Our trip Episode 10
Sunday morning and we were moored near Bear Island (Bjørn Øer). It was overcast but the wind was only light so the sea was still calm. We set out in the Zodiacs and did a cruise around the icebergs. A couple of them were enormous, one was very high and almost square except when we got up one end, went round the corner and found that it had a big bay in that end, almost like a huge ice amphitheatre. Underwater it stretched out about 20 or 30 metres just below the surface. As we went over it in the zodiac I hoped that it didn’t move just a few inches or we could have become marooned on it. You can see ledges on many of them; these ledges are formed as they sit on one level for a while then rise, often at a tilt and form another ledge, so that after several tilts they have a ‘Sydney Opera House’ appearance, one shell inside another: That ice above the water must melt faster than that below I suppose. They can also capsize or break up without any warning so its not a good idea to hang around too near especially on the tall ones.
Many of the glaciers have a line of almost clear aqua through them, sometimes it’s a thick line other times so thin it seems no more than a pencil mark. This is caused from water, either melt water or rain water that has collected in a narrow crack or fissure and then frozen. It’s amazing how straight some of these cracks of frozen melt water can be, and often they go right across the berg.
We landed on Bear Island with the hope of seeing some wildlife, but the wild life had other ideas, so all we could do was admire the scenery of the rugged jagged peaks about us. A small mountain range somewhat resembled the teeth on a saw, big teeth they were. Another was similar to Mitre Peak in Milford Sound NZ, except that this one has no bush on it whatsoever. I did find some more blueberries to pick from the tiny bushes that were growing no more than 6” (150cm) high. What plants that do survive up here are all very low to the ground. The snow and ice weigh them down for a good part of the year.
A family of Eider ducks, mum and 4 chicks was the only wildlife we saw; our guide Don said they are very late and will probably become part of the food chain. They looked lovely all strung out in line. One of the other zodiacs saw a seal whilst a different one caught a distant glimpse of 2 arctic hares. These animals are snow white all year round.
Back on board and we begun making our way back down the Sund and out into the open sea. We were now about to head further north, a 29 hours sea journey up the coast to Kaiser Frans Joseph fjord where hopefully we will make some more landings starting tomorrow afternoon. As we came back down Scoresby Sund we passed even larger icebergs, one the crew roughly measured for us, it was 30 to 35m high and 120m long approx, and about 55m across; that’s one hell of a big ice cube. Of course these are only glacial bergs; the really big bergs are in the Antarctic where the big tabular bergs from the iceshelf can be many k’s long and much higher.
By 8pm we had come to the first of the sea ice and as we ate our dinner we could hear the ship begin crunching through it. By the time many of us had got up on the flying bridge or bridge we had long left that belt behind but there will be much more to come as we head up the coast we have been assured.
Some of the mountains we passed looked very pretty too. The ice sheet long ago has carved out a series of plateaux up their sides and each of these had a layer of snow on it but the steep sides didn’t so it gave an horizontal striped effect.
Don told us about 2 Kiwis (New Zealanders) that are currently attempting to cross the Greenland ice cap. They have a couple of kayaks with them that they have put Teflon runners underneath and modified so that they can be used as a sled over the ice and later when they reach the west coast they plan to kayak down that some way to some town. No mean feat to get up onto the ice cap with all that gear, then down again. The glaciers all seem very rough.
Monday morning came with crystal clear powder blue skies. The sea was almost mirror smooth, the bare mountains around with just the odd patch of snow were gloriously reflected in the water broken only by the odd ice floe that was drifting past. There was barely a breath of wind. A more perfect day one could hardly imagine. We were cruising up Davy Sund. However, by breakfast time we had come to a standstill. The ship can travel through pack ice that is 3/10 coverage, but not more than that when it has passengers on it. In front of us was pack ice of around 8/10 coverage and that was only what could be seen further on it may well have gotten worse. So it was decided that we shouldn’t go any further but return to the open sea and head off for Svalbard. The open sea though is not all that open at this latitude. There is a large belt of sea ice that extends a long way south. Our captain has heard from another ship that there is a channel through this pack ice almost due east of our current position so he is hoping that the channel will remain open and we can cross through it, other wise if we have to head south and around it then that will add a further 160 nautical miles to our journey to Svalbard.
