The Weather Doesn’t Cooperate in Alpefjord … Not All Is Lost

Monday, 16 September
Aboard M/V Sea Spirit — Greenland Sea

Stats posted @ 0830
Position: 72°08’ North / 25°27’ West
Distance traveled: 965.3 NM since Reykjavík
temperature: 39F / 4C

Quote from the Daily Program:
“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.”
— Helen Keller —

You win some days; you lose some days.  Today fell mostly in the latter category.

At the moment, we are out of the fjord system.  We have left the national park behind and are sailing south in the Greenland Sea towards our next destination.

The seas are considerably rougher now that we’re out in open water again.  Not so much that we need to consider sea sickness meds, but we’re looking forward to getting back into calmer waters after midnight.  We’ve been warned to stow breakables and valuables.  Been there done that before!  But that’s all ahead; let’s look back a bit for the time being.

Our itinerary had us in Alpefjord for today’s activities.  This fjord, merely a nautical mile wide, provides little room to maneuver — sounds like the kind of challenge Captain Peter likes to take on.  Alpefjord breaks off the southernmost fjord system in the Kong Oscar Fjord complex.  The daily program said that … “soon after entering Alpefjord, we will be dwarfed by the surrounding mountains towering over 2000m [6,500 feet] above us.”  That proved true with jagged mountains visible on either side and in the distance.

Traveling 60.2 NM (69 miles/111 km) overnight, Sea Spirit repositions to Alpefjord.

The day dawned yucky — that’s the only way to describe the overcast and dull skies.  As the morning progressed, the winds picked up and the water in the fjord became noticeably choppy.  Dutch had planned both a landing and a zodiac cruise at Sefström Glacier — the hike had to be canceled due to distance to land and the increasing winds.  Bah humbug!

Sefström Glacier drains from the jaggedly beautiful Stauning Alper Mountains.

With several hours of downtime before the zodiac cruise at the glacier, we hoped against hope that the weather would change.  It didn’t, happen.  Sigh!  Undaunted, we proceeded with the cruise, motoring across the marbleized face of the glacier, which showed every evidence of frequent calvings, but considerably little ice in the water.

Where Sefström Glacier reaches the water, it joins up with Gully Glacier.  Combined, they almost block the fjord except for a very narrow passage on the west side.  We thought about trying to get around to the opening with the zodiac, but in the end gave up due to the distance we would have had to cover.

Going around the far right side of the glacier, there is a passage further into the fjord.

From this vantage point, we see where the glacier drains from the Stauning Alper.

The two faces of a bergy bit …

… make that the three faces of this piece of nature’s art.

We were back on the ship in time for lunch.  Captain Peter used the time to maneuver the ship out of Alpefjord and into the main channel.  As we transited out through Kong Oscar Fjord, on our way to open waters, the skies showed some indication of brightening.  Still a monochromatic color scheme; but tiny patches of blue became visible through the thick cloud cover.  The weather was too late for our activities, but it gave hope for the remainder of the day.

Our afternoon at sea was filled with lectures.  Jimmy was up first to talk to us about Ursus Maritimus — better known as the polar bear.  Did you know that these bears evolved from brown bears about 150,000 years ago?

Next up was Laurie.  We had already heard his presentation entitled From Stones to Satellites.  His talk covered the ebb and flow of the various stone age cultures that have lived in the northerly latitudes during the last 4,000 years, leading to the satellite age.  Listening to it a second time was just as interesting as the first time around, and helped to gel some of the facts in our mind.

Norm wrapped up the lecture schedule with Glaciers … how they erode, transport, and deposit materials as they create a new landscape.  Unfortunately, it was at about this point that we exited Kong Oscar Fjord for open waters, and I felt the need to step outside to get some fresh air and keep my eyes on the horizon for a while.

The clearing is too late for today, but could it be portending a good day for tomorrow?

