Liefdefjorden: Monacobreen

Friday, 8 July (Part IV)

Having cruised through the ice to reposition from Woodfjorden (post here), Silver Explorer continued deep into Liefdefjorden.  When I Googled the name of the fjord for a translation, it came back as a Dutch word that means “Love Fjords.”  How appropriate for a place that we loved exploring.  Not only was there a big glacier and lots of icebergs here, there were minke whales and bearded seals popping up all over the place.

Our afternoon activity was a zodiac cruise to Monacobreen (Monaco Glacier), at the head of the fjord.  This giant river of ice, 3 miles (5 km) wide at its terminus, was named in recognition of the support Prince Albert II of Monaco has given to research projects in Spitsbergen.  You go Prince!  (Until earlier this year, our ship was named Prince Albert II; now it’s been renamed to better brand it as a Silversea ship.)

Before I share images from our mini-cruise, I’ll digress into a mini-rant.  Admittedly, I know nothing of depth charts and such, so maybe there was a reason why the ship anchored 9 miles (14 km) from the glacier front.  To our lay eyes, there seemed to be plenty of deep, open water before we got into the area littered with good sized bergs and bergy bits.  Whatever the reason, we were given no explanation.  When we asked about the long distance we had to traverse to get to the glacier, the expedition members hemmed and hawed, but didn’t give a direct answer.  Our sense was that they didn’t necessarily understand why themselves and were reluctant to discuss it with the passengers.

Despite my rant, and how downright cold we were when the zodiac was zipping along at full throttle to get us to our destination, we enjoyed the zodiac cruise.  The scenery was awe inspiringly spectacular, and there was plenty of ice to keep me happy.  The one disappointment was that we didn’t get anywhere near what I would consider “close” (meaning a mile or so) to the glacier’s terminus.  We simply ran out of time!

The light conditions shooting towards the glacier made the colors dull, so I focused my attention on all of the other ice that was glistening under the sun, their blues and aquas brilliantly displayed.

By the time we returned to the ship, we were chilled considerably — more so than at any other time during the past days.  But we weren’t willing to give up our outdoor experience immediately.  Finishing the hot chocolate with which we were greeted at the top of the gangway, we made our way to Deck 6 aft where we sipped more of the same from the comfort of a couple of chaise lounges.  Hmmm, hmmm, good!

Eventually, we folded up the wool blankets we’d snuggled ourselves into and returned to the cabin.  Meeting us at the door, Joel was anxious to do something — anything — for us.  So, we asked him to bring us some tapas for in-suite consumption.  We’d barely sat down to enjoy the delectable appetizers with our beverages of choice when the PA system came alive.  No, it wasn’t a wildlife sighting this time.  Instead, it was to tell us that the scheduled recap and briefing was cancelled in lieu of cocktails on Deck 6 aft.

We finished our tapas before leaving the cabin, taking our drinks with us when we went to join the rest of the passengers for a lovely al fresco cocktail party …