Friday, August 26, 2016
Photos
We had a long, quiet, restful night last night. Clay was up
early and used the treadmill. He woke me a little after 7am when he got back. We
are sailing the Amundson Gulf. It was 32F and partly cloudy this morning. We
went to Lido for breakfast. I went to 9am gentle yoga. I walked through the
Bistro on my now routine thrice a day quest for Portuguese tarts. Success!
Today as I buzzed past, I screeched to a halt when I saw the rather
unattractive tarts. I scooted to get a paper napkin and grabbed 2 as they
rapidly disappeared. I went back to the cabin hoping to find Clay with the warm
tarts wrapped up. I didn’t get a bottle of water and proceed to chair yoga!
Clay was lying on the loveseat waiting for the movie “Jenny’s Wedding” to
start. After we ate the delicious tarts, I brushed my teeth and settled in with
my needlepoint for the movie. After the movie, at 37F we dressed as we expect
to tomorrow for morning ashore. Neither of us want to have to wear those bulky
parkas. Given that the average temperature here is August is well above
freezing, we don’t feel we ought to need them. We walked a circle on the Promenade
deck and as we came to the front starboard side, we could see the red
Shackleton ice breaker in the distance before our next landfall. We listened to
the captain’s noon announcements in the cabin and then went to lunch. It was a
bell pepper packed Latin America theme today. We ate in the Lido Buffet. As we
were finishing up about 1:10pm, the captain came on the intercom again with a
sea shanty song about Franklin and the North West Passage to announce that the Shackleton
had sailed out to greet us and escort us to our anchorage off Ulukhaktok. We
headed to starboard for a look and saw our fast boat and 7 zodiacs in formation
with 2 helicopters swooping and the Shackleton coming along side. Clay went to
get his coat and his camera and I met him out of deck 7. It was pretty exciting.
The zodiac drivers seemed pretty excited. They’ve been here waiting a couple of
days for us so I guess they had lots of time to rehearse their formations. They
circled us and then formed up in a line and led us in with Shackleton in the
lead. They are doing a great job with the Cineflex camera atop the ship and streaming
in to the cabins on channel 82. We can mostly watch from our window and that TV
view and then throw on a coat and dash 4 doors down to get out on either side
of deck 7 in less than a half minute.
Last night they delivered an Arctic Code of Conduct A guide
to Arctic Etiquette booklet. It is similar to the guidelines for the Antarctic
or a National Park. Take nothing in, leave nothing behind, don’t pick anything
up, don’t take anything. Etc. We’ve just dropped anchor for the first time!
Which finally answers the question that no we did not drop an anchor in Nome. I
didn’t think we did, but now I’m more sure of it.
Clay is on his way to see the 2:30pm movie “The Family Fang”.
I have to go to Art again today at 3pm in Lido to finish up by painting my
sculpted Inukshuk. There is no 5pm briefing today. They are bringing locals
onboard to demonstrate Western & Central styles of Drum Dancing at 6:30 and
8:30pm. We are in the main dining room tonight at 6pm, so it will be the 8:30pm
show for us. If we have Internet now, I’ll go ahead and post this. If I have
anything else of interest to post, I do it tomorrow.
Photos
Photos
