to stay with our group. Bob Headland, our historian, took our group a little inland off the shore to see if we could see some old Thule sites – unfortunately not this time. But we did see clear footprints in the mud from wolves, musk-ox, Arctic hare, caribou and some large birds. This is clearly a busy place at times!
It was a very pleasant couple of hours – and now we’re all back on the ship getting ready for dinner. I think the crew would like us to be able to flight-see a little later this evening – the low cloud might not work in our favour.
More later from Tanquary Fjord an d beyond! And a gentle reminder – if you would like to send any messages, feel free to reply to the email that prompts you about these posts.