Around 6pm yesterday we set sail. After exiting Crocker Bay,
we sailed across Lancaster Sound which was still rough and during the night we
sailed through a zigzagging fjord (Navy Board) to settle for the day past Pond
Inlet on Tay Sound. We drew a goose egg on the unexpected adventures today.
According to Tim Soper last night, today is the last time unexpected adventures
are offered. I am not sure if it because the Shackleton leaves us at Pond Inlet
or what. I know that is where all the helicopters, kayaks, zodiacs and fast
boat live so that would make sense but we haven’t been told. We had an envelope
on our mail clip last night. It contained a letter notifying us that they had
canceled our complimentary community visit in Sisimiut. It said everyone could
go ashore to the pier and use a complimentary shuttle bus transfer to the
historic quarter where we could use the enclosed complimentary admission ticket
to the Sisimiut Museum. This is the 2nd of the complimentary tours
that has been canceled so far. The 1st was Dutch Harbor which worked
out fine since we were docked there. Since we are anchored and tendering in to
a pier somehow in Sisimiut, it seems a bit more complicated. Thus far no one
has been able to leave the ship at will unless we’ve been docked. All regular
tendering and zodiac tendering have required a booking (complimentary or paid)
with assigned timed tickets to leave the ship. There is no mention of this in
the letter and the museum ticket is not timed. We’ll find out. The letter says
the pier is about a 1 mile walk to the Old Quarter but that it is steep and
involves stair climbing. The incentive bonus for walking is that there may be a
few craft outlets open along the way. I’m not sure that is promising enough for
me to want to walk but if the transportation shortage is severe enough, I can
hope that it is promising enough. The letter also offers another strenuous tour
that is new, a Scenic Lake Walk for 2 hours and $69. Pass.
72 degrees 15.92’ N 78 degrees 54.30’W Today we are
positioned with the Shackleton in a tangle of mountainous islands. Some were
snowcapped when we arrived, the rest have gotten dusted as we’ve set here
today. It started out at 27F and the deck around 7 had a good coating of snow.
The sun has tried with limited success to break through as the snow clouds/ice
fogs have traveled over and around us. The temperature at noon was 36F which
was the warmest we’ve seen in days. I suspect there must have been a ray of
sunshine on the sensor at noon as it snowed on the ship during lunch.
Clay was up early this morning for the treadmill. He came
back around 7am and woke me up to see the snow outside on the Promenade Deck
and surrounding mountains. I checked the TV’s navigation map to find that we
had passed in the night through the S-shaped passage north of Pond Inlet that
had looked like some of our most scenic sailing in satellite maps. We were
approaching Pond Inlet and passed by and kept threading between islands. We
stopped here about 9am for the day of unexpected adventures. But, none for us.
I went to Gentle Yoga. I had thought to go to the 10am Hollywood Theater movie
but we walked by there this morning to find a sign saying that the morning and
afternoon movies had been canceled. It was not too surprising as when they use
all the theaters and lounges as staging areas for adventures, they can’t use
them for shows. There was Chair Yoga at 10:15am which I sometimes attend and I
thought I would today. I went to the Ladies’ Room outside Palm Court before
yoga and as I was washing my hands, Kitty the art instructor came out and
greeted me by name. I was surprised that she remembered me or my name from the
2 sculpting class I attended. She did remember me though and very pointedly
asked me to come for 10am beaded bracelet making at 10am. I made an excuse of
not having time to sign up in advance in the Library per Reflections and she
told me not to worry about that. I told her I would see her later meaning to be
deliberately vague and she got happy like I was agreeing to go to the class.
So, I went to the class and made a souvenir bracelet that I will never wear but
I had nothing else better to do with that hour so it is good.
Clay and I caught up in the cabin before noon. The captain
did not make an announcement today. We went up to Tastes for lunch because we
wanted to sit on the starboard side to see the day’s operations with
Shackleton. Our port side may be a more scenic view based on the morning’s
Cineflex camera operations but all the human activity today is starboard. We
haven’t seen any animals today, hardly even any birds. I don’t know whether all
our noisy activity has scared everything off or whether there just isn’t much
living here. The other option is that all the wildlife has cleared out in
preparation for winter. At lunch we overheard a couple who’d gone out today say
their guide told them that 2 weeks from now this entire bay would be frozen
solid.
