Water, Water Everywhere: the Barents Sea

Monday, 4 July
Latitude at Wake Up: 71°28"’35” N
temperature at wake up: 45F (7.3C)

Happy 4th of July to our fellow Americans! There won’t be any fireworks to celebrate the occasion this high up north since it won’t ever get dark today, so I thought I’d add my own to the blog.

Today was a day of rest for us. Not that we didn’t have a list of scheduled activities, but there was plenty of down time as well — time to simply enjoy being at sea.

I love the feeling of being in the middle of nowhere with the safety net that comes from being on an expedition vessel. I like adventure travel, but I don’t like roughing it. By that, I don’t mean that our circumstances have to be luxurious (as happens to be on this voyage), but my adventures do need to have a degree a comfort associated with them. In other words, I’m a “soft” adventure type of gal.

Today, I don’t have to worry about where I’m going, or how I’m going to get there. It’s someone else’s job to do that. I just get to kick back and relax, attend lectures to stimulate my brain, and prepare to explore a “brand-new-to-me” part of the world. Now that’s a great day in my book.

We were up at 6:30a this morning. The stateroom was dark, but only because we hadn’t retracted the blackout shades on the window. When we did, an endless, monochromatic seascape greeted us — the sun hidden behind a low cloud deck; the flat-calm ocean stretching out to infinity. We are in the middle of the Barents Sea after all, so the scene came as no real surprise. Coleridge’s line from the Rime of the Ancient Mariner — Water, water, every where — is an apt description. However, the rest — Nor any drop to drink — doesn’t apply since Silver Explorer has its own desalination plant and makes both still and sparkling water from all the salt water around us.

A study in monochrome from our stateroom window.

I have to admit that I am surprised at the calmness of the sea conditions. The only waves we saw today were the gentle swells generated as Silver Explorer cleaved through the sea. Not complaining, mind you; but when I think of the Arctic Ocean, I think of big (make that huge) waves with ships fighting their way through to calm coastal waters. Talking to some of the expedition team members, however, they have assured me that these conditions are not that unusual for the sea that was named for the Dutch explorer Willem Barents.

formerly named Murmanskoye Morye, or the "Sea of Murmans" (NORWEGIANS),
The Barents Sea lies north of Norway and Russia.

Back to our day. Buffet breakfast in the Restaurant was served between 8:00-10:00 today (I’m told it will be earlier once we start going out in the zodiacs). That’s a bit late for us. We could have ordered room service, but fruit (and coffee for Mui) from the Observation Lounge was sufficient to tide us over until the designated time.

Our tummies sated, Mui and I went our separate ways. I wandered outside for a bit, but the crew was washing the decks. With the furniture and benches wet, I satisfied myself with a mile-long walk. On a ship the size of Silver Explorer, that’s a dizzying number of laps. Back inside after a while, I found a quiet spot in the surprisingly vacant Panorama Lounge to go through photos and edit blog posts from the first few days of our trip. Keeping an eye out the window afforded me a few moments of wildlife pleasure when white-beaked dolphins put on a show that would be the envy of any acrobat. No photos, I’m afraid — instead of rushing back to the cabin to grab my long lens, I stayed put and enjoyed the antics of the dolphins from where I was.

Even though it’s quite chilly, the tables are set up on DecK 6 Aft and the hot tub is filled with steaming water. alas, No one is taking advantage of the amenities today.

At 10:00a, Mui and I joined the rest of the passengers in group 3 for the all-important rubber boot distribution. Zodiac cruises and landings ashore require proper footwear, especially since the latter will be accomplished by us slipping over the side of the zodiac and into ankle-deep (or deeper) water. Rather than lug our own “wellies,” we made the decision to take advantage of the ship’s loaner program since that worked so well for us in Antarctica. In no time, we were kitted out with boots in sizes 6 and 10. Nothing fashionable mind you; just your average black for me and khaki green for Mui. The important thing is that our feet stay dry and warm (we brought toe warmers with us), and these boots look like they’ll do the job.