Before we turned around though we had a trip out onto the ice: This is sea ice, frozen salt water, it’s not high like the glacial bergs can be but it does get a few metres high, it has little hill and gullies in it and pools of frozen melt water not always frozen solid. The zodiacs were put in the water and we were taken across to a large ice floe only 20 metres away. It would have had an area of around 3 to 4 acres (16,000 to 20,000 sq metres). It wasn’t at all slippery as I expected. Some snow had fallen on it some time and formed icy crystals that sparkled like billions of diamonds in the bright sunshine, but that also meant that the surface was rough and easy to walk on. We all had a great time walking around it and Adam found one melt water pond that was frozen solid and we all had a walk on that too. Then back in the zodiacs and Robin took us out to another floe where a few of us climbed on to this one, one person at a time, she took the zodiac back out so photos could be taken of a lone person on the ice. That was fun. I even laid down on the ice, doing my seal act, not sure I could keep it up for hours but for a few minutes it was great.
In between the ice floes is the ‘grease’ ice. This is the very thin stuff just setting, like a thin skin over the sea. It crunches and breaks up when the zodiacs go over it. It also means that the sea water is below freezing as sea water does not freeze a 0˚C but just a little lower.
After the zodiac cruise Robyn, deputy team leader decided that, it being such a perfect day it was time for the polar challenge. Now the polar challenge is to take a leap of faith into the freezing water here amongst the ice floes. The temperature of this water is 0.3˚C ; that’s just a whisker above freezing. The gangway was lowered so that the bottom platform was 6 inches below the water level and a Russian crewman was stationed there, just to throw you in I think in case you chickened out at the last second; also to haul you out after. Also there were two crew members in a zodiac to give assistance if required, and Giles the doctor was on standby too. A few of us rushed to get changed into our swimmers and stood there on deck in the chilly air, about 9˚C with just a towel wrapped around until it was our turn. Robyn started the ball rolling by being the first. I took the plunge, about 4th or 5th in the queue, and yes it was dam cold. I timidly dived in, not going deep as the water gets much colder just centimetres below the surface, and swam back to the landing stage, that was quite enough in that temperature. David had to be hauled into the zodiac as he said he couldn’t get his legs to work, mine had felt much the same. Tell you what, when we got out and climbed back up on deck it felt positively warm standing there in wet swimmers in the sun. About 7 passengers took the plunge the rest just stood and watched including most of the Swedes. Judy from Canberra was the eldest at 76: Living in Canberra would be a good introduction anyway.
After all this excitement we upped anchor and set course for Svalbard. We headed back down the Sund and then across an area of sea ice, our captain negotiating our way through the ice floes. Most of us stood out on deck or on the bridge on the lookout for seals and polar bears. With the seals we were successful seeing several. Mostly ring seals, these have a ring pattern on their bodies, but to me it just looks like black and grey patches, and one was a hooded seal, don’t know his special features as he looked to me very much like the others. Still who am I to argue; they are very difficult to see when far away as they are the same colour as the shadows on the ice. The polar bears though avoided us. They are often spotted on the ice as this is one of their favourite hunting places, always a seal or two about to snack on.
We crunched on through the ice, a few floes the ship drove up onto until they split, but most we just pushed aside as we passed. It was the middle of the night by the time we’d passed through the ice and now as I write this on Tuesday morning we are sailing through a heavy swell with the ship gently rolling. The outside temp is 5˚C and the decks are icy. The cloud is low with a mist in the distance. It’s time for breakfast:
Not many at breakfast, some are ill, others just not feeling too good. We were informed that the wind gusts were 40 knot ph and the sea had a 3 metre swell. It wasn’t long before those sea gusts reached 50 knots and the swell increased to 7 metres. It began raining too so everything became a vision in shades of grey. The waves breaking over the bow are fascinating to watch and I spent a really long time up on the bridge watching them. The biggest ones when the ship met them at just the right angle would send the spray right up over the bridge windows. I could sit there and watch the boat bow dip right down into some troughs and pitch right up high when the stern went into a trough.
We had a couple of lectures during the day, one on polar bears by Adam. It was interesting. There are estimated to be around 3000 bears on Svalbard. They find most of their food in the winter, in the summer it is more spread out and difficult to find. The pregnant females find a snow den to lie and await the birth of their cubs in October and have their cubs around Christmas/New Year. They have from one to three cubs and stay in the den suckling them until about April when the cubs are big enough to venture out. They are born very tiny and naked and must be kept warm. She then spends the next two years raising them finally sending them off at nearly 2 ½ years old.
