Sea days are learning days with time to soak in new ideas and take some deep breaths. Today, even though we stayed on board physically, we traveled far and wide through the presentations we saw.
Carl Erik Kilander took us aboard Viking ships to discover they could travel the same speed as this vessel: 14 knots. Vinnie Butler helped us explore the graves of the Greenland mummies and introduced us to the families that awed the world when they were discovered buried in the hillside. Vinnie included some essentials of ancient fashion too: Thule hotpants, oh my!
By afternoon, the documentary Chasing Ice enthralled us and photographer Rich Reid came soon after with his pictures from National Geographic assignments. Our Global Perspectives guest speaker, Peter Hillary, took us high into the mountains on every continent and showed some dramatic images from this year’s avalanche disaster on Mount Everest.
Through lectures and meals and teatime, the sea rolled on by. We took turns up on the bridge looking out for whales, and we were rewarded with glacial ice. As we approach Disko Bay and tomorrow’s destination of Ilulissat, the icebergs are coming closer and closer together. Their pure white stood out beautifully against the grey ocean and overcast sky.
Northern fulmars, which are our constant companions up here, continued to patrol by the bow and stern. We also found many groups of dovekies, the little auks. By their presence, we guess we’ve come into waters rich in plankton.
We have now officially left Canada and the territory of Nunavut. We are back on Greenlandic time, and back in the ice. The icebergs all around us now are from the most active glacier in the northern hemisphere. We’ll be up close and personal with it by the time we wake up tomorrow.
