We were awoken early this morning, no rest for the wicked! The National Geographic Explorer was heading through the narrow passage of Sorgattet, between the island of Danskoya and Spitsbergen, and then into Smeerenburgfjorden. The passage was narrow, but the wildlife was good, with puffins, thick-billed murres, Arctic terns, and even several walrus being spotted before breakfast. As the butter melted on our toast, we anchored just off the island of Amsterdamoya and the once busy settlement of Smeerenberg, literally translated as ‘Blubber town.’
After breakfast we went ashore to explore, with hikes of various lengths being led around the shoreline, observing and documenting the historical remains of the old whaling settlement. We could clearly see the remains of the try-works, where large blubber rendering pots had been fired to reduce the whales hunted in this area to their commercially prized whale oil. There were other fragments of wood, metal and even grave sites discovered, all dating back to the hey-day of whaling here at the site in the early to mid-17th century.
But it wasn’t all about the history. There was a lot of wildlife to see as well, with shorebirds along the tidal zone, amphipods in the shallows, and Arctic terns flying around doing courtship displays and dipping into the water to catch said amphipods. Some groups also had a close encounter with a parasitic jaeger in a close-call dog-fight with a black-legged kittiwake. The dog-fight continued even after the kittiwake had sprayed the ground in front of one group with semi-digested amphipods as it tried to regurgitate enough food to stop the jaeger from harassing it. Phenomenal!
We then headed back to the ship for lunch and cruised northwards towards the edge of the pack ice and 80 degrees north. The afternoon was spent approaching this area, and gently bumping through the sea ice was a new adventure for most. We were on the lookout for wildlife, and of course everyone was especially keen to see polar bears. There were plenty of seals around, which was definitely a good sign, with both ringed and bearded seals in abundance, and we had several excellent views of bearded seals as the captain brought the ship slowly in for close encounters.
However, despite lots of keen eyes on the lookout, there was no sign of a bear…until dinner of course! One of our able-bodied seaman found our first bear during dinner, and as we finished our desserts we were all called to the bridge and outer decks to get our first views of this magnificent animal. We approached cautiously and slowly, and were able to see it swimming from one piece of sea ice to the next, almost bumping into a seal on the way, and then haul out and cross the ice in front of us. It slowly headed towards a bearded seal on the ice, and as it ran the last 60 meters towards the seal we waited with baited breath - but alas the seal was too alert and quickly dipped into the water. The captain relocated the ship and we had another close view of it, before it swam to another large floe where it attempted to catch another two bearded seals, missing both of these! Wow, what an exciting evening. But it wasn’t over. As we left the area and scanned more of the ice edge the scenery, skies, and sea were spectacular, with many of us enjoying time on the outer decks, well into the night…in the land of the midnight sun.
