Fog!
After half a day’s cruise leaving beautiful Svalbard behind, we arrived to Bear Island. The entire island was covered in fog so dense that we could not see the island itself even though we were only a couple of ship lengths away.
We made a brave attempt to launch Zodiacs to go on a cruise, passing the amazing bird cliffs with thousands and thousands of birds starting to nest for this season. Unfortunately, the wind and swells coming in from the south altered our plans.
Bear Island is an isolated island situated between Svalbard and Norway, although belonging to Svalbard geographically. The island attracts numerous amounts of seabirds with cliffs ideal for nesting and almost no predators. There is also a weather station on the north side of the island that is manned all year.
We changed our plans and filled the afternoon with knowledge and talks instead. Our enthusiastic, bird-loving guests got their fair share, as we had lots of seabirds around the ship for the entire trip towards the northern part of Norway.
Our ice-loving captain Martin Graser talked about the making of National Geographic Resolution and the wonders of this ship, which was very much appreciated.
In the passage, we also encountered several whales in a feeding frenzy, as well as dolphins out hunting. It is always worth keeping an eye to the sea. There are a lot of things happening there that we do not want to miss!
