At Sea
After Leaving Tromso last night we woke up to a full day at sea on our way to Bear Island. The wind was about 20 knots and the seas were calm at only about 2 to 3 meters in height. With gulls circling the ship we had a lot of opportunities to take good and close up pictures.
At about 1:40p.m. we reached the ‘drop off’ where the sandy bottom drops from 483 meters to over 1700 meters. Due to this drop, the waters here are nutrient rich and will usually attract larger marine mammals. Just as the water depth started to drop one of the naturalists spotted a blow spout from a whale. The shipped turned a little to get a closer look and then everyone on the bridge saw a second spout. A fin whale and a humpback whale were both feeding together at this drop off. The whales stayed near the ship for about one hour and afterwards people were proudly showing the pictures they got of the two feeding whales.
This evening everyone went through decontamination in preparation for landing at Bear Island as well as for the rest of the trip. Shortly after dinner, we arrived and dropped anchor for the night at the south side of Bear Island where we are protected from the wind. As soon as we arrived we had Albatross and Brunnich’s Guillemots circling the ship.
One thing that is noticeable since we left Tromso is that the air temperature has started to drop and from this point out will probably continue to drop.
