Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - Ilulissat Icefjord
We arrived near the Ilulissat Icefjord around 7 this morning.  We were 7 miles from the town of Ilulissat, which is Greenlandic for "the icebergs".  It is home to 5,000 people and 4,000 sled dogs.  Unfortunately, because of the ice conditions we were unable to go into town for our community visit.  We were also unable to go aboard the Zodiacs to view the icefjords as the winds picked up to 25 knots and the conditions became too dangerous for the Zodiacs.  We spent several hours within sight of the icefjords and got some fantastic views and photos. 

Ilulissat Icefjord is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that was designated in 2004.  The total acreage identified is just less than 100,000 acres.  The tidal fjord stretches for about 25 miles and produces a carpet of brash ice and massive icebergs more than 3,000 feet tall.  These are among the world's largest icebergs, including those in Antarctica.  During the winter months, the entire area is frozen solid.

Wednesday August 31, 2016 - I have a little more to add to this day.  We were cruising through Bellot Strait when we passed the monst Northerly Point in North America.  We saw 3 polar bears at quite a distance foraging for food along the shoreline, and 1 muxkox, also at quite a distance.  We encountered 2 huge icebergs in the afternoon which were as big as or bigger than our ship!  A couple of narwhals were spotted but we did not see them.  Narwhals are very sensitive to sound and thus are very hard to spot from a large ship.

Thursday, September 1, 2016 - Another day at sea, this time in Peel Sound.  We entered Radstock Bay near Beechy Island where we took a fastboat excursion with a naturalist who gave us a historical narration of the area.  We saw 4 of the gravesites of some of the men from the Franklin Expedition of 1837 to 1838.  Wow, to be at the beach where these explorers perished so long ago while trying to find the Northwest Passage.  They faced starvation, scurvy and lead poisoning from improperly tinned food.  Eventually, all 138 explorers on what was to be Franklin's final expedition perished.  It started snowing in the afternoon and as the wind picked up the snow was blowing sideways.  Fortunately, we were back on board by then, but the last couple of excursions were coming back to the boat in the frigid sideways blowing snow!

Friday and Saturday, September 2-3, 2016 - Two more days at sea.  We stopped at Devon Island, the largest uninhabited island in the world.  We sailed into Croker Bay and they launched the Zodiacs again for tours to the face of the Croker Bay Glacier.  Our guide was Nigel, a bird naturalist.  We saw many birds as well as 5 or 6 bearded seals swimming in the Bay.  The glaciers were simply amazing and to get so close to them on the water was quite breathtaking.

Sunday, September 4, 2016 - After another day of cruising through narrow fjords and breathtaking scenery we anchored in the night off of Pond Inlet, Nunavut, Canada.  This is our last port in Canada.  Crystal brought locals from Pond Inlet onto the boat and they put on a wonderful demonstration for us showing some of the Arctic Games competition like lip pulling, high jump, seal hopping, and so much more.  They did some drumming and singing and the youngsters were a real joy to watch.  We later took the Zodiac to shore and walked around the Hamlet.  The villages here in the Canadian Arctic are called Hamlets.  We were able to see some Narwhal tusks for sale, but unfortunately we are unable to purchase them or anything made from them as they are illegal to bring into the U.S. without permits from the Candian and United States governments.  On our way back to the Zodiac for our ride back to the ship, we stopped to talk to a couple of young women.  When they learned it was my birthday, they proceeded to sing Happy Birthday to me in their language, which we believe was Inupiat.  Duane recorded it and posted it on Facebook.  I will post it here later when we have better wifi.  It takes so long to post pictures and it uses up a lot of my wifi minutes.

Monday, September 5 2016 - We are at sea. After several days of Zodiac and Fast Boat excursions in the cold we are glad to have a day at sea with no excursions to rest up!  I had decided to celebrate my birthday on the ship today since we would be at sea.  We were told last night at dinner to come to breakfast in the dining room in the morning to have a special birthday breakfast, which we did.  I received a phone call wishing me happy birthday from the crew, as well as a birthday card from the Captain!  Tonight we are going to Prego, the Italian specialty restaurant for dinner. 

Wednesday, August 31, 2016  -  We have had a remarkable two days.  Yesterday we were chosen to take an "unexpected adventure" which was a Zodiac cruise through the ice in the early morning (we left at 7:45 a.m.).  We saw some amazing pack ice, two bearded seals and our first polar bear of the trip!  It was hard to get good pictures from the Zodiac as we couldn't go too close, but some of the expedition team members were able to get some amazing pictures, some of which I will post later. Here is a picture of the ship with ice in the foreground.

Later in the day we saw some more polar bears - a sow with 2 cubs on the ice and 2 single bears, one on a seal kill.  They have an amazing Cineflex camera mounted on the ship and are able to beam on to the ship video from shore.  Some of these pics are from that stream.