Next on the day’s schedule was a private event for first timers. We put in a brief appearance at the morning cocktail event, but didn’t stay long. At 11:00a, we attended the mandatory AECO Briefing. AECO stands for the Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators. Its goal is to ensure responsible, environmentally-friendly, and safe tourism in the Arctic. Following a roll call to ensure all of the passengers were in attendance, Robin took the stage for an informative presentation. Although there are different rules for Svalbard, Jan Mayen, and Greenland — the range overseen by AECO — there are some basic principles that we all need to adhere to while visiting this delicate eco-system.

[click the image to visit the AECO website]

Succinct, but meaningful rules.
[for the full version of the guidelines, click here]

After the AECO presentation, Robin continued with a destination briefing for tomorrow. The ship should be arriving at Bjørnøya (Bear Island) around 7:30a. There’s no ice between us and the island, so that schedule should hold. Once we reach our anchorage, we’ll be going out in the zodiacs to visit the jagged cliffs that host over a million nesting birds. No bears, though … but that’s a story for tomorrow.

Lunch in The Restaurant was next. Another buffet affair, but very good food. If today is anything to go by, the soup and made-to-order pasta stations will be seeing me everyday. And, I’ll stop by the salads too.

The afternoon hours continued with a bit of post-lunch shopping — yes, we bought a couple of Norwegian-made knits (at a much better price than those in Tromsø, I might add). The onboard credits Silversea added to our account just about cover our costs. Now, that kind of shopping I like.

Just as we were on our way to the first of two afternoon lectures, the call went out that there was a sperm whale near the ship. We threw on our parkas, grabbed our cameras, and ran outside. As though wanting in on the action, the white-beaked dolphins made a return visit at the same time, toying with us as they crossed under the ship from one side to the other. The whale didn’t stay long, nor did it venture too close; but we did manage to see it blow and captured a shot or two of its fluke as it dived deep and disappeared. The pod of dolphins remained to entertain us for a while. Then, as though they knew we had a lecture to go to, they swam away, thus releasing us to go indoors.

The sperm whale has the largest brain of any animal. Its name comes from the milky-white waxy substance, spermaceti, found in its head.
(for more information, see this wikipedia article.)

Endemic to the North Atlantic, white-beaked dolphins are often seen in Arctic waters even
though they are not as well adapted to Arctic conditions as the beluga or narwhal.
(for more information, see this wikipedia article.)

Kristine Hannon’s presentation on photography tips and tricks was quite timely. The snippets of information she doled out, along with visual examples, will prove most useful on this trip. I’m especially glad she reminded me of a trick I’ve employed in the past — using a gallon-size Ziploc baggie as a makeshift raincape to protect the camera. It’s a good thing we never travel without a supply of Ziploc bags.

Claudia Holgate was our next presenter. After giving us tips on using binoculars, she talked about the birdlife we’ll be seeing in these northern latitudes. Something I didn’t know is that the bird population in these northern latitudes is not as diverse as the population in the Antarctic. In fact, 99% of the birds will fall into one of five species: auks, skuas, gulls, northern fulmars, and terns. I won’t get into the details of Claudia’s presentation, but suffice to say that we’re now well-equipped to identify any birdlife we see.

We had about an hour after the presentations to relax and get dressed for Captain Stahlberg’s Welcome Cocktail Party. I’d been worried about how formally people would be dressed for this occasion; it was for naught. Most of the passengers were in casual chic attire — again, more in keeping with the expedition style of this voyage.

Dinner was another pleasant meal. This time, we sat at a six-top with a physician couple from Pennsylvania and a Polish couple who used to live in Silver Spring, Maryland — not far from where we live in Virginia. It sure is a small world. Once again, conversation flowed freely; laughter and good humor were in great abundance as well.

The menu offered a variety of good selections. I started off with the Brick Dough Roll (fancy name for a spring roll), had a cup of wild mushroom consommé, and finished off with Atlantic catfish. Mui had the same final course, but started off with a selection of artichoke appetizers and a strawberry cashew salad. I really enjoyed my dessert — rocky road ice cream — and Mui was well satisfied with his chocolate trio, a dessert consisting of white, dark, and milk chocolate, with a surprise scoop of rocky road ice cream on the side.

It was 11:00p by the time we made it back to our stateroom. And what a surprise we found ….