Master Charlys Musings

 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. ...

 Dreadful drizzly and cold day, Morgan and I have opted to stay in the warm today and are sending the Master and Missus out to look at the place and report back. There is a mountain here called the Lady's Bonnet because of its shape, but you cannot see any mountain tops today. The Roald Amundsen is actually docking in the harbour today so everyone will be able to walk off the ship. It will be serviced while here e.g. all waste removed and some supplies to come on board.  Master and Missus sallied forth in the cold drizzly weather and managed to find the museum and  souvenir  shop. It was terribly crowded in there with our people and others from another ship, so Missus bought some cookie cutters and then they came back to the ship for a light lunch. Time was a bit tight as they were going on a coach tour of Sisimiut in the afternoon. The coach picked them up on the dock side. They had an interesting Danish guide. The tour took them all around the town. Sisimiut is the...

 Today we made landfall in Ilulissat the third largest settlement in Greenland. Population 4000. I am pleased to say Master is his old self again and is up for his walking challenge today. My carer is going on a boat trip and we are staying on board in the warm. It is still quite cold outside. There are some quite large Icebergs floating around near our ship. One of them has parked itself behind the ship, so we will have to shuffle around a bit to get out of this bay. The Fjord we are going to see has been made a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is known to have spawned the Iceberg that sunk the Titanic. The Iceberg started forming when David was King of the Israelites 1000 BC. It would have taken 1 to 3 years to reach latitude 45deg where the Titanic was when hit. Only 2% of Icebergs spawned from this glacier reach this latitude. It was probably about 120m/400ft wide and 30m/100ft high. For the trip today M&M don't need to wear those big boots, and the trip across to Ilulissat w...

 This morning Carol Frances the on board Historian gave a fact filled talk about the ill fated Franklin  Expedition of 1845. There was so much to take in so the Missus missed quite a few facts. We were mind boggled by the time she finished. We hadn't realised just how many follow up expeditions there had been to find out what had happened. Franklin had set off with two ships the Erebus and Terror, there was 24 officers and 104 men.  There were two supply ships which were were sent ahead. They had 10 cows and 8000 tins of food, sealed with lead solder. The ships got caught in the ice and it sounds as though things went down hill from there. Franklin died on 11 June 1847. They overwintered at Beechy island t 1845/46. One of the most credible reports of the loss of the Franklin Expedition came from  Dr John Rae from Orkney. He worked for the Hudson Bay Company and had a good rapport with the Inuit. He discovered that the Inuit were trading Franklin artifacts and he aske...

 Today there is to be some small boat cruising, this means people going out on the Zodiacs to see wild life. The place chosen for this activity is Conningham Bay. We watched the early scouts go out to see what they could find. Our group Artic Foxes was one of the first out at 7am. No way! we didn't go! It was bitterly cold at that time and we saw them when they came back absolutely frozen, but they did see 7 Polar Bears feeding on seals and whale. In fact they were sharing food. Other stories we heard later were that people got very wet, cold and it was difficult to take photos. Also one zodiac got stuck on rocks near a bear and another sounded as though its engine was failing. Some people not happy, others ill. However we did get to see a very large Polar Bear from the Expedition Lounge deck 10. It walked round from the bay along a hillside then came down to the water walked in and swam away. The other highlight for today is going through the Bellot Strait. This narrow channel wit...

Today we went to a very interesting talk about Whales, given by Karen. We learnt many fun facts about them. Firstly there are two types of whale, Baleen and Toothed. There are more than 80 different species of Whale. They can use 90% of the oxygen they take in, and they are protected from the cold of the oceans by a thick layer of fat called Blubber. The Baleen Whales are an interesting group, Baleen is made of Keratin and has a stiff layer of ribs on the outside and hair on the inside. They also have a very large tongue for licking off the food they catch on the inside hairs and usually a fairly small throat. This means they can extract the water they take in very quickly. They feed in 3 different ways. The Gray Whale that feeds on the muds at the bottom, so they tend to feed in shallow water. They also feed one sided so their Baleen is shorter one side than the other. Usually the right hand side. Humpback whales however feed on larger prey e.g. Herring, they blow bubbles to surround ...

 Gjoa Haven is situated on King William Island and is another area connected to the ill fated Franklin Expedition in 1845/46. Also the Hudson Bay company had a base there where trading was done with the locals, Furs etc. We got up this morning to find it had been raining overnight and the day didn't look to promising. So it was decided that Morgan and I stay on board today. I was quite pleased as I had a hangover from my Rum tipple from the night before. The Inuit name for the place is Uqsuqtuuq. We have also crossed the border into Nunavit (Our Land) this territory is an Inuit self governing part of Canada. Today we are going on another walking tour around the settlement and hopefully will be able to get into the Heritage centre and they are going to put on a show for us at the Community Hall. Almost as soon as we landed the weather started closing in and it got very wet and mizzerly. We started walking round town with our guide who showed us the Health Centre, the Home for the El...