Lilliehooke Fjord
Trip Start
Jun 30, 2008
1
11
21
Trip End
Jul 21, 2008
West coast of Spitsbergen,
Norway
Friday, July 11, 2008
There were two orientations. They split us up by deck into two groups. The first orientation I had was on safety, procedures, and policy in the Arctic and Svalbard. We went over many things we had already heard before like do not bother the animals and don't touch the cultural objects. Then there was the ubiquitous polar bear warning talk. The next orientation was zodiac safety. They showed us how to get on and off the zodiacs, what to expect while on the zodiacs, and what to do in an emergency. Then we got fitted for life vests and we were done. The MSU discussion was on how we were going gather data for people's research projects. There was some talk about when things were due. I'm glad I don't have to worry about that. This trip is exhausting as it is.
After the orientations, I wasn't feeling too good. I think it was a combination of a little rougher weather, being cooped up in a hot stuffy orientation room, and the bacon I had for breakfast. I read a couple paragraphs and then fell asleep for a while. I was out until lunch.
Lunch was pretty low key. We were supposed to make a landing at Ny Alesund, but the weather was too bad and we couldn't do it. Plan B was to head up north to another fjord and check out a glacier. In the meantime, I fell asleep again. The running around for a week and a half is starting to catch up to me.
Around 4:00pm, I finally got up again and decided to take some pictures. We were coming into Lilliehook Fjord and at the back of the fjord there was a huge glacier (Lilliehook Glacier). I took a ridiculous amount of pictures of the ship approaching the glacier and passing the mountains in the fjord.
Finally, we boarded the zodiacs around 5:00pm to explore the glacier. I got suited up in my Theta, Rab pants, longjohns, a pullover, wool socks, fleece gloves, and a wool hat. I got cold sitting on the zodiac. I will dress warmer if we don't make landfall again.
The glacier was absolutely HUGE. From the ship it looked impressive, but from the water it was massive. It had a beautiful blue hue to it. We drove around some of the icebergs thad had calved off the glacier. The larger ones were bluish, too. They had neat scallops, ripples, and other features on them. When they killed the zodiac engine you could hear the ice crackling. The crackling was from the pressurized gases escaping as the ice melted. The gas was pressurized by the weight of the ice compressing the ice and little air pockets below. The air that was escaping was trapped there thousands or millions of years ago. Fascinating.
We motored around a few icebergs and then headed toward the glacier itself. For safety reasons, we couldn't get too close. But, it was impressive notheless. There were some examples of jade ice, which is very ancient ice. It is so compressed that all the air is forced out of it. We were cruising parallel to the glacier when we saw it calf. We saw it from a really good position. I wasn't looking the right way, though, so I didn't get the best shots. There was a guy aboard with a video camera that got some good footage, though. We headed back to the ship after everyone got their fill of the glacier and was getting cold. It was a fantastic experience, and I am looking forward to more experiences like that.
We had a nice lamb dinner. They feed us very well here. I talked with some people from Newcastle, Australia. Then I headed up to the bar/lounge area for a brief talk on maritime superstions, which were interesting. Don't hand anything through a doorway, don't whistle (you'll whistle the wind up), if you're becalmed throw the ship's cat overboard, and its bad luck to have women aboard.
