Saturday, October 6, 2018
Overcast and calm, 32ºF
Up at 7am. Climbed into the lounge to get coffee, and Don’t Worry, Be Happy was playing. Nice way to start the day. Nothing better than waking up to some reggae when at sea.
We left Recherchebreen shortly after dinner last night - trolled out of Bellsund and then full speed into the sea to the west. An alarm went off by accident around 10pm, so I woke up (had been drifting off since about 9pm) and looked out the porthole of our cabin. The waves were roiling. Larger waves than I’d ever seen from inside of them. The boat soared. I felt that if I could track my movements in space, my body would be rising and falling at least the height of one full story of a house. But, it’s hard to tell if that was true. I enjoyed sleeping with the rocking of the ship. I’d wake up some times when a wave was especially large, but I never felt scared or like I’d fall out of my bunk.
We met this morning, and apparently the winds are against us so we aren’t making very good time. We will get to our next landing by lunchtime and will have an excursion in place. Then, we will make the next landing sometime tonight and plan to have two excursions tomorrow in the far north.
Landing at Fjortende Julibukta
6:30pm: We just got back from the shore excursion at Fjortende Jolibreen. We didn't have a midday landing. I was sick all day when we were sailing up here, though. But, as soon as we got into the bay (or the fjord), I immediately felt better. I sat up in my bunk then stood up on it to look out the portal to see where we were. In an ice-chip filled calm bay of dark pewter grey and slate navy, crowned by bright white mountains. Pop. The beach was dotted with arctic fox and polar bear tracks. I thought I’d stumbled on a petrified tree stump with various other petrified parts. Walked twice around the peninsula, kept very warm. And took a sound recording of all of the ice. Then, there was some hilarity of getting back into the zodiac, wet bottom of pants and underwear. Now it’s almost time for dinner.
Looking across the peninsula at Fjortende Julibukta.
This activity is made possible, in part, by funds provided by the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council (MRAC) through a grant from The McKnight Foundation.