Arctic Ocean 85° North
Wednesday 24 August 2022 (8:15pm):
84°44’54”N, 35°4’3”E (MAP LINK)
Headings: between 047° and 310°
Air temperature: -6.3°C
The sun is shining again after a cloudy afternoon that was a mix of high cloud and low visibility. We’re pushing through pans of new ice and ridges of old thick ice, with significant open leads (open water). Our speed is averaging 7 knots, so we’re making good headway towards the North Pole.
However it’s still just under 5° away, which is 300 nautical miles as an Northern Fulmar might fly, if it was in the area. Interestingly, we are currently meandering between NE and NW, rather than directly north. This is so that we can keep our speed up by following open water (leads) as much as possible, rather than bashing through the ice at a significantly slower speed.
We don’t have an ETA just yet – as we are often reminded, the Charcot is an “exploration ship, not an expedition ship” and the ice conditions dictate our speed and route.
Yesterday was our first full day at sea. The weather was pleasant and the seas were kind, so it was a good day to get out around the ship, find my way from place to place, meet people including the crew, and attend briefings and presentations.
At the start of a trip there are many mandatory briefings: safety including the alert sounds, knowing where my assembly station and lifeboat are, how to use the survival suit (this is an amazing piece of equipment that I’d definitely need help getting into) and the Zodiac briefing. I collected my new Ponant parka (very cosy & much needed outside now), and this afternoon, sorted out the boots.
We reached the ice at around 4:30pm and once more I heard that wonderful sound of ice against the hull. The Charcot is a quiet ship, so it was great to hear the sound of ice on metal and feel the occasional bump and sway as we pushed the ice away from under us.
At 6pm we gathered in the large meeting auditorium for the Captain’s Welcome Cocktail Party. Everyone dressed for the occasion, some women in beautiful cocktail dresses, high heels and the works, some men wearing tuxes. It felt good to make the effort to wear something more sparkly and dressy than I have for the last 2.5 years – and of course they were serving champagne. Billecart!
From there it was a short walk to the Nuna restaurant for dinner. There are two restaurants on this ship: Sila on Deck 9, a relaxed restaurant with a variety of yummy foods for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and Nuna on Deck 5, a more formal one with menus designed by Alain Ducasse. Both have spectacular views. I’d been invited to join four others at Nuna, and we were soon seated, checking the degustation menu and ordering wine. [It seems that I’ve been drinking champagne every day since I arrived in Paris last Thursday – and other than a glass of Veuve this evening, every other time has been my favourite, Billecart].
The ship slowed as it often does during lunch and dinner. Then we heard the Captain on the PA, speaking in French first and saying something that sounded like “les polair ours”, French for the polar bears. Having confirmed this in English, and also saying that dinner would be delayed by 20 minutes, within moments we were racing to our rooms for warm clothes and cameras.
My gear is always ready – so it was simply a matter of taking my beautiful scarf off, throwing on the new orange Ponant Parka, grabbing camera, gloves and warm hat, and heading back down to Deck 5 and outside. I can’t imagine what the women in their evening gowns and stilettos were doing.
As I walked outside, someone said: “it’s a mother with 3 cubs”, another said “it’s a mother with 2 cubs”. In fact it was a healthy mother with one rather large cub, probably about 18 months old. They were close by and watching us. The mother was calm and relaxed, moving from ice pan to ice pan, jumping across the water, her cub following, growling quite loudly – it is most likely that it’s never seen a ship before.
Such a glorious view of two beautiful animals as they wandered across the sea-ice, jumping across open water, testing to see if the water is deep or shallow, and the mother looking back at her cub from time to time. After a while they both stopped, and the mother sat down on her hind legs. The cub came up to her and started suckling. Beautiful – I’ve never seen this before, and the fact that they were happy to do this in full view of our very large ship, meant that they were comfortable with us being there.
After about 30 minutes, I came back into Nuna, clutching my camera and the bright orange parka, and while we all reflected on what we’d seen, dinner was served.
I opted for a vegetarian meal, and it was delicious from the first plate to the last. Dessert was chocolate, chocolate, chocolate – a dollop of moose (sadly I had to leave this), a yummy disc of dark chocolate, and the piéce de resistance was a narrow chocolate, moulded in the shape of the Charcot with a delicious salted caramel sauce running the length of its structure. Sadly since all of this was laden with cream, I only had a small taste.
After a long day and a wonderful sighting of the two polar bears, it was time to climb into my very comfortable bed.
Thursday, 26 August 2022 (6:00pm):
87°2’4”N, 43°9’3”E (MAP LINK)
Headings: between 047° and 310°
Air temperature: -2.6°C (Wind chill: -13°C]
We’re making good progress, and keeping our speed up at around 10-11 knots in open water, and 5-7 knots through the ice. It gets a little bumpy at times as we drive through the ice, but we’re well on our way.
The Captain (Etienne Garcia) estimates that we will be at 90°N later tomorrow afternoon! WOOHOO!!
This morning, he and his Chief Engineer, Richard Vito spoke about the development of this extraordinary ship. The Captain was involved in the design from the beginning of the concept, and so in many ways, this really is his ship. His excitement and joy come through every time he speaks, and this flows through to the whole crew.
Le Commandant Charcot is indeed one of a kind – there are no other ice breakers designed for passengers. The two others, the Kapitan Khlebnikov that I’ve sailed on twice now, and 50 Years of Victory, are Russian working ships that enable passengers to travel when companies such as Quark lease them to take passengers to the polar regions, and in the case of 50 Years of Victory, to the North Pole.
To see the detail of the design of the Charcot from its hull, to the propellers, to the electric engines supported by LNG, was fascinating. The interior is beautiful, very comfortable and easy to get around. Since we’ve not been off since we boarded on Monday afternoon via the ship’s two tenders, I’m not sure how all that works – but I’ll let you know after tomorrow.
Today has been another day of doing laps on Deck 5 (outside), stopping to take photos of the old ice as we crack through it, new ice being pushed around and the sun and its reflections in the open leads. The older ice is getting thicker now and there are fewer “ponds” of blue icy water amongst this. Presentations have been interesting, and 7 of us, all Aussies, were invited to champagne and nibbles at 11:30am to chat with the Ponant marketing people about our experience. Veuve Cliquot at 11:30am was a delight!
The day meandered on, and I was soon in bed, sleeping soundly with the curtains mostly open so that I can see the light on the ice whenever I roll over. The TV screen has a channel that shows our current position along with weather (air temperature including wind chill), humidity (strangely high, but we are surrounded by ocean), wind speed, wind direction, and visibility.
The stats that I was most interested in were our direction and speed along with latitude – I could watch as we slowly came closer and closer to 90°N.