When Lisa’s voice calls out through the PA system, it is only 7:00 in the morning, but the message she delivers, is strong enough to send us all out of our beds heads first, the message is clear: BELUGAS!
Out on deck we are met by a fantastic view, not just of the white whales in the shallows, but of a stunning fjord scenery, here at 77 North. The belugas turns out to be a big group, mixed up of both adults and calves, some appear to be newborns, identified by their small size and that they are gray and not white. While enjoying the sights of these strange and fascinating animals, we spot one of our more regular visitors, another polar bear is in sight. This one is clearly in a worse place than the ones we have seen in the ice, and it is stressed, so we let it be and continue on our way west into the fjord.
Sailing west the scenery just keeps getting more and more stunning, the light and the flat calm seas makes for fantastic photo ops, and more than one SD card is filled this morning. While we are cruising along, a guest spots a black spot on an ice flow. This turns out to be a very relaxed bearded seal, that, with a bit of “sneaking,” lets us come very close. While we are enjoying the seal, someone spots another polar bear on the far shore, so we head on over. And here we have a mother bear and her two cubs, just relaxing in the warm weather just above the beach. Again our amazing bridge team with Captain Skog in command “sneaks” our way closer, they must be the best in the game, because they manage to slip the ship as close as was physically possibly (and here I mean every word! They put the ship on the beach on purpose to gain those last feet!) and even with the National Geographic Explorer and 150 cameras clicking, the mother bear only sat there and looked at us, while her cubs stayed close to their mother. Yet another fantastic encounter under our belt!
After the adrenalin settled Paul, our undersea specialist, had his kayak briefing and Ian had a superb lecture about the birds of the Arctic… and all of that before lunch.
After lunch Lisa gives two possibilities: a Zodiac cruise to a distant glacier or our first kayak outing onto the flat glassy sea in the fjord. There are very few words to describe how fabulous the conditions are on this day with no wind, 10 degrees Celsius, and magical scenery with icebergs, snow-covered mountains, and glaciers. The hotel manager even came out to make sure that we all could get a warm refreshment in form of Glüwine! After all of that, it is time for the daily Recap with Lisa and the rest of the staff members, here it is revealed that we are now on our way north, all the way to try our luck at 80 degrees north, and if the luck we have had today continues, 80 degrees should be within reach!