At the recap/briefing, Dutch outlined a busy day for us tomorrow … some of it very dependent on the weather; keeping fingers crossed.  Ragnar followed with a short talk about the Norwegian and Danish hunters who came to what is now the national park to hunt fox and reindeer.  While the fox population did not die out, their numbers never recovered.  The reindeer were much less fortunate and died out in their entirety.

I was late to dinner … with good reason.  While the weather was yucky for our activities this morning, Mother Nature rewarded us with a fantastic sunset tonight that fired up the skies over east Greenland — what a spectacle.  What a riot of colors!

I had every intention of getting to bed early tonight.  That changed when Dave announced a bar talk entitled Nairobi Healthcare.  Having heard one of his hilarious travel stories on the previous voyage leg, there was no way I was missing a second one.  This time, he told us about a trip he led from Cairo to Nairobi.  There’s no way I can come even close to re-telling the story, so I’ll just end by saying that I am aching from laughing so hard!

The Aurora Dances for Us

Sunday, 15 September (Part III)
Aboard M/V Sea Spirit — Kong Oscar Fjord

The aurora forecast was spot on tonight!  The dancing lights made their appearance at 11:00p, and continued their performance until 2:45a.  We weren’t up that late, but did get to enjoy the entertainment the northern lights put on for us for a considerable while.  Knowing that the outer decks would be crowded, we bundled up and watched the show from our veranda.  No messing around with camera equipment … just a visual feast to delight the eyes.

Thanks go to several fellow-passengers who shared the photos that make this blog post possible — in particular, Yukun Shih and Robert Lee.

What a finale to our polar bear day!

Sofia Sund … and a Landing Scrapped for a Bear

Sunday, 15 September (Part II)
Aboard M/V Sea Spirit — Kong Oscar Fjord
Position @ 1445: 72°53’ North / 25°06’ West

Our warm-up break in the Club Lounge following the ship’s cruise through Antarctic Sund (post here) was brief.  Before long, Dutch was on the P/A system to tell us that we were approaching Sofia Sund, a partially uncharted marine channel that Captain Peter would be entering carefully for our second ship’s cruise of the morning.

To encourage everyone to be outside, Dutch tacked on an incentive at the end of his announcement — come and add to the eyes already keeping watch on the bridge and the outer decks.  For what?  Polar bears!  Alrighty then!

Jimmy sets up the scope to help look for polar bears.

Considering the distance we were from shore, picking out a small speck of white — especially a stationary one — we knew had a small chance of success.  Besides, if a bear alert was sent out, we’d hear about it soon enough.  So, we opted to enjoy most of the ship’s cruise through Sofia Sund from our veranda, where we had the “good light” for photography for when we were moved to document the scenery with more than our eyes alone.

This was another mostly ice-free cruise.  The landscape was considerably different from Antarctic Sund, with more red rocks on the sides of mountains that were frosted with a fresh cover of snow.  Somehow, these mountains looked softer to us than the ones we saw this morning.

With an afternoon landing on the agenda, Sea Spirit went only partway into Sofia Sund before re-tracing its way out again.  No bear sightings along the way.  We were out of the sound by 11:30p — just in time for a pre-landing briefing for Ella Ø [island].

Ella was was one of the islands discovered, and named for family members, by Sweedish explorer Nathorst when he visited the area twice to look for traces of the tragic Andrée hot air balloon expedition of 1897.

Nathorst named Ella Ø for his wife, and Maria Ø and Ruth Ø for his daughters.  Aviator Charles Lindbergh and his wife landed on Ella Ø during their flight across Greenland in 1933.  A weather station that had been built on the island two years previously kept the Lindberghs apprised of weather conditions during the series of flights they took in the North Atlantic over a period of six months.

The island is currently home to the Sirius Sledge Patrol, which was established here in the early 1950s.  As mentioned in a previous post, this patrol is a long-range reconnaissance force that enforces Danish sovereignty in the Arctic wilderness of north and East Greenland, an area that includes the largest national park in the world.

The cross on the island bears the name of Axel Søht and the dates 1880-1937.

Our destination this afternoon was the patrol’s support camp.  The plan was for the expedition team to establish a perimeter within which we would be free to wander at our leisure.  That’s not quite how things turned out!

Can you see why our plans for landing on Ella Ø were scrapped?

No sooner was the expedition team on land that the call came back that there was a polar bear on the island.  Dutch and Alex had both mentioned earlier that they’d seen a bear here before, so I think they were expecting hoping for a repeat appearance today.

What do do?  We couldn’t land, of course, but the zodiacs were launched immediately and those who wished to check out the bear from a closer vantage point were invited to take a ride.  The zodiacs formed a daisy chain of sorts, operating like a conveyor belt that carried us across what would have been our landing beach if not for the bear.  It was a great way to give everyone equal opportunity to see and photograph the animal.

See the zodiac behind this one?  We’re on that one with Alex at the helm; there were
only two other passengers and Dr Chris on the boat with us.  How lucky is that!

I can’t say that this was our best polar bear sighting.  Having spent a week in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada — the polar bear capital of the world — we are admittedly spoiled when it comes to these bears.  That adventure brought us face to face, nose to nose, and breath to breath with polar bears, and is one of those experiences that will be hard to top (post here).

Getting up from where it was resting on the ground next to the outhouse named ‘Niagara’,
the bear deigns to give us a good look at him.

That said, we would never sit back and not go out to see one of these wonderful creatures of Mother Nature when the opportunity presents in the wild.  Despite having to squint to see the backlit bear; despite the horrible light for photography … we joined the exodus to see the world’s largest, living land predator.  That we lucked out with only five people on a boat driven by Alex was a real bonus.  As we circled around on the zodiac conveyor belt, he kept up a quiet narrative filled with all kinds of interesting polar bear facts that added hugely to the experience.

The bear showed not the slightest interest in us — at least not enough to come down to the beach to give us a better view.  He got up a few times to switch sides next to the outhouse and watch us surreptitiously; stood up a couple of times to see what all those yellow parkas on the water were up to … that’s it.  Still, there’s something about seeing a bear in the wild that sends tingles up one’s spine; a most worthy experience.

A big male polar bear like this one would need about 35 seals to survive the winter.

We were out on the water for about two hours, though it didn’t really seem that long at all.  The sunshine and calm conditions kept us comfortable as we slowly drove by the beach, taking turns watching the bear.

Back on the ship, we had a time to rest before heading to the Oceanus Lounge for the afternoon recap/briefing.

We will remain in Kong Oscar Fjord for most of the day tomorrow.  The plan is to then leave the fjord, go out into the Greenland Sea around 5:00p, and transit south to the protected waters of Scoresbysund.  Thus, we have one more day to explore the Northeast Greenland National Park tomorrow.

Shame to see graffiti on the cliffs at Ella Ø.

Jimmy followed Dutch’s presentation.  His topic was the Arctic animals, and their adaptations to survive the cold — shorter extremities; changing color to blend in better with the summer colors in these latitudes being just a couple of them.  He also told us a bit about the qiviut — the undercoat — musk ox shed as they wander the tundra in the warm (?) summer months.  I’ve mentioned before that qiviut — warmer than wool and finer than cashmere — is quite prized.  Each animal sheds about 6½ pounds (3 kg) of this very fine hair annually — worth about $8,000.  You can be sure that we take good care of the qiviut products we purchased from the musk ox coop in Alaska!

Dinner was the usual affair, although we had both new and old companions at our table, so the conversation and camaraderie dynamics were different.  Later, Alex invited everyone to the Oceanus Lounge for a screening of the Village at the End of the World.  The movie features the story of the only teenager living in a hunting community that has a population of only 59 and the adversities faced in a town that lacks job opportunities.  Having seen it before, I opted to return to the cabin for an early night.  After all, the aurora forecast was good and the skies were clear, so the chances of being woken up to dancing lights and losing some sleep were quite good.  You catch your zzzzz’s when you can!