02.09.2023. Today is the turn of the Artic foxes to visit the Bridge, at 11.00. The visit lasted about 20 min. It is amazing how everything these days is controlled electronically. The Pilot sits in the middle of the bridge and everything they need for controlling the ship is at hand. The ship also has a Port and a Starboard Bridge. This is to control the ship while docking at a port and the windows give a good view to be able to monitor progress. The Starboard Bridge control is used when the dock and Zodiacs are deployed. The ship doesn't even need to deploy an Anchor when it stops e.g. Sutton Island. It holds its position by satellite navigation. You just press a button. No more damaging the sea bed with Anchors.
The ship also carries out Sonar scans of the seabed where it goes e.g. Sutton Island. These scans can be sent to other ships that might go there and also sent for recording for geographical reasons. Like Sutton Island which hadn't been visited for several years. So this data will be used to update the records.
Finally Morgan and I have our Certificates for crossing the Artic Circle, also our Passports have been stamped and signed by the Captain. Yippee!
Today our ship turned into an inlet called Croker Bay. We travelled quite a way in with Icebergs gently floating by us and at the end there was some fantastic Glaciers that came down to the water. We spent most of the day there. It was peaceful calm and serene. The sun was out, but no icebergs calved from the glacier. The Zodiacs went out to cruise among the Icebergs and those on board were given a tot to drink. Master and Missus had been put off by the stories from Conningham bay zodiac cruising. Though must say it did look more controlled. While we were leaving Croker Bay the tide changed and started to come in, the small icebergs changed direction and started coming in again too.
Clocks forward one hour tonight.
Morgan and I with our Artic Circle Certificates
One of the bergs in Croker bay
One of the glaciers that come into Croker Bay
I think Croker bay is on Devon Island
03.09.2023. Pond Inlet today. The Missus happened to get up at around 4.00am and looked out the window, there was Moonlight on the sea and snow capped land in the background. It looked stunning so she took some photos to show us later. After Breakfast Master and Missus went up to Deck 7 to do some bird watching. This takes place every day between 8.00 and 11.00. Brendan the bird specialist is always there. We are very close to land, so should expect to see several types of sea bird. We weren't disappointed, there were plenty of Thick Billed Murre (a type of Guillimot) Fulmer and Kittiwakes this morning.
The sea was so calm and we were just gliding along. It had been like this for most of the way through the North West Passage. We turned into Pond Inlet, a settlement on Baffin Island. It was here we had a Pilot exchange. The Pilot who had taken us through the Bellot Strait got off and the Pilot who was to take us into Greenland waters got on. I asked Missus when she came back to the suite, if the ship had got stuck on the bottom, as we had tried to leave Pond Inlet as it sounded as though the engines were on full power and the ship was jumping up and down as if it couldn't move. Master said helpfully that the tide must have gone out! I was worried that we all might have to get off to make the ship lighter, Missus said nonsense and soon enough we were on our way.
Today we watched a talk by Ulrich, the Geologist on board, he was talking about mining in the Artic. We watched from our suite, glad that we did, as Ulrich treated us to a comedy routine when he came into the lecture hall. He took the microphone headset from the drawer and put it on, he carefully made sure that the wire went down the back. This in turn connects to the power pack that clips to a waistband. Fine, but then he decided to take his jacket off, this pulled the headset off and then he had to untangle the wire from his jacket. So we were all able to have a giggle at his expense! Mining in the Artic regions is mainly Iron, Nickle and Gold. He told us about surveying for these minerals and working out if there was enough to make mining viable. Russia mines the largest amount of Nickle, but this leaves behind a decimated landscape. Juneau in Alaska has the largest Gold Mine in the north. Master and Missus went to lunch after this talk and we were able to get some more beauty sleep, this putting the clocks forward an hour isn't doing anything for my beauty sleep. Clocks go forward again tonight. A talk that we caught up with later was called 'Artic Ecosystems Services'. An interesting concept, looking at the value of all things Artic. E.g. Tourism, value of habitation and wildlife, to name but a few. This was a very interesting talk but it got cut short and the streaming to our suite stopped at a very interesting point.
04.09.2023, So, a day at sea, we are through the 'Passage' and into Baffin Bay. By comparison, the sea is rough and this has upset Master's tummy again! He had to leave breakfast and come back to the suite. He took two of his travel pills he had with him but they were no good. We had noticed the sea was getting rougher overnight. Master took to his bed and was better lying down. Missus thought the Medical Centre on board might have some better pills so she went down to see. Sure enough they did. They come in packs of two and you can have one every 12 hours. Missus has bought 4 packs because as she has calculated that although we are in Baffin Bay it is influenced by the Atlantic Ocean. Missus made Master take a pill and go back to bed, she also said we could stay in bed as well. Master felt better in the afternoon, but took the 2nd pill. They really work, that was good news.
There was a very interesting talk in the afternoon by Chuck Arnold, a Canadian Historian, who was also on board. He gave a talk about an Englishman called Martin Frobisher 1535-1594. He was a Mariner, Privateer and Pirate, this was during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. It is an interesting tale of a man who set out to find the North West Passage in a ship the 'Gabriel' in 1576, and he thought that he had found gold on Baffin island. He found favour with the Queen, who backed subsequent mining exploration visits to Baffin Island in 1577 and 1578. Frobisher incurred hostilities with the Inuit who lived there. This turned out to be a complete misunderstanding. Frobisher fell out of favour with the Queen, when it was found there was no gold in the rocks sent for smelting. There had probably been Spanish spies on board the ships, England was at war with Spain at the time. So Frobisher carried on with his pirate and privateer sailings and found favour again with the Queen, when he helped England fight the Spanish Armada. For this he was Knighted. Apparently there is much about Frobisher in Spanish Archives and about the Gold Fraud. A book called 'Unknown Shore' by Robert Ruby is about this incident in history. So Frobisher didn't find the North West Passage, and neither did he find Gold! There have been Archaeological visits to the places Frobisher had a base and there are quite a lot of things still there.
Frobisher's Gold.
This rock is what Frobisher thought contained gold.
The rock is metamorphic and consists of Hornblende, Feldspar, Pyroxenes, Mica and Spinel.
The visible layers are Feldspar.
There has been testing of Rocks of this type held in collections in recent years and only 14ppm was found.
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