No reason to edit my previous post; this now goes down as the biggest waste of money of any cruise.
As Ngaire reported, we did make it back to Wrangel yesterday morning; beautiful sail in. There was a band of ice around the bay. We did not sail that far into bay; Brad said later that there was only two meters of water under the keel in the bay and the Captain did not want to take any chances. Although the zodiac ride around walruses was fantastic, I believe that was the only time the Captain was ever considering in Wrangel. Our refueling has been moved to Anadyr on 10 AND 11 August and it is three full sea days to get from Wrangel to Anadyr; therefore the latest we could have left from Wrangel is sometime on today 7 August.
We finally squeezed the rest of the itinerary out of Brad last night. 7 Aug at sea, 8 Aug back to Yttagran Island area to search for a walrus bailout; 9 Aug at sea enroute to Anadyr with potential of one or two short stops; 10 and early 11 Aug Anadyr with "possible" excursion; 11 and 12 Aug at sea enroute Nome arriving in Nome 12 Aug for "city tour" or maybe chance to do gold panning.
Silversea corporate planning (including Al Gore sea ice mentality), Silversea corporate refusal to take this ship through any real ice; and Russian bureaucracy have made this the worst cruise ever. I strongly recommend against taking next year's Northeast Passage cruise on this ship or ANY Silver Explorer trip that could encounter ice.
Voyage Journals are no longer posted online by Silversea Expeditions; I am in process of compiling complete log of what we have done and will post once trip is completed.
Marc
PS These are my opinions only.
