New SEAMAIL thread ready for Wrangel so we do not have posts in many different places. I am packing today - we leave on Monday, 2 nights in Anchorage and the fly to Nome and board the Silver Explorer. Weather looks good right now in Alaska for the Levins, Halls and Burnsides. I checked the seas in the Arctic wish we there now. Really calm seas. Lets hope it continues. I will never forget the PERFECT weather we had in Greenland last year - unbelievable.

Leslie sent me some pictures from Alaska the weather looked spectacular. We leave today and it is fine today but tomorrow is supposed to rain. Nome however looks sunny and the passage weather (sea waves and weather) looks great as far out as it goes right now which is July 30th. Looking good!

Our pre cruise so far has been fantastic. We are the only two people who signed up so we have a private tour. I’m pretty surprised that they didn’t cancel it due to lack of participation, but we are thrilled. Our guide is driving us around in a roomy Suburban and we have total flexibility.

I managed to get a couple of pix uploaded. One from Talkeetna and one from the train.







Yesterday we drove to Talkeetna - we had a little bit of time to wander around and walked down to the river for some pix of Denali off in the distance. Then we boarded the train to Denali, seated in one of the dome cars. The car was maybe 1/3 full, which surprised me. I just assumed everything would be packed this time of year. It couldn’t have been a more gorgeous day. Sun and scenery the whole way. Our guide took our luggage and drove on to the park where she picked us up when we arrived.


we spent some time at the visitor center, checked in to the hotel and then had a wine & cheese reception with a 90 minute talk by a local adventurer mountain climber who told us about his ascent of Denali and other local stories. He is now an organic farmer during the short summer season, supplying local hotels and restaurants with fresh produce. In the winter he spends time sailing in the Caribbean. He was fascinating. It was a bit surreal to be the only people attending. Felt like royalty.

Today we spend the day in the park and if the weather holds we take an afternoon flight seeing excursion. Hopefully I can remember how to shrink my photos down so I can upload some later.

We are now in Anchorage, arrived last night. Was not sure where everyone was staying. We picked the Sheraton as we were able to use miles. Did not expect anyone else to be here as it is out of the main downtown area.

Been on email all morning, Ken went walkabout. He found a little restaurant and we were on our way out for lunch when we heard. KEN!! There was Russ. So Marc, Arlene, Russ and Susan are all here. They are flying to Nome this afternoon. Tonight they are having dinner with June and Ralph in Nome. So I can see the 4.30 pm Ralph and Marc (whose excuse for starting cocktails early) is claiming the only corner in the lounge that is just about big enough for the group.

Ah good times and past memories to follow.

We fly to Nome tomorrow. Tonight we are eating at Simon and Seafort’s restaurant. