Woodfjorden – Spitsbergen, Svalbard (July 2011)
[click here for the words]
Showing posts with label woodfjorden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label woodfjorden. Show all posts
Woodfjorden: Thuds, Bangs, and Clangs
Friday, 8 July (Part III)
What a morning we had in Woodfjorden. First a Blue Whale sighting (post here). Then bears on the ice, which we got to watch from a zodiac, our mobile sightseeing platform (post here). And all of this in a breathtakingly beautiful setting of ice and water rimmed with jagged mountains still wearing a light mantle of snow and ice. That we had spectacular weather didn’t hurt either — blue skies, sunshine, and temps rising to 45.3F (7.4C).
What more could we ask for? How about a minke whale surfacing right outside the window of our suite when we returned to the cabin to drop off our zodiac life vests. Even though my camera was not handy to document this close encounter, the image of the whale coming to the surface and slowly diving back into the water is forever ingrained in the gray matter that is my brain.
You want more ways to improve our morning? How about a cruise through the ice as Silver Explorer repositioned into Liefdefjorden, which branches off from Woodfjorden. And to make that experience even better — how about watching Silver Explorer’s progress from the bow of the ship. Not from Deck 6, but from a lower vantage point that had been off limits to passengers.
On our Antarctic voyage, the bow had been accessible at all times — except when Professor Molchanov was dropping anchor or otherwise preparing for zodiac operations. I’d missed having that access on Silver Explorer until this point in our voyage.
Looking down from Deck 6 to deck 4.
Looking up from Deck 4 to Decks 5 and 6.
What a great experience the ice cruise was. Being on a lower deck allowed us to see the ice cracking as the ship slowly and ever-carefully pushed it’s way through. As well, we could clearly hear the distinct thuds, and bangs, and clangs as the ice met the hull before parting to allow us passage. Oh the joys of having a 1A ice rating!
I’ll share some photos, but first a short clip of our cruise through the white stuff. I took the footage with the video feature of my Canon G-12; not bad, if I do say so myself. (Thanks go to Mui for putting it all together for me.)
[click the arrow to start the video clip]
And now for the still images … I have to tell you, it was hard to pare down to a reasonable number to put on the blog.
Glaucous Gulls
If you’ve been reading along for a while, you know I love photographing reflections. Well, during this ice cruise I had a lot of opportunities to double my viewing pleasure.
Hint of a reflection.
Glaucous Gull
And when reflections and bergy bits come together ... well, I'm in ice heaven!It's not always water that mirrors back an image. yes, that’s me with the camera!
Oh what a beautiful morning,
Oh what a beautiful day,
I’ve got a wonderful feeling,
Everything’s going my way!
Oh, yeah! I felt like breaking out in that Rodgers and Hammerstein song. But in consideration of my fellow passengers’ auditory senses, I restrained myself and just hummed the music to myself instead.
Woodfjorden: There Be Bears on the Ice
Friday, 8 July (Part II)
In the meantime, we watched another expedition ship (later identified as the Quest), cruising along the shoreline, taking a close look at one of the many glaciers flowing down to the edge of the water. Why we were sitting so far out, and they were so far in was a hotly debated mystery amongst the passengers who were on the outside decks. My guess is that site limitations required that we keep our distance until that ship left the area.
We had an absolutely gorgeous day for our zodiac outing, with blue skies and sunshine replacing the usual overcast. It was nice seeing the beauty around us in a different light. Once in the zodiac, we zipped around to the far side of the ice and nosed into the edge of the fast ice to give our viewing and photography platforms a bit of stability.
The red coats scour the area for the ice master.
The bears, though at a distance, were a bit closer than the first bear we saw on our voyage. And they were on the move. My guess is they were on the hunt, sniffing around breathing holes for seals, but their prey obviously managed to give them the slip as we didn’t actually see them catch their lunch.
Can you see the creamy bear dots in this icescape?
(hint: look where the mountains and the ice meet in the center of the image.)
Bears on the move … with the help of my long lens and a bit of cropping.
I wonder how high I can jump?
While we were in the zodiacs, those on the ship were having their own bear sighting. For a moment, we thought the bear was going to go right up to the Silver Explorer. In the end, though, it veered off in its quest for capturing a seal instead.
Will the bear go up to the ship? Or not?
OK, so this was a much better encounter with polar bears in their icy world. But once again, for me, the magnificent scenery around us and being up close and personal with the ice were the winning aspects of our zodiac cruise.
Glaucous Gull
Breathtakingly Beautiful.
You think I've got enough equipment around my neck? There's still one camera in
my dry bag, but I thought that would be overkill!
Mui was on the zodiac cruise, too. And he looks like he’s enjoying himself.
The image was naturally monochromatic, so I took away what little color there was
to create a B&W photograph.
Black-Legged Kittiwake
Our hour-long cruise had to end eventually. That’s OK; there was something really fun waiting for us back aboard Silver Explorer. But that’s for another post …
Waiting our turn to disembark the zodiac, we keep a watch out for bears on the ice.
Woodfjorden: The World’s Biggest Creature
Friday, 8 July
Latitude at Wake Up: 79°51’46” N
Temperature at Wake Up: 39.9F (4.4C)
I am the blue whale.
The biggest animal who lives in the sea.
I can dive for half an hour.
Then I come up to the surface to breathe.
I eat four million krill a day.
My whistle is louder than a jet.
I’m the biggest animal that has ever lived.
Would you like me for a pet?
BY: Michael Day
(Written by a first grader
for a home research project)
(…)
I think we should order a full breakfast from room service every morning to guarantee an early morning wildlife sighting. This was our second attempt to eat in our suite on this cruise, and it was the second time our breakfast was interrupted by mother nature sending a visitor our way. Not complaining mind you; just stating the facts.
When the announcement came around 6:00a that there was a blue whale near the ship, we grabbed our parkas and cameras, and flew out of the cabin like lightning. My heart was pounding as though it was going to burst out of my chest. Not because of the exertion of running up two decks to get outside, but because I was so excited to see the greatest, biggest animal that has ever lived on earth! My hands were shaking so much that I was having difficulty holding the long lens steady as I scanned the horizon for my first glimpse of a blue whale. Then I saw IT, and a blissful calm settled over me.
At 90-100 feet (27-30 m) long, and weighing 180 tons, the blue whale is the largest
known animal to have ever existed.
(If you look very closely in the lower right quadrant of the lower left photo in the collage, you’ll see a gull that will help put the size of the blue whale in perspective.)
Once abundant in nearly all of the oceans on Earth, this great baleen whale was hunted to near extinction during the 20th century. Internationally protected since 1966, the blue whale is still considered an endangered species. By today’s estimates, there are 8,000 to 14,000 blue whales worldwide. That’s far less than the 29,000+ that were slaughtered in just one season in 1931 — and it is just a tiny fraction of the pre-exploitation population, which was estimated at 350,000.
A rare and special sighting of a blue whale.
We spent about 30 minutes with the whale as it slowly swam about, periodically sending big, tall blows high into the air. Then we broke off to go look for a fin whale, the second largest whale species. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived on site, the whale was long gone. I can understand why we broke off from the blue whale, and I certainly don’t disagree with the decision. Nonetheless, I do have a bone to pick with the expedition staff. Later in the day, Robin mentioned in passing that they had been watching the whale sleeping on the surface since 5:30a. In fact, another expedition ship in the vicinity apparently had its guests on deck to enjoy this rare sighting as soon as they came upon the whale. Why we weren’t alerted to the blue whale earlier is beyond me. To give us time to sleep? Sorry, not acceptable IMHO. We’re here on an expedition voyage to see and experience things that are new to us. We can sleep when we get back home. (Apologies for the short rant; but I had to get it out of my system.)
So back to the story of our day — or at least the first part of the day. As I’ve done on other occasions, I will break today’s story into multiple posts.
Having left Bellsund around noon yesterday, Silver Explorer made it’s way overnight to Woodfjorden (Wood Fjord) in the far north of Spitsbergen.
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Skipping sites of interest along the west coast, we head north.
[map on the right courtesy of the Norwegian polar institute website]
While the passengers breakfasted, the scout boats went out to explore the area around the Andoyane Islands to see if they could find bears. In the meantime, as the ship slowly continued further into the fjord, Mui and I went up to Deck 6 to enjoy the sun breaking through the clouds to shine on the magical scenery … which I’m going to present in this post in B&W to underscore the raw beauty of the area.
And just think ... all this was in just the first few hours of our day. Much more to come ...
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