Svalbard: snow and sunshine
Our sailing from Jan Mayen Island to the southern part of Spitsbergen, the main island of Svalbard, was uneventful – it took about 36 hours or so. Along the way we had lectures on the geology and history of the area from our specialists in the team, and I also enjoyed a photo critique from Cindy and Kyle.
The weather changed from clouds to sunshine, and then to clouds. As we neared Spitsbergen, it became positively gloomy. Our first stop was an anchorage in a southern fjord, with plans for an after-dinner zodiac cruise to a nearby glacier front. I put all my gear together, including a wet bag for my camera, and out we went to load into the zodiac.
We’ve chosen the groups we want to join for this – Virginia and I are in the “reindeer” group; Lisa and Edie are in “fox.” This is just a way of making zodiac operations manageable. At around 9:30pm we were in our zodiacs in a reasonably heavy snow-storm, motoring towards the glacier. Visibility was poor and photography was challenging in the low light and wet conditions. But it was good to be out of the ship at last!
Later we heard that polar bear tracks had been sighted near the glacier, and timber logs had been washed onto the shoreline around the corner from the glacier – we were oblivious to all of this. If there had been a polar bear there, it was well hidden!
We were out for around an hour and a half, before gratefully heading back to the warm and dry Ocean Adventurer. After hanging all my wet gear around the cabin, it was good to climb into bed after a long day, knowing that if there was a polar bear seen during the night, we would be woken – it was a quiet night.
This morning I woke at 5am to a bright blue sky with hardly a cloud. This was more like it! We were sailing north into the fjord, looking for sea-ice. My cabin is on the starboard (right) side of the ship, and within 30 minutes or so I was out my door and up the steps to the next level that has access to an outside deck.
I walked out the door on the port (left) side and was greeted by blue sky, sunshine and a mass of sea-ice (see photo). We were sailing along the edge of this looking for animals that use the ice as a platform to feed, hunt and rest.
There were a few people around near the Bridge – early risers like me. Eventually others joined us, scanning the horizon for seals, walrus and of course polar bears. Birds flew around the ship – guillemots, kittiwakes and even two glaucous gulls – they were great subjects for photos, and some are actually in focus!
Finally after breakfast a walrus was sighted amongst the ice, his two large tusks protruding from his craggy face. A little while later a second was seen. The decision was made to move through the sea-ice – it was light and fairly broken up, so not an issue for this ice-strengthened ship. It meant that we could get a little closer to this second walrus (see photo) and would be able to continue on in our pursuit of polar bears.
After lunch we anchored once more, and took the zodiacs into the ice. Just beautiful – the sun was shining, the Svalbard mountain range rose in the distance, and the sea-ice had transformed into bizarre and irregular shapes. A gentle swell moved the irregular blocks, shapes and sheets of sea-ice and the surrounding water up and down, almost as if it was breathing. It’s mesmerising to watch – but eventually it was time to return to the ship.
As we approached it, we could see the ship rolling quite heavily from side to side – clearly the ice we’d been in while on the Zodiacs had dampened this considerably, but once we were out in the sea and free of the ice, the swell was bigger than we had anticipated.
As the Ocean Adventurer rolled to port, the crew standing on our landing area waiting to help us in, were well above our zodiac height – then as it rolled to starboard, they were up to their ankles in water. This could be tricky!
But the captain manoeuvred the ship so that with the correct timing (the zodiac going up as the ship came down), the transfer was easy! [While waiting, I remembered a story about the Bricklayer’s Lament, by Gerard Hoffnung – try this LINK]
Tomorrow is an early start – a 6am wake-up call for a 6:30am zodiac boarding. The plan is to land in a couple of different places, the first before breakfast. Hopefully the weather will remain sunny and bright, and let’s hope we are in the right place to see one or more polar bears. Of course if they are where we are planning to land, we’ll be staying on the zodiacs – I’ll let you know in the next post!