Master Charlys Musings

 Well its a lovely sunny day and we are going ashore to day at Sutton Island. It is a small uninhabited island but it has been regularly used by the Inuit for a long time. The first expedition crews went over to the island at about 5am,  to check for any dangerous animals and to set up walking routes for us to follow. There is a lot of archaeology there. So we must keep to the right of the red flags along the route. The Expedition Team  are  along the route to show us interesting things that might have appeared. Some of them carry Rifles in case of Bears.  Apparently no one has visited the island for 8 years so there could be some more archaeology visible. Our group Artic Foxes is going over at 10.40 so we had time to watch some of the other groups climbing to the top and back. Some people are mad enough to want to have an Artic dip in the sea when they get back to the Landing site. I an glad the Master and Missus aren't that mad. We will all keep dry hooray. Mo...

 Today we are hoping to land at Ulukaktok, Victoria island. We are on the West coast and in the Northwest Territories. We are really looking forward to this as the locals (the Copper Inuit) have prepared visits to the schools, Heritage Centre and are also putting on a show for us in the gym. Drummers, dancers, and Artic sports. There will also be souveniers to buy, locally made arts and crafts and they would like us to pay in Canadian Dollars. Good job the Missus has bought some with her. We  found out we are also in Polar Bear country. I am scared for their safety. I am staying on board.  This is also another place that another expedition visited while looking for the ill fated Franklin Expedition, this one was led by a person called Inglesfield and the Hudson Bay Company opened a shop there! Due to speed restrictions we arrive late, and our landing time now is 15.30 from deck 3 the Expedition Launch Deck. Announcement a bit later, Landing today has been refused because ...

 Phew! glad the sea is calmer today, Master slept well and is feeling better. Though I think we are still in the Beaufort sea and we had just been through another Ice field. When we opened up the curtains a sizable chunk of Ice floated by. We soon left this ice field behind and continued to make good progress. Ship making good progress at 14knots There is an Inuit word of the day and todays is 'Siku' pronounced (SeeKoo). It means Sea Ice. Fred has been working on Plan 'B' for today and it has been decided to go to Smoking Hills at around 18.00hrs. This apparently wasn't on our original itinerary. I am glad it is now as my carer says they are magic hills and are permanently on fire. The rocks are quite young and the land is still being created.  Before we go into the smoking hills we had a visit to the Engine Control room at 11.30. It was very interesting to see the controls. Also amazing that everything is controlled electronically, not only the propulsion of the sh...

 Well I am having to put 2 days together because my writer forgot that things did happen on the 23rd as well. In fact we had a very interesting lecture about Humans in the Artic and What Makes a Bear a Bear. Firstly the humans in the Artic. With climate change and the visible ancient shorelines, it has been discovered that there were humans in the artic 5000 years ago. The Sivullirmiut were the first people to live in the Artic, this was pre Dorset and the climate was warmer. With perma frost melting and erosion, various stones were coming to the surface and they found evidence of habitation from 2500 years ago on Banks Island. These were nomadic people who moved season to season using pack dogs. A skeleton of one of these dogs was found and it had a very flattened backbone, this was caused by carrying items from site to site. Hearths were also found. About 1000 years ago the climate cooled and people disappeared from this area. The next people to move in were the Thule, they arriv...

  Master and Missus had to get the Bio security form signed by 12 noon. They couldn't sign it yesterday as it wasn't at the station where they had their backpacks vacuumed. The Expedition Team had wondered why they were 50 signatures short! We had a very interesting talk about the ships propulsion. The Chief Engineer is obviously very proud of the ship as it runs entirely on electric. It has its own power station on board in the form of 4 large diesel engines that run on regular diesel, not the heavy oil that older cruise ships run on. Also it has a very efficient exhaust system.  It uses 2 engines at a time to charge the large batteries that run the ship. The 4 engines are in pairs, in separate rooms. Its green credentials are why this ship can go through the North West Passage, and not others. Also the Roald Amundsen is a tiny ship, it only takes 500 passengers. We were informed by the Captain that since leaving Nome we had travelled 685 nautical miles and that there was a g...

