Installment 3 Aug 6

Mist is the Gist for ARCTIC Outings

Ngaire arranged for us to dine with the some of the expedition staff last night. We joined the Bittles with .. dare I say it? Juan Carlos. It was a lovely dinner. He thought we should take particular notice of the wildflowers along the paths when we make our landings. He grew up near the coffee growing region of Colombia. The sea trout was especially good for dinner. Today has been scheduled for full-on expeditions .. first one at 8 am, then cruising through a bird area over lunch where we'll be allowed on the foredeck, concluding with a second landing late in the afternoon.

The staff has advised us, due to the unusually light amount of ice in northern Svalbard, they plan to circumnavigate all of Svalbard this trip. The last time this was possible was in 2006. Our sleeping bear on Edgeoya must have been caught too far south when the ice started to shrink. S/he better find some food quickly as s/he was very thin for this time of year.

We came back from dinner to an anniversary celebration, Silversea style, laid out before us. I won't spoil it for others, but simply say be sure to sign up for it when you fill out your guest information form. It was really well done!

The mist rolls in, the mist rolls out this early morn … as does the expedition staff. At present, they have returned to the ship, having deemed our planned walk too risky. Mist = can't see polar bears = see Captain's rule from yesterday (bears or visitors on the island – never both). It is just too early to be thinking about math right now. My educated guess is no early landing today.

Our captain announced he keeps an open bridge policy, so long as we observe two more rules: first, don't press any buttons; and second, keep conversation to a minimum and be quiet about it.

We missed our early landing due to mist. We had an up close encounter with the cliffs of the Guilletmots around lunchtime. In the late afternoon, we backtracked to a spit of land with around 20 walruses catching some zzzz's. Finally! Feet on terra firma. We zipped over and followed the flags to the walrus wallow. Our polar bear guards were stationed a good distance from our landing site. The weather was sparkling clear. Once we arrived at the wallow, we noted at least one walrus was keeping a watch lest there be a need for the walruses to hustle back to the water. They really are land challenged. Heave – ho; heave – ho is the effort needed to move up the beach. There was plenty of pushing and shoving for the prime spots in the wallow. Meanwhile, several walruses were offshore, flipping, turning and catching their breath between dives. A small ice floe headed in their direction. As quickly as the weather had cleared, it began to mist in again. The polar bear guides radioed to the bridge two bears were on the move. They like to stalk just inside the cover of the mist .. so we were urged to leave quietly and quickly. Zodiacs were loaded, lickety-split, with a final score of Tourists 47 – Bears 0. No word on whether the walruses fared as well as the tourists.

Dinner concluded with the most spectacular sail alongside the Brasvilbreen (traditional NORGES for Sudden Impact Glacier, modern NORGES for Brazil Glacier). We broached the bridge and watched waterfall after waterfall pour from the sides of the glacier. Kids, this thing runs for 190 nautical miles alongside the southern and eastern edges of Austfonna (NORGES for East Icecap per Juan Carlos). The expedition staff said it's the best glacier sighting they've ever seen. We headed off to bed, as we had a 6 am check-in for more glancing at the glaciers.