Clay was up early and on the treadmill today. I slept until
7am waking up shortly before he returned. I had turned on the TV and checked
our position on the nav map and the bow cam and knew it was only 30F this
morning. He announced there’d been snow showers and during Lido breakfast I’d
seen them too. Later they checked the
weather on the TV to reflect 30F and snow showers. We are still in the Beaufort
Sea somehow. I am not sure exactly when it changes to the Atlantic. We have
been sitting at 3 to 5 knots for an hour or so outside the entrance to the
narrow Bellot Strait. This is the route they told us yesterday they were hoping
to use if it was clear of ice. It is 10am and they have just started up the Cineflex
and have shown several zodiacs in the water entering the cut. I don’t know if
we are conducting some zodiac unexpected adventures today or if those are just
scouts from Shackleton to check the strait. Tim Soper said yesterday that they
would check the channel by helicopter so I don’t know. It seemed like more
zodiacs than would be required to just check the passage.
The Bellot Strait is 25km long and at its narrowest 1km
wide. The slopes rise to 450m on the north shore and 750m on the south. It separates
Boothia Peninsula from Somerset Island.
The captain just made an announcement that our first slow
down this morning was at a wildlife viewing point but there was an expedition
ship already anchored there doing zodiac excursions so out of courtesy he
sailed on by. Plus he said they did not spot any wildlife so felt it best to
keep sailing anyway. He said Shackleton had sent 4 zodiacs ahead into the
Bellot Strait for photography purposes and if conditions were right they would
launch a helicopter for photography once in the strait. The cineflex has been
showing big brown moving lumps on the slopes ahead. I guess he has the camera
as focused as possible but I assumed I was looking at ATVs. Then Clay’s devices
started pinging and the e-alerts were that they were muskox! The captain also
announced that and that our scenic sail through the Bellot should begin about
11am and we should be clear of Magpie Rock on the east side sometime after
noon.
It is an overcast day again. Like the last 2 with
intermittent showers and low cloud but today with snow showers instead of
sprinkles or rain. It is very atmospherically scenic. On that note, there was a
lot of concern prior to this cruise about the starboard side cabins being
preferable for views. We have not found that to be true here on the port side.
From time to time, land is closer on one side than the other but when no land
is visible that is true on both sides. The captain has done a good job when
sightseeing, like yesterday with the polar bears, to turn the ship so both
sides eventually have the same or similar views. Given what I know now, I would
actually pick the port side as being the better views. Also, I would not worry
about taking one of the truncated 2-week long expedition cruises. I enjoyed
seeing Nome and the 2 port stops in the Alaskan archipelago but there was some
rough sailing in the Bering Sea and Bering Strait that was not scenic sailing
before we reached Ulukhaktok. There are a lot of North West Passage cruises
that we looked at that go from Greenland to Coppermine or reverse and I worried
about missing most of the passage that way. It seems that from a sailing
perspective this Canadian archipelago section is considered the North West
Passage itself and since it is also the scenic part, now I see the sense in the
shorter expedition cruises that are mostly offered. In hindsight, I wouldn’t
hesitate to book one if that was what was available to me. That being said,
Crystal has done an amazing job. I can only imagine that when they get their
200-passenger ice class yacht and do the NWP again that it will be absolutely
awesome. We had been hesitant to try Crystal because of the large size, large
number of passengers, fixed seating and formal nights. In other words, we felt
Crystal was known for all the things we dislike about cruising. But we have
mostly experience what we do like about our favorite lines and have ignored the
rest. We were unable to get early dining, so went on the reservation only
dining and while it was a bit of a bother to make 30+ dinner reservations it
has not felt like fixed dining even though we are fixed by our reservations and
always seated in more or less the same spot with the same waiters. That is
another thing that has been a pleasant surprise on Crystal. We have always praised
RSSC for knowing our names within days. We attributed the welcoming, familiar
nature of the cruise experience to the small size but by day 2 aboard Serenity
our cabin stewardess, every waiter we’ve had, every headwaiter and maître d’
knew us by name. It was surprising but in a good way. Well done, Crystal.
Gotta go, polar alert just received! Gotta move laundry to
dryer soon too. More later. Latest alert is polar mom & cub coming up on
port side. I am back at the cabin window with binoculars! Still not on Cineflex
either. Good news is Cineflex is viewable in the laundry room as well! The
captain just announced that the land we are pssing on starboard side is Point
Senate (sounded like Senate, I don’t know how it is actually spelled). He says
it is the Northernmost point on the North American continent. We are at 72N
94W. The clouds have lifted and sunlight and blue skies are visible. The hill
or mountain tops are snow dusted. E-alert for narwhal a mile ahead. I am still
doing laundry and no polar bears ever appeared on Cineflex either so it isn’t
just me missing it. Hopefully Clay is out getting some photos. I don’t know why
he decided laundry couldn’t wait until tomorrow morning! As far as I can tell
the Cineflex never found the narwhal either. The landscape is spectacular
though! I’ve seen the helicopter up, so hopefully the team will have some
photos for us anyway.
Clay only got landscape photos with some birds and some
blurry-looking boulders that were actually muskox. The captain said during his
noon announcement that he didn’t see narwhal either. He said when Shackleton
was ready we would set sail for Beechey Island by morning. The plan is
unexpected adventures off Beechey Island about 10am on 9/1/2016. We sat around
once we reached deep water at the east end of Bellot Strait. We were waiting
for Shackleton to reload all the zodiacs and helicopter, plus they are slower
than us so they always need a head start. While we were waiting we went up to a
packed deck 12 for lunch. The sun was bright and everyone had an appetite. We checked
every table through Tastes, Trident Grill and Lido before finding an empty
table. I was craving pizza. I ordered it at Tastes and picked it up and carried
it to Lido where Clay was eating. We both had desserts there. Right after we
finished lunch the captain was back on the speakers with another announcement that
they could just make out something large on the horizon ahead and it was visible
on radar. He hoped it was a really big iceberg. Our first official iceberg of the
trip. We left the Shackleton to finish packing up and we set off for the horizon.
There were actually 2 great icebergs when we got to them about an hour and a
half later. They both seemed to be traveling west. The tall one was traveling
faster than the flat one, so I guess it was pretty lucky that we arrived when
they were side by side. The captain said these icebergs had probably broken off
from Greenland last year and drifted here. The sun is still shining brightly
and the skies are bright blue and partly cloudy. It hasn’t warmed up today like
it has the past several days.
We have nothing planned the rest of the day except for the recap
& briefing followed by dinner. We have a DVD. So if we have Internet, I’ll
post this now.
photos
photos
