Monday 26 August 2013

Nature sets the rules!

This day was planned to be very busy and interesting by our expedition leader Karin, like every day. She has lots ideas and most of the time the plan works out, but today Nature took over and Karin as the expedition leader, her team and of course all passengers had to accept this without any discussion. Nature can be very strict.

In the early morning around 6 o’clock we sailed through the Freemansundet between Barentsøya and Edgeøya. At 6:15 we heard the first announcement: Polar bear at starboard side! Those of us they have been still sleeping jumped out of the bed, dressed up, took the camera and run out. Best possibilities for a good photo shot had all the early birds who were standing on the open decks already. The polar bear was a huge male; good to be seen walking on the black rocks, but it was not very cooperative and did not stay with us for a long time.


Our first landing of the day should have started around 8:30 at Cap Lee on Edgeøya. The wind was picking up at this time and the swell became so strong that is was not possible for the passengers to step into the Polarcirkel boats in a safe way. Even though the expedition team had everything prepared at the landing site, the landing had to be cancelled. But at least another Polar bear showed up. It was far away but still very nice to see that they are still here, the “white kings” of the Arctic.




We used the bad weather for our lectures on board. The lecture team gave us lots of information about ice, history, birds and polar bears. And between we could even watch some whales, which have been on the same route like us.



After an excellent dinner we met in the Observation Lounge to join the very famous and unique FRAM Fashion show. Hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow.