Tuesday Aug 8, 2023
Hi all! Well today was a triple OMG day! We did a cool expedition, it was a beautiful, sunny day and biggest of all, we did the POLAR PLUNGE!!!
I’ll get to the plunge in a bit but we woke up to a sunny morning without a cloud in the sky (but still chilly!). Today’s excursion was a Zodiac boat ride around Bear Island (also called Bjornoya). It’s the southern most island within the archipelago of Svalbard. It lies half way between Longyearbyen and the North Cape of Norway. It was discovered by Dutch explorers in 1596 and declared a nature reserve in 2002 thus there is no commercial activity such as coal mining, fishing and whaling.
The Zodiac ride took us up close to all these beautiful tall cliffs where tons of birds were nesting and flying about. We saw lots of guilemots, kittiwakes and even some Atlantic puffins that have the colorful toucan like beaks. Many of them were nesting on the cliff edge all lined up together. What was interesting about the area was that the waters were a beautiful blue and there were some sand beaches that made it almost seem like we were in the Greek isles (except for the temps!).
After the expedition we quickly changed clothes to do the polar plunge! Kathy decided she was too cold natured to try it but she was nice enough to be our photographer for the event. So Carol, Dan and I took the plunge! I’d have to say it was the most invigorating thing I’ve ever done and definitely the coldest water I’ve ever experienced (one man said this water was colder than Antarctica’s!). But it was soooo fun! They put a harness around you, you jumped off the platform and they helped you get back on the boat. Of the 120 people on our ship, only 35 did the plunge. We were talking that given how isolated the cove was where we were and the fact that only small ships like ours can get in there that we are probably in a small group of people that have swam in that water! Where’s my certificate of achievement! Lol.
In the afternoon we went to listen to two interesting speakers. The first was all about the various Arctic seabirds. We’ve actually seen many of them on this trip but the one that is most amazing to me is the Arctic Tern. That little guy flies all the way from the Arctic where we’re at to Antarctica! He said they live an average of 30 years and during their lifetime they fly the equivalent of flying to the moon and back three times! That’s incredible!! Ya gotta love nature!
The second speaker talked all about the Norwegian explorer named Roald Amundsen. To be honest, I had never really heard of him but what a fascinating life he had. He was the first man to reach the South Pole in Antarctica, and to also travel the Northwest Passage and fly over the North Pole. There was a sad story about him racing a British explorer to the South Pole and while they started on the same day, Amundsen made it there 33 days before him while the British explorer and all his men died trying. Those explorers were some tough cookies!
We then had a nice dinner and listened to Chase on the piano in the evening. He’s our new favorite cruise piano player. Tomorrow we are on to the port of Honingsvag, on the North Cape of Norway, where we’ll be back to traditional cruising and doing excursions. Happy Tuesday to all!
PS: I’ll try posting some pictures soon!
The Wandering Italian 