Peeter and Carol

Blog entry

September 12, 2009

Peeter and Carol Vanker

Several Inuit family groupings from the community of Qikiqtarjuaq joined us on the ship for our barbeque. They were joined by the two RCMP officers assigned to the village. In appreciation they brought some raw narwhal whale skin and blubber for us to eat. It proved interesting and not as fish-tasting as we had anticipated.

A number of the crew, and some of the passengers jumped into the freshly filled ocean water pool on the ship for a “polar bear dip”, some even voluntarily.

We continued sailing along the east coast of Baffin Island and saw many towering icebergs and majestic cliffs. By the way, Baffin Island is the fifth largest island in the world!

At dinner time the sea was quite wavy and a rogue wave hit our ship causing some chairs and table settings to overturn.

We awoke at 4:45 AM to the sound of the anchor dropping. It was 3 degrees C. and snowing lightly in Sunneshine Fjord (spelled correctly).
Before breakfast some went on a challenging hike up a mountainside along the fjord and others hiked around the rocky shore. In the distance we saw the remnants of the DEW “line” (early warning system) established following World War II. We were fortunate that the sun began to shine again.

When we returned to the ship, the ship provided champagne to celebrate the crossing of the Arctic Circle. A huge brunch followed.