August 5

Glad you liked installment #1.

Diane – socks only in the gum boots. Fit matters . Franz is now crystal clear on this concept.

Leslie – both Robin and Juan Carlos are aboard. Juan lectured on the tale of the Erupting Earth this morning. With that accent and smile, he can tell me about quantum physics. I've sent both of them your regards & they send their best to you and Brad.

Installment 2 – Aug 5

ARCTIC BOW WOW

Aug 4

We're rounding the bend at 78 degrees latitude north. There's a lecture today on beginning photography underway. Hah! The instructor has just owned up to not even knowing how photoshop works.

If they want a sell out audience, offer the “Nature at the Nanosecond Shutter Speed Setting” course. This trip is the Iron Man competition for Wildlife Photography .. try steadying a camera with birds zooming around and the swells jostling the zodiac in all directions. Adjusting one's expectations to getting one or two clear pictures is a must. Should the photos fail even those modest expectations, it's time to launch a breakthrough movement in the photographic arts world .. the dawn of a new photographic age .. Arctic Abstracts in the Twilight of the Midnight Sun.

It turns out Captain Kirk (a/k/a Dick of Dick and Sharon) has the same camera I use, minus a spare battery. Voila! We have a spare and he's got great pictures. Gotta love a group win when you can get one!

Hotu Matua carried us yesterday with Chris from Toronto (he of the booming voice, eh) at the helm. He kept us up to speed on the various birds who nest at Bear Island. The kittiwakes also serve as food for the gulls and the skuas. Brayden saw his first kill, as a skua feasted on a recently dispatched kittiwake juvenile. We traveled through natural water caves and tunnels.

Further afield, we toured The Russian VLVC (very large vodka container), shipwrecked in 2008,. The arctic takes few prisoners and deals with them expeditiously .. the shipwreck has been reduced to a VLC (very large cadaver).

We got the signal from the bridge to turn back, as the sky had spawned the loveliest cloud, swirling and flowing, as the fog was rolling in behind it. It reminded me of the glorious Northern lights … perhaps this was a display of Northern twilights, just for us.

The guillemot bird's family life is an interesting story. Mothers take off to feed themselves when the chicks hatch, leaving their care to the fathers. The fathers feed the chicks in the nest just until the wings are developed enough to break a fall but not yet strong enough for the chick to fly. The fathers then swim in the water below the nests, calling their chicks to literally jump in. Once the youngsters take the big leap, they stay in the water together. We were lucky enough to be there just at the fathers returned. The adults formed a mass Chris called a 'raft' around the flock's young. The youngsters know they must quickly find their fathers, so erupt with their high-pitched calls. The parents fervently call back, as adults surround the young and wait for the fathers to arrive. The sea was aswirl with the sea bird movement and so alive! Chris held us steady as two of the babies swimming right up to their fathers drifted towards the zodiac, confirming with more calls they had each found the right parent and child.

Nature is amazing in these moments .. think of the long odds, tempered by determination and massing of the flocks, faced by the sea birds in raising their young to maturity.

Today we were set for a wet landing to hike on Kapp Lee at Doloritesnesset (Dolomites = Italy (m as in Mediterannean) Dolorites = Northernmost NORGES (r as in Reindeer)) in Edgeoya (Edge Island in English; have some fun and play 'stump Spellcheck' with that one). Our expedition team spent the morning making and breaking plans. The final plan? BOW WOW – Bears Or Walruses While On the Water. A one hour zodiac tour around the bay.

Two – count 'em, two – polar bears were near the landing site and five young walruses were curled up, asleep like puppies, on the shore. Captain Golubev personally drove our zodiac, Norgeskjold, for this outing. His rule: “Either bears on the island or visitors .. never both”. He reminded us .. immediately .. not a PEEP out of you people. Quiet reigned. The bear was sound asleep near the radio tour in the bay. We did get one picture with his eyes half open. Our Austrian guide provided quiet commentary, until the Captain said “Walrus in the Water”. A much older walrus (how do I know? BIG tusks) was floating around, taking in the odd sight of hunters in red camouflage and black rubber boats. Brayden was running the video while we were all on our knees, trying for a perfect picture. The Captain more than did his part .. does he know how to give a smooth zodiac ride or what? He carefully orchestrated the various zodiacs so everyone got as close as was safe to get their pictures, and he managed to barely jostle the boat. He is, for good reason, our hero of the day.

We have movies on demand to keep us entertained. I'm enjoying watching 'Nanook of the North' – the silent film from the 1920s about an Inuit chief on the north eastern side of Hudson Bay) – as it puts me right to sleep. Formal entertainment is limited to a very good pianist in the Panoramic Lounge around tea time and after dinner.

Who can compete when there's an explosion of nature going on around us in one of the furthest corners of the earth, with great traveling companions and our favorite leaders here as guides? Freemontbreen is our first glacier and we're just starting to pass it by on the port side. It IS a wonderful world.