The other lecture was by Kent our geologist and was an introduction to geology, much of which I had covered in high school. Still it was an interesting lecture learning about the different types of rocks and how they are formed. It is an odd fact that granite is found only on the continents and not under the oceans and also that it is found only on earth, it has not yet been found on any other planets. Though how they can be sure its not there beats me. Not that many probes have landed on other planets to rule it out completely I should think.
Wednesday the sea had calmed a little and continued to do so all through the day. The wind had dropped to around 30knots by morning and the swell down to 5metre and not near so choppy. Those that had been seasick the day before showed signs of recovery. Fortunately for me I had not been seasick at all and David only slightly, enough to skip a meal but that’s all. We had another couple of lectures, one on the birds of Svalbard by Adam. He is very good, he knows the names of these birds not only in Latin but also by their English, Swedish and German name. The only bird that winters over on Svalbard is the Ptarmigan; all others migrate to warmer climes in search of food. Another lecture was by Kent on the geology of Svalbard. It seems that these islands have lived in the tropics. At some point about 500 million year ago or, was it 1 billion, can’t remember, it was in a position south of the equator, this is when the initial coal deposits were laid down, then it drifted north of the equator and more coal deposits were laid, since then it has continued to drift northward, given long enough it may well pass over the north pole. Did you know that the sea over the North Pole is 4500m deep and that the ice over the South Pole is 4000m deep. Just thought I’d throw that bit of trivia in for good measure. We have also passed over an underwater volcano that is only 500m below the surface of the sea, now we are over 3000m deep seas. By evening the weather looked to be definitely improving with a good sunset and some patches of blue sky about.
During the afternoon and evening over the last couple of days we have watched some movies as well as documentaries. Most of the movies have been of dubious standard, but the documentaries have been great. One on polar bears by the BBC follows the life of a female raising her cubs mainly. It has some incredible footage of her with a baby cub in an icy den. This was filmed with a hidden camera. Another one we watched was made back in the very early 1900’s about the life of an Eskimo family called ‘Nanook of the north”. Considering when it was made it is very good. It shows this family’s struggle for survival in finding food in that harsh environment in northern Canada around Hudson Bay. These native people of this harsh climate are really quite amazing.
© Lynette Regan 5th September 2007
Sunday morning and we were moored near Bear Island (Bjørn Øer). It was overcast but the wind was only light so the sea was still calm. We set out in the Zodiacs and did a cruise around the icebergs. A couple of them were enormous, one was very high and almost square except when we got up one end, went round the corner and found that it had a big bay in that end, almost like a huge ice amphitheatre. Underwater it stretched out about 20 or 30 metres just below the surface. As we went over it in the zodiac I hoped that it didn’t move just a few inches or we could have become marooned on it. You can see ledges on many of them; these ledges are formed as they sit on one level for a while then rise, often at a tilt and form another ledge, so that after several tilts they have a ‘Sydney Opera House’ appearance, one shell inside another: That ice above the water must melt faster than that below I suppose. They can also capsize or break up without any warning so its not a good idea to hang around too near especially on the tall ones.
Many of the glaciers have a line of almost clear aqua through them, sometimes it’s a thick line other times so thin it seems no more than a pencil mark. This is caused from water, either melt water or rain water that has collected in a narrow crack or fissure and then frozen. It’s amazing how straight some of these cracks of frozen melt water can be, and often they go right across the berg.
We landed on Bear Island with the hope of seeing some wildlife, but the wild life had other ideas, so all we could do was admire the scenery of the rugged jagged peaks about us. A small mountain range somewhat resembled the teeth on a saw, big teeth they were. Another was similar to Mitre Peak in Milford Sound NZ, except that this one has no bush on it whatsoever. I did find some more blueberries to pick from the tiny bushes that were growing no more than 6” (150cm) high. What plants that do survive up here are all very low to the ground. The snow and ice weigh them down for a good part of the year.
A family of Eider ducks, mum and 4 chicks was the only wildlife we saw; our guide Don said they are very late and will probably become part of the food chain. They looked lovely all strung out in line. One of the other zodiacs saw a seal whilst a different one caught a distant glimpse of 2 arctic hares. These animals are snow white all year round.