Today Serenity held a Grand Gala Buffet at noon in Crystal
Plaza. I read the menu. We saw the buffet tables set up when we went to the
main dining room to make 7:15pm reservations at Tastes for tonight. Clay went
at the scheduled 11:30 photo op opening but we avoided the area for lunch. The
past couple of meals with the main waiter we’ve had in the dining room have
been longer and longer affairs. The first few times we had any of the 3 wait
staff teams that make up our seating area, we were served promptly when
skipping to the main course. With 2 of the 3 waiters that is still the case. In
a twist, the head waiter has taken to giving us a preferred 2-top by a window
when he can and the waiter there has stopped serving us promptly. He waits and
coordinates all his tables now instead of serving each as they come in. Since
the entire area is by reservation only, people can come in anytime. So we have
found ourselves sitting at our empty table for 45 minutes or so waiting for our
first course. Last night I had the regular filet steak and mashed potatoes with
béarnaise and the potatoes were cold and the béarnaise had a skin on it. The
steak wasn’t hot but tasted fine, I was just put off the whole meal by that
time though. I didn’t like tonight’s menu and didn’t really want to take a
chance on repeating that experience, so off to Tastes we’ll go tonight. We find
the waiter who is doing this to be personable and charming so we’d hate to have
to comment about this to him or anyone else. I mean he knows he’s doing it.
Hopefully, he’ll figure out that we know he’s doing it and that we don’t
appreciate it and he’ll stop it on his own.
There is a galley tour at 4:30pm. I am not interested. Clay
is but is put off by the fact that the entire ship is invited to come meet at
Crystal Plaza for it! I told him he should go ahead and go assuming that only a
fraction of people will come and then they be taken in small groups. I don’t
know if he’ll go or not. He is napping this afternoon since we have nothing
else scheduled until the 5pm briefing and recap.
I realize the above paragraph may be construed as
inaccurate. Let me clarify. These is nothing else for us this afternoon. Here
is what is in Reflections for the afternoon: Computer University @ Sea, Memoir
Writing, ZUMBA, Duplicate & Social Bridge, USC Digital Filmmaking, Odyssey
Art at Sea (beaded bracelets again), afternoon tea time, BINGO and a 4 author
book-signing event. The Cineflex camera will be back on for the afternoon so
after I brush my teeth, I will settle in front of the window and TV with the
views and my cross stitch. Miyako will really not give me another kit until I
completely finished the first one I picked up. I hate to complain, but I will
because at these prices this seems a pettily restrictive policy given that last
year Oceania allowed a kit a week for months as long as I was actually working
on a kit, whether I ever actually finished it or not. When I have finished
here, I expect Miyako’ll tell me I cannot have another because I won’t be able
to finish it before departing! I mean does she actually expect me to “turn in”
my work when I finish it? I expect to take them home! Finished or work in
process. We’ll see.
Clay has gone to the galley tour. I have spent the entire
afternoon watching the Shackleton more or less full time on Cineflex. I guess there
was nothing else to see. At times this afternoon, visibility has been down to
50 feet or so due to snow, fog, clouds or whatever the meteorological term for
this phenome is. They ceased helicopter operations first as the weather
changed. Serenity worked hard with thrusters to maintain position as white caps
increased as well as snow fall and fog. I assume the wind must have either
increased or changed direction blowing in a new weather system. Then they
collected zodiacs. I watched a fast boat approach from the port side in very
low visibility and heavy sideways snow. That had to be an unexpected adventure!
It was the first sign of life I’d seen out the port side all day except
helicopters early and deck walkers preening at their reflections in our window.
The last thing I saw besides Shackleton was a group of kayakers still out
paddling out beyond the Shackleton! Visibility has been so low that I don’t
know if the Cineflex couldn’t see them until that cleared few minutes or he was
just more interested in activity aboard Shackleton. I guess those kayakers were
having an unexpected adventure too! I can’t imagine what the appeal of arctic
kayaking could be without any signs of wildlife. I actually hope that they and
the fast boat saw something that we didn’t here since they paid for it dearly
and in discomfort. I guess otherwise it is just like northernmost American
golf, bragging rights.
Back from the recap/briefing. The saw some snow geese and
some small invertebrates in the water. Nothing else. Some had a better look at
an iceberg we had caught corner glimpses of all day. Oh well. We expect to sail
soon after 6pm. Captain says we should be anchored about 20 miles away off Pond
Inlet by 8 to 9pm unless there is another boat in the anchorage and then we’ll be
cruising back and forth on Eclipse Bay all night. We have 8:30am departure
tickets tomorrow so we should be in our anchorage early tomorrow at any rate.
Tim Soper showed a photo of the expedition team we’ll be picking up tomorrow
for the next segment. They had installed a distances signpost as a Crystal gift
to Pond Inlet at the viewpoint. They were standing in fresh snow so it looked
like they had more than here. We had been told that this passage had been timed
for the exact end of summer right before the door closed and winter arrived and
here we are as the North West Passage door is closing. The helicopters leave
tomorrow from Pond Inlet for their base in Yellowknife. The Shackleton will
stay with us tomorrow for planned shore excursions with zodiacs, fast boat and
kayaks. It will sail ahead to Greenland since it can only make 12 knots and we
will linger for a last day (without shore trips or adventures) in the fjords of
Baffin Island before a day sailing across Davis Strait to Greenland. One of the
naturalists who spoke today pointed out that we are now in the Atlantic and had
crossed from the Pacific. He didn’t specify where that happened but I still
think it must have been Bellot Strait. This seems pretty important and I’m
surprised no one made a bigger deal or at least a point about it.
