Sunday,
September 10th. Baffin Bay
Sometime during the night an alarm went off. I thought it was Bruce’s as he wanted to get up to see the sunrise. It rang about a dozen times. I was really groggy and couldn’t figure out why no one turned it off. Finally, it stopped. I found out this morning from the boys that it was my alarm that went off at 4:30 and they couldn’t figure out why I didn’t turn it off. Bruce thought I was either deaf or dead and he got up and turned it off. I didn’t set it, so it’s another anomaly of walking with a phone in your pocket. This morning after breakfast we learned the alternate plan: a cruise on the ship through the sea ice, then in the zodiacs, followed by a landing on some sea ice. The sun came out as the captain cruised us through the sea ice. It was absolutely beautiful with many fantastical formations and bergbits. We spent an hour out on the various decks admiring the vistas and getting shots before we offloaded in zodiacs. We cruised through the ice on the swells until we could see the bear guards standing on a large piece of ice that we were going to land on. The zodiacs gunned the motors and drove us partially up onto the ice where Scott met us and gave us the rules and limits for landing. We had about 15 minutes of time to wander around and enjoy the sensation of walking on sea ice. John and I took photos of each other, then the two photographers took photos of us too. The experience was very magical. It was too bad that Bruce was not in our boat. As we left the berg and cruised around through the ice, it began to get foggy and very eerie. We could no longer see the ship as our zodiac followed along behind another. Eventually it emerged from the fog, and we disembarked from the zodiac. Our driver told us that landing on sea ice is not a usual part of the itinerary for this journey, and they hadn’t done it for over five years, so although we missed Grise Fjord, this was a fantastic alternative. After lunch we had a couple more lectures. The first one was on Insects in the Arctic – there are some, bees, flies, wasps, but no ants or termites. Then Dr. Marc gave a history of the Geographical Society of Canada dating from 1840’s to the present day. It was interesting at the start to learn about geologists and scientists who mapped out the country by rock formations, but it soon became way too complex and scientific for me (probably most of us). After that we had a half hour cocktail party before the Ayalik Auction. This was to raise money for the Ayalik Foundation in honour of Dave and Laurie Pelly’s adopted son Ayalik who died unexpectedly. The money raised is used to send at-risk Inuit students on life changing adventures with other Inuit students from around the north. One of the adventures is a tall ship sailing on the east coast and on that one they are mixed with other students from across Canada. We all seemed a bit put upon to be sitting there and being expected to bid or contribute to the fund. However, many people did get into bidding and bidding wars and ultimately they were very successful raising over $30 000 on items that were mostly donated by the Adventure Canada staff or some passengers. They auctioned off a piece of the oldest rock in the world, a week-long stay at someone’s house in Nova Scotia, some art, some jewelry, a weekend stay on Vancouver Island… All for a very good cause. At dinner Tom the expedition photographer came and sat with us, and we had a very good time talking to him about his job, his drone, and his life in Newfoundland. Another excellent day all around. Off to bed by 10.
WOW! Incredible pictures..landing and walking on sea ice pretty spectacular! Definitely another special day in the Arctic...
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