Back on board and we begun making our way back down the Sund and out into the open sea. We were now about to head further north, a 29 hours sea journey up the coast to Kaiser Frans Joseph fjord where hopefully we will make some more landings starting tomorrow afternoon. As we came back down Scoresby Sund we passed even larger icebergs, one the crew roughly measured for us, it was 30 to 35m high and 120m long approx, and about 55m across; that’s one hell of a big ice cube. Of course these are only glacial bergs; the really big bergs are in the Antarctic where the big tabular bergs from the iceshelf can be many k’s long and much higher.
By 8pm we had come to the first of the sea ice and as we ate our dinner we could hear the ship begin crunching through it. By the time many of us had got up on the flying bridge or bridge we had long left that belt behind but there will be much more to come as we head up the coast we have been assured.
Some of the mountains we passed looked very pretty too. The ice sheet long ago has carved out a series of plateaux up their sides and each of these had a layer of snow on it but the steep sides didn’t so it gave an horizontal striped effect.
Don told us about 2 Kiwis (New Zealanders) that are currently attempting to cross the Greenland ice cap. They have a couple of kayaks with them that they have put Teflon runners underneath and modified so that they can be used as a sled over the ice and later when they reach the west coast they plan to kayak down that some way to some town. No mean feat to get up onto the ice cap with all that gear, then down again. The glaciers all seem very rough.
Monday morning came with crystal clear powder blue skies. The sea was almost mirror smooth, the bare mountains around with just the odd patch of snow were gloriously reflected in the water broken only by the odd ice floe that was drifting past. There was barely a breath of wind. A more perfect day one could hardly imagine. We were cruising up Davy Sund. However, by breakfast time we had come to a standstill. The ship can travel through pack ice that is 3/10 coverage, but not more than that when it has passengers on it. In front of us was pack ice of around 8/10 coverage and that was only what could be seen further on it may well have gotten worse. So it was decided that we shouldn’t go any further but return to the open sea and head off for Svalbard. The open sea though is not all that open at this latitude. There is a large belt of sea ice that extends a long way south. Our captain has heard from another ship that there is a channel through this pack ice almost due east of our current position so he is hoping that the channel will remain open and we can cross through it, other wise if we have to head south and around it then that will add a further 160 nautical miles to our journey to Svalbard.
Before we turned around though we had a trip out onto the ice: This is sea ice, frozen salt water, it’s not high like the glacial bergs can be but it does get a few metres high, it has little hill and gullies in it and pools of frozen melt water not always frozen solid. The zodiacs were put in the water and we were taken across to a large ice floe only 20 metres away. It would have had an area of around 3 to 4 acres (16,000 to 20,000 sq metres). It wasn’t at all slippery as I expected. Some snow had fallen on it some time and formed icy crystals that sparkled like billions of diamonds in the bright sunshine, but that also meant that the surface was rough and easy to walk on. We all had a great time walking around it and Adam found one melt water pond that was frozen solid and we all had a walk on that too. Then back in the zodiacs and Robin took us out to another floe where a few of us climbed on to this one, one person at a time, she took the zodiac back out so photos could be taken of a lone person on the ice. That was fun. I even laid down on the ice, doing my seal act, not sure I could keep it up for hours but for a few minutes it was great.
In between the ice floes is the ‘grease’ ice. This is the very thin stuff just setting, like a thin skin over the sea. It crunches and breaks up when the zodiacs go over it. It also means that the sea water is below freezing as sea water does not freeze a 0˚C but just a little lower.
After the zodiac cruise Robyn, deputy team leader decided that, it being such a perfect day it was time for the polar challenge. Now the polar challenge is to take a leap of faith into the freezing water here amongst the ice floes. The temperature of this water is 0.3˚C ; that’s just a whisker above freezing. The gangway was lowered so that the bottom platform was 6 inches below the water level and a Russian crewman was stationed there, just to throw you in I think in case you chickened out at the last second; also to haul you out after. Also there were two crew members in a zodiac to give assistance if required, and Giles the doctor was on standby too. A few of us rushed to get changed into our swimmers and stood there on deck in the chilly air, about 9˚C with just a towel wrapped around until it was our turn. Robyn started the ball rolling by being the first. I took the plunge, about 4th or 5th in the queue, and yes it was dam cold. I timidly dived in, not going deep as the water gets much colder just centimetres below the surface, and swam back to the landing stage, that was quite enough in that temperature. David had to be hauled into the zodiac as he said he couldn’t get his legs to work, mine had felt much the same. Tell you what, when we got out and climbed back up on deck it felt positively warm standing there in wet swimmers in the sun. About 7 passengers took the plunge the rest just stood and watched including most of the Swedes. Judy from Canberra was the eldest at 76: Living in Canberra would be a good introduction anyway.
