22.08.2023 Tuesday Ships propulsion and a swell sea

  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 gentle swell. There was however a storm coming up behind us and the sea could get a little rougher.

We went for a walk around the 150m track on deck 11. We did 8 circuits of it in the rain. That was 1.2km, planning on doing the same tomorrow.

We saw a large flock of Eider Ducks from the explorer lounge, an all female group. Not seen any males yet, we keep looking! We were informed last night that on 24th August we make landfall on Herschel Island as we will have passed back into Canadian territory and Customs officers will be coming aboard. Apart from a couple of visits to Greenland the rest of our trip is in Canadian Territory.

The Master has seen a book about Whales he would like. We were looking at it in the Science Centre this evening. The Master also came back to our cabin with an Alaskan Brown Bear toy made from recycled plastic bottles. There was a unanimous vote to call him Harbottle. It means though that Morgan and I have to share the night time blanket with him. He smells funny, but I suppose we will get used to him.

There are still some largish pieces of Ice floating by.

A swell sea and white horses!


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