There’s Nothing To Do, There’s Too Much To Do

We left Nome Alaska on Wednesday evening, sailing through the Bering Strait, north to the Chukchi Sea, through the Artic Ocean and into the Beaufort Sea. It is Saturday morning, and we are still off the northern coast of Alaska but when we draw the curtains open, we find ourselves sailing through ice fields. Theoretically we are in the Northwest Passage, but we don’t really sail back into Canadian waters until Sunday. On Monday, depending on the weather, immigration officers will fly into meet us at Hershel Island and clear us for entry into Canada. (Got to keep the Somalian refugees out along with drug importers and terrorists I suppose) If the officers are not able to land in Hershel, we will have to stay aboard and wait until they are able to catch up with us later when the weather improves. The fog and mist lifted today and with ice all around us the Norwegian captain skillfully navigates us safely through with the aid of a Canadian ice pilot who joined us when we left Nome. You could lounge around all day doing nothing, but I get anxious that I can’t fit it all in. There must be between 15 – 20 professionals on the expedition team. Everything from biologists to archeologists, professional photographer, kayak leaders, cultural liaison Inuit person, two ornithologists, scientists, a historical information lecturer, expedition leaders and a host of others who probably put on an average of five to six lectures daily. The outside temperature has dropped to 5 Celsius and one must make the mad dash from the heated confines of the cabin to the outside hot tub and infinity pool. Then there is a sauna and three restaurants to choose from. One wouldn’t want to miss any mealtimes. I haven’t had time to take a nap or pick up a book, but this is the one week in the year that is the most possible to navigate the Passage. Next week, winter will start to creep back in, and the ice will start to block everything up once again. No wonder the initial discovery of the Passage was so difficult as the seasonal time constraints to navigate are so limited and the initial discovery expeditions would have to spend years being ice bound during the winter season. Tomorrow is Sunday. Maybe I’ll sleep in. Not likely. If you want to find our location, copy and paste or click of the following link and look for the ship labled AM in the Canadian arctic https://global.hurtigruten.com/map/