We had a morning flight to Nome, Alaska and, upon arrival, found out that the Silver Explorer, our ship for the next 49 days, had been delayed in arriving because the port was closed due to weather. Our luggage was loaded on to a box truck and all the guests were transported by school bus to a hospitality room at a local church. We were free to wander around Nome and told to return to the church by 2pm for transfer to the ship. We wandered around the small town and had a drink at the Board of Trade Saloon, which was an interesting place. At 2pm we found out that there was an additional delay due to customs clearance and a U.S. Coast Guard inspection. We met friends from previous cruises (Fred & Darla and Mau & Kat) who had just gotten off the ship and spent some time with them. The ship just completed transiting the Northwest Passage from Greenland and had missed getting provisions in Canada due to ice and they had run out of fresh fruit & vegetables and also, horrors of all horrors, red wine. We finally boarded the ship at 5pm, the original departure time, and provisions were still being loaded. The new supply of red wine showed up during dinner. We finally set sail at 9pm. Overnight we crossed the International Date Line and entered Russian waters and time zone. Our clocks were set ahead 20 hours which meant the time was 4 hours earlier but a day ahead. We went to sleep Monday night and awoke Wednesday morning. I'll start a new thread for Russia.

No red wine! That is a real disaster. Hopefully it is all stocked up now.

They ran out of diet coke on our svalbard cruise. Fortunately it was only for a couple of days. Our butler was going around raiding other passengers' fridges for diet coke for us, so we were taken care of. But the no red wine thing!!

They also ran out of bacon--which was a semi disaster for me, but George didn't care. And the thing is I usually don't eat bacon, but I just decided I wanted some the morning they ran out.

For those that might be interested. I did make it on the plane from Seattle to YVR as a standby and arrived at YVR a little after midnight. It has been raining all day in Vancouver but June and I do not seem to mind it all.

Amazing but Brayden's and my bag did make the plane that Brayden ran to catch. Could not believe it but Alaska Air is very good at the bag transfer.

Good to hear you made your connection Ralph!

That is great news on all fronts Ralph. Ngaire, Ken, Russ, Susan, Marc and I went to meet your flight from Anchorage, but evidently your flight was in a few minutes early and we figured you were running fast to the next one so we missed you. We figured you would have other things on your mind anyway! So happy it worked out for you. Tell June Hi for us and that we missed her.

I hope that we will get to read another review by Braden on his Narwhal adventure. I'd also happily read a review by any of the other people sailing on the itinerary.

Obviously, there were challenges and the wine, fresh fruit and vegetables, etc. will have had an impact upon some peoples' experiences. Hopefully, it was still a positive time.

Photos From Cambridge Bay, Canada:


This house had (4) ATV's, pretty amazing.


If you wondered what STOP looked like in the Inuktitut language.


The High School and Cultural Center in Cambridge Bay.








Small church in Cambridge bay.


The stained glass windows were well done.




Notice the Big Dipper in the sky.

Hot Rocks at the Grill on the Silver Explorer:


Ngaire, Stefan, Linda, Chris, Linda, & Mike.


Arlene, Russell, Susan, Ralph, Rich, Braden, & Marc.


Fred, Darla, Hinrich, Kat, Mau, Barb, & Tim.

Photos from Smoking Hills, Canada:


The Smoking Hills have been burning for centuries. The smoke comes from an exothermic
reaction between iron pyrite, sulfur and bituminous shale.






A Bearded Seal and was very comfortable with our presence.


The seal welcomed us with open arms.

Love the pics! The stained glass in the church is beautiful.

Photos from Tuktoyaktuk, Canada:


School bus was our mode of transportation in every landing.


A house made of driftwood and mud.


The ice house looks small from the outside, but it goes down 30 feet into the permafrost with many room inside for storage.




The rungs of the ladder were cold and slippery.


A dip in the cold water for Mau and Kat.


The mounds on the horizon are called Pingos. Pingos are mounds formed from ice trapped below the top soil
that pushes up the land. I am standing on one taking this photo.
There are more than 1,400 pingos in Tuktoyaktuk.


The DEW Line was a network of radar stations stretching from the Arctic region of Canada and the
Aleutian Islands of Alaska to Greenland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands of Northern Europe.

Wow! What an experience! These photos should be in a book! Love the Eskimo clothes (and the bare toes!).

Just a few more Photos:


Kings Point, Canada from the ship. A sea day for us we did not go ashore.
Amundsen wintered here on his voyage across the Northwest Passage.




Herschel Island, Canada. This is a national park now, but was a former whaling station.









[
When we left Herschel Island our route took us into more ice just above Alaska.
We found 5 Walrus on our way to Nome.

BTW there is now a NORWAL pin on the building with the flags in front of it in the third picture. It was made of metal and Marc couldn't resist.

Russ just sent me this email. What great news to follow up our cruise. I think the ship that found it (the Laurier) is the ship previously captained by our Ice Pilot Mark


Fellow Arctic Explorers,
Did you all see the news? One of the lost Franklin ships was found today. Looks like we missed being there by about a week. Here is a link which includes underwater video
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/...he_franklin_wreck_was_finally_found.html

It looks like we were first of 10 ships making it through this year (plus three that wintered over)!

http://northwestpassage2014.blogspot.com/2014/09/keeping-northwest-passage-records.html

Actually nine ships completed a Northwest Passage Transit this year, two of them had wintered over so it took two seasons to make it through. Here is the list:



I guess I could comment on the Northwest Passage 2014 Blog to let him know the name of the Captain and to let him know we were not beset in ice for three days.

So we were the only passenger ship that made it this year. Kudos to us!! So the Austral and Linblad had to turn back. Those days in the ice were magical I will never forget them.

Great news. Now I can start packing.