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Off to the airport 11:30.
Out first full day on the ship was launched at 6:30 with an announcement over the PA system which could be heard anywhere on the ship....
"Good morning, good morning...."
Lucho made most of the announcements. They were clear, concise, and infrequent. And he always started them with ambiguous "get your attention" words. You never knew if the announcement was going to be that the dining room was ready with our expected lunch, or whether he was getting our attention to tell us that a polar bear had been sighted, if we wanted to turn out and look at it. Fun!
The 6:30 "Good morning" was to announce that whales had been sighted.
We had excellent views of at least one blue, and some fin whales... the second largest species. Similar, but the dorsal bump is different between the two.
9am: The soon- to- become- familiar morning "this is what we plan for the day" briefing.
I admire the people in charge of our experiences in many ways... but perhaps the greatest praise should go to their ability to work with what "life" threw at them. "Plans" had to be endlessly revised, due to many factors. And yet, we were always "busy", and usually unaware that what we did might actually be what was once plan "D".
(Photo at left: Just after 10am)
About noon, as we sailed into a fjord, I saw a white animal on a spit of land at the harbor mouth... a long way off. Mistook it for a bear, but didn't make fool of myself. It was my first Svalbard reindeer.
"Reindeer" and "caribou" are two names for one animal. Linneaus named it Rangifer tarandus in 1758, and the name has suvived the machinations of university types needing doctoral theses.
The Svalbard reindeer sub-species is slightly smaller than the typical reindeer, as you would expect from their very northerly range. They were quite fearless, and tended to approach us, apparently curious.
13:40- 17:15... Went ashore for the first time. First experience of a routine which would become familiar... dress for the polar chill and wind. Batten down for journey in Zodiac. To "mud room". Land. Ditch life jacket. Walk. Then reverse.
Strolled along foreshore beneath a typically awesome extended escarpment. We were hoping to climb up the flank of the lateral moraine of a glacier, get some elevation, but that wasn't to be. Not a problem.
Saw a fresh track of a fox, the closest I came to seeing that cute animal, alas. This was on part of the beach washed by the tide, so missed the fox by less than 6 hours. Guess I have to visit again!
Our walk was on the left flank of the above, as you can see in...
... and then we doubled back, walked away from the glacier, and a little ways up the hill that faced onto the fjord. Saw reindeer, innumberable birds, in partilar had good views of a barnacle goose, and an arctic skua (parasitic jaeger).
A wonderful day, already... but more was to come...
Ship went to the front of a superb glacier in the evening. Several nice calvings took place while we watched.
Dinner was a "private party" in the "Chart Room" for the passengers on the adventure through the auspices of Cornell's Adult University, some of whom I had traveled with previously.
After such a day, and with the sun still high... as it would always be... no sense of "dusk" or "dawn" any time in the 24 hours... getting to bed was hard. (I'm not good at going to bed at the best of times.) Puttered about with measurements of sun's elevation. But brain was gradually shutting down, and I eventually turned in. Slept a little better than usual, for a welcome change. (The exercise ashore, even if gentle, probably helped, I suppose. (No shore expeditions were rigorous, even allowing for the effort of tacking rocky or moss- boggy ground in Wellingtons. I had "proper" trail shoes... but they just didn't "work" in the scheme of things.)
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