After all this excitement we upped anchor and set course for Svalbard. We headed back down the Sund and then across an area of sea ice, our captain negotiating our way through the ice floes. Most of us stood out on deck or on the bridge on the lookout for seals and polar bears. With the seals we were successful seeing several. Mostly ring seals, these have a ring pattern on their bodies, but to me it just looks like black and grey patches, and one was a hooded seal, don’t know his special features as he looked to me very much like the others. Still who am I to argue; they are very difficult to see when far away as they are the same colour as the shadows on the ice. The polar bears though avoided us. They are often spotted on the ice as this is one of their favourite hunting places, always a seal or two about to snack on.
We crunched on through the ice, a few floes the ship drove up onto until they split, but most we just pushed aside as we passed. It was the middle of the night by the time we’d passed through the ice and now as I write this on Tuesday morning we are sailing through a heavy swell with the ship gently rolling. The outside temp is 5˚C and the decks are icy. The cloud is low with a mist in the distance. It’s time for breakfast:
Not many at breakfast, some are ill, others just not feeling too good. We were informed that the wind gusts were 40 knot ph and the sea had a 3 metre swell. It wasn’t long before those sea gusts reached 50 knots and the swell increased to 7 metres. It began raining too so everything became a vision in shades of grey. The waves breaking over the bow are fascinating to watch and I spent a really long time up on the bridge watching them. The biggest ones when the ship met them at just the right angle would send the spray right up over the bridge windows. I could sit there and watch the boat bow dip right down into some troughs and pitch right up high when the stern went into a trough.
We had a couple of lectures during the day, one on polar bears by Adam. It was interesting. There are estimated to be around 3000 bears on Svalbard. They find most of their food in the winter, in the summer it is more spread out and difficult to find. The pregnant females find a snow den to lie and await the birth of their cubs in October and have their cubs around Christmas/New Year. They have from one to three cubs and stay in the den suckling them until about April when the cubs are big enough to venture out. They are born very tiny and naked and must be kept warm. She then spends the next two years raising them finally sending them off at nearly 2 ½ years old.
The other lecture was by Kent our geologist and was an introduction to geology, much of which I had covered in high school. Still it was an interesting lecture learning about the different types of rocks and how they are formed. It is an odd fact that granite is found only on the continents and not under the oceans and also that it is found only on earth, it has not yet been found on any other planets. Though how they can be sure its not there beats me. Not that many probes have landed on other planets to rule it out completely I should think.
Wednesday the sea had calmed a little and continued to do so all through the day. The wind had dropped to around 30knots by morning and the swell down to 5metre and not near so choppy. Those that had been seasick the day before showed signs of recovery. Fortunately for me I had not been seasick at all and David only slightly, enough to skip a meal but that’s all. We had another couple of lectures, one on the birds of Svalbard by Adam. He is very good, he knows the names of these birds not only in Latin but also by their English, Swedish and German name. The only bird that winters over on Svalbard is the Ptarmigan; all others migrate to warmer climes in search of food. Another lecture was by Kent on the geology of Svalbard. It seems that these islands have lived in the tropics. At some point about 500 million year ago or, was it 1 billion, can’t remember, it was in a position south of the equator, this is when the initial coal deposits were laid down, then it drifted north of the equator and more coal deposits were laid, since then it has continued to drift northward, given long enough it may well pass over the north pole. Did you know that the sea over the North Pole is 4500m deep and that the ice over the South Pole is 4000m deep. Just thought I’d throw that bit of trivia in for good measure. We have also passed over an underwater volcano that is only 500m below the surface of the sea, now we are over 3000m deep seas. By evening the weather looked to be definitely improving with a good sunset and some patches of blue sky about.
During the afternoon and evening over the last couple of days we have watched some movies as well as documentaries. Most of the movies have been of dubious standard, but the documentaries have been great. One on polar bears by the BBC follows the life of a female raising her cubs mainly. It has some incredible footage of her with a baby cub in an icy den. This was filmed with a hidden camera. Another one we watched was made back in the very early 1900’s about the life of an Eskimo family called ‘Nanook of the north”. Considering when it was made it is very good. It shows this family’s struggle for survival in finding food in that harsh environment in northern Canada around Hudson Bay. These native people of this harsh climate are really quite amazing.
© Lynette Regan 5th September 2007
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