80 Degrees North
Trip Start
Jun 30, 2008
1
13
21
Trip End
Jul 21, 2008
North of Spitsbergen,
Norway
Sunday, July 13, 2008
I had breakfast with the usual MSU people. No new people joined us today. I kept it light because they feed us really well on the ship. It seems like there's tea or snacks or a major meal every couple of hours. Not only that, but it is all you can eat. So there is a temptation to eat and eat and eat. I indulged for the first few days because feeding yourself was tough with the prices in Norway. But, now I feel like I am putting on the pounds despite being out in the cold a lot.
The search continues for a polar bear. The plan is to head up to 80 degrees north along the pack ice and search for polar bears. It is nice having a lot of free time in the morning. The ice is spectacular. Mile upon mile of nothing but ice and water. The sun comes out every now and again. When it does, it lights up the ice in a magnificant fashion. The ice crystals sparkle, melt water ponds shimmer aqua blue, and the contours of the ice chunks stand out.
When we made it to 80 degrees north, the crew brought out a sign and hot chocolate onto the bow. Someone had a handheld GPS and we counted down until 80 degrees was reached. It was kind of like New Year's Eve when midnight strikes. The crew got everyone together behind the sign and we took pictures on the bow. Then the MSU group got their picture taken. Then everyone got individual pictures taken. It started to snow and once all the picture taking was complete we retreated inside and out of the -1 degree C Arctic air.
At lunch it was announced that we would be taking a zodiac cruise in the afternoon. The aim was to give people a chance to get up close and personal with the sea ice. When we launched the ship was at approximately 80 degress N latitude and 13.5 degrees east longitude. I was in the 4th zodiac that was launched. The zodiac had mostly members from Team Arctic on it, with a couple Aussies that snuck in. We motored around the sea ice for a good 90 minutes. The sea ice is a neat thing to see up close. It form flat and smooth, but current and wind push big pans of it into each other. The edges get crushed together and are pushed up forming big chunks of ice on the top. There are also all sorts of cracks and crevasses and meltwater pools. Looking out over the horizon the ice went on and on forever. The sky was grey and overcast with patches of blue every now and then. The weather changed from clear to snowy to windy while we were out there. Ocassionally, the sun would shine on us, warming us, and giving the ice contrast. It was pretty cold in the wind. My toes got really cold on the way back to the ship.
I sorted my photos from the excursion. I am attempting to keep up on the photos so they don't pile up. Now that all my photos are sorted, I still have over 20 GB of room left on the hard drive. I read a bit from my guide to Svalbard, but soon fell asleep. We planned to meet at 7:00pm and do a photo shoot of our Merrell gear. Since Merrell donated shoes and a jacket to everyone going on the trip, we wanted to show them how we were using what they gave us. We did a few poses and then finished with a Spartan 'S' on the bow of the Vavilov.
The post-dinner announcements said that because of thick ice in around the northern part of Svalbard that a circumnavigation of the archipelago was impossible. In face, 5 ships were stuck in the ice along the route we were to take. So we opted to turn around and head back south with the idea that we would round the southern tip of Spitsbergen and work our way along Edgenoya island. It was also mentioned that we would be doing an early zodiac cruise tomorrow at 7:00am. Then we would try to steam down to Ny Alesund for a shore excursion. It could be a long day tomorrow.
After dinner, the resident ornithologist gave a small presentation the flyways of some birds along the Eastern coast of Asia and down to Australia and New Zealand. It wasn't terribly interesting, but a lot of of the older people got a kick out of it. I'm off to bed early because of the early shore excursion.