 This morning there was panic stations, Master couldn't find his Carabinier watch. We had been given a Hurtigruten Carabinier watch each, it was in our Suite when we arrived. The Missus had been wearing hers since she took it out of the box. Our suite and belongings were turned inside out to find it. Morgan and I feared we were next. Eventually it was found amongst his Lordships pants of all places. Phew! Master and Missus went up to the Expedition Lounge (deck 10) this morning to catch up with blogging. The Missus is happy she has managed to get the all important app to work on her phone, she is very happy now. Breakfast was in the Lindstrom as usual. Morgan and I went to join them in the Lounge a bit later. We worked so hard that we didn't realise how the time was going, and we had to stop to go down for the lecture at 14.00-14.45 called 'How to Spot a Whale'. Most of us had done that already the day before. It was Fin Whale the Missus saw yesterday. While this lectur...

 We have a very busy day today. There are compulsory activities and introductory talks. When we collected our new jackets yesterday, we were given a Velcro label to put onto the Velcro receptor on our sleeve. They have a name of an Arctic Wild Animal, we are Arctic Foxes. Some activities will involve timings for the various animal groups. Morgan and I stayed in bed and the Master and Missus went off to breakfast at the Lindstrom Restaurant, which is for Suite guests only. The app is still not working on the Missus's phone, so she is having to rely on Masters phone for the menu. We are learning that ALL information is sent through the app. The days activities are as follows:- 8.00-11.00 wildlife watching from observation Deck 6. This activity you can stay for as long as you want. We saw a Short Tailed Shearwater flying across the gentle waves. There were Auks as in a type of Puffin. We didn't stay too long as we wanted to do some more exploring of the ship. Also we saw a skein o...

 Suitcases and our selves in the lobby of the Wall Centre Hotel at 07:45am. We were on the 16th floor, lovely views from the window. Cases loaded on Green Coach 1, Passengers loaded on Green Coach 1, and off to the airport. No major technical hitches getting through security, just the pain of taking our shoes off and getting computers out of our carry on bags again. Hurtigruten had chartered 3 planes to get us all to Nome. We are on the 3rd charter flight to Nome.  Lovely spacious seat on the plane. It is a smallish plane a little over 100 seats. Lovely air crew, who were very helpful and give us the information we asked for, so that I can keep my milage up to date in my Passport. Laurie (Air Crew) took a picture of us all on the plane. Morgan and I enjoyed watching the world go by through the window. It was sunny above the clouds and the Mountains that penetrated above the clouds were amazing. We are sure we saw Denali the biggest mountain in Alaska. Some people still Call it...

  Lovely comfortable bed here in hotel room. Don't know where the Master and Missus are going to sleep. They are busy getting the right labels on the luggage at the moment. We are Green 1. All the passengers for the cruise are staying here. The organising for the onward movement of the passengers is going like a well oiled machine. Being Green 1 we have to be up in time for Breakfast, that starts at 5.00am.  We need to have our suitcases in the lobby by 7.45 am. Number 1 means we are on Coach 1, simple!  Morgan and I had to move over and make way for M&M, did not sleep well as body clocks out of sync. They got up early and went down for breakfast at 5am. We got a lie in, Yipee!

Well hello everybody. Its been a few days since we set out and I have just got myself up and running at last.  Last Friday morning at 9.00am, we were picked up by a super black Audi Limousine. We had a very comfortable ride to Heathrow Airport. We arrived in plenty of time for our flight, good job we did. It seemed to take forever to get through check in and Security. Don't mention Security! It was sooo embarrassing. After getting the Missus sorted with Airport Assistance we got round to Security. We had to get our Laptops out of our bags, and make sure anything metal was in the trays provided to go through the scanner. I sailed through in my travel bag, then the Missus had to walk through the scanner. Oh dear the alarms went off and she realised too late that she had her wallet in her pocket. It was 'Sit there, take your shoes off, and get your wallet out put them in this box to go through the scanner'. Then, horror of horrors she had to go stand in the Body Scanner, with ...

16th August 2023  Here’s a photo of Morgan Moose and Me with our cases and camera primed and ready to go.  Masters mate Morgan has managed to get a place on this trip as well.

 16th August 2023 My carer says we are all packed and ready to go no w. We leave on Friday morning, need to be up early. We are so looking forward to this Holiday. I hope to post some photos on the blog for you all to see. Maybe it will be the Master looking a bit green.   In Vancouver there is an ice cream parlour that sells the best ice cream, including Black Sesame flavour. So I hope we go there on the day we arrive.  Ta ta for now, early night got to help the missus clean the house tomorrow.