 

Tuesday, August 30, 2016
We have had a busy week since I last posted - with the exception of what I posted this morning.  The 24th was a sea day with lectures, yoga, and watching for birds.  On the 25th we sailed the Beaufort Sea.  It was a nice calm blue sky day.  While sitting on our balcony reading, Judy noticed whales blowing off the starboard side of the ship.  We ended up seeing about 15 Bowhead whales and a flock of about 50 Snow Geese.  We also passed the Smoking Hills, which contain strata of lignite which have been burning continuously for centuries. The earth is literally on fire.  They were named by John Franklin on one of his 1826 expeditions looking for the Northwest Passage.

On August 26th, we arrived in Ulukhaktok, Nunavut Territory, Canada.  We met our escort ship the RRS Ernest Shackleton, which was waiting for us in the Beaufort Sea.  After we dropped anchor they put on quite a show for us, deploying the 7 Zodiacs, 1 Fast Boat and 2 helicopters which will be used for our excursions while in the Arctic.  Tonight Crystal brought aboard some Inuit drummers and dancers from Uluhaktok to perform for us.

 Launching the Zodiacs

 The Fast Boat

August 27 - We had an excursion on the Fast Boat first thing in the morning. We bundled up in our arctic parkas and boots, hats and gloves.  We toured the shoreline with our guide who was a Botanist.  We learned about the plant life and the animals relation with it and we saw an Arctic Hare.  Later in the day we took the Zodiac into shore in Ulukhaktok where we walked around town and went to the school auditorium where they were selling art prints that they are known for. 

August 28 - we were at sea in the Dolphin and Union Straights on our way to our next port, Cambridge Bay.  We attended a lecture during the day about Arctic birds.

August 29 - We arrived in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, Canada.  We took the Zodiacs into shore, then we were shuttled into town using pick-ups, vans, school busses, or anything with wheels.  There are no excursion busses.  We spent a few hours walking around Cambridge Bay, visited an arts and crafts show put on by the NACA - "Nunavut Arts and Crafts Association".  Inuit art is very different from what we are used to seeing.  There were a lot of beautiful seal-skin garments, as well as a display of quiviet - the wool from musk-ox which is used to spin into yarn for very expensive hats, scarves, gloves, etc.  We also sampled some muktuk made from Narwhal.  Muktuk is whale blubber, and it was actually not too bad!  We visited the grocery store and found some interesting products.  Milk was $9.00 a gallon and cabbages were $8.00 to $9.00 each.  They were quite large, but also quite spendy!

 Quiviet fom Musk-ox

 Seal Skin jacket

 

Tuesday, August 30, 2016 - at sea
We were chosen to do an "Unexpected Adventure" this morning.  We launched in a Zodiac at 7:45 this morning and motored out into the ice.  Yes, we have found the ice again!  I am just going to post a couple of pictures.  I will be posting more later today and catching up the last week.

Monday, August 22 and Tuesday August 23, 2016
Sea days.  Sunday night we stayed up quite late and because of the hour time change we ended up sleeping quite late on Monday. Around 8:00 a.m. we passed by Little Diomede Island and Big Diomede Island, where it is today on Little Diomede and tomorrow on Big Diomede 2 miles away!  Judy went to yoga and Duane watched for and photographed birds.  We attended a lecture of "The Quest for the Northwest Passage: Early European Expeditions" and later got to see some artifacts that have been recovered from the Franklin expedition along with some replicas of his charts.  After dinner in the Crystal dining room we attended the show which was a comedy ventriloquist who was quite entertaining.  We then spent a couple of hours in the Avenue Saloon listening to Perry Grant, who is a comedy pianist.  He is really a hoot and so fun to watch.  He involves the audience and everyone has a great time.

Today (Tuesday) we attended a mandatory Arctic briefing.  Topics included polar bear safety ashore, environmental regulations, procedures for Zodiac landings and more.  After lunch we attended a lecture on "The Arctic in an Age of Climate Change".  During the lecture the Captain announced that we were moving into some ice!  Guess we'll have to get those Arctic parkas out soon!  We will be arriving in our first port in Canada - Uluhaktok - on Friday.  Until then we will be cruising the Chukchi Sea and the Beaufort Sea.

Sunday, August 21, 2016 - Nome, Alaska

Nome, the name itself excites us for it is the gateway to the Bering Sea, the Bering Straights and ultimately the Northwest Passage.  There is no port in Nome so our ship anchored off shore and we rode the tenders in.  Today in Nome we had one of the teachers for our guide who moved to Nome from Chicago 4 years ago.  We also had a young Inupiat Native woman who was quite musical and sang for us.  We visited a dog musher named Nils Hahn who has raced in the Iditarod 4 times.  We visited a museum of Native art and artifacts and watched a slide show put on by one of the rangers, showing the area surrounding Nome.  We saw a small herd of 11 musk-ox outside of town which was quite a thrill for us. We also did a little gold panning, and a group of women wearing beautiful fur-ruffed kuspuks  (eskimo dresses) posed for pictures. Having been to Nome before we opted not to stay in town after the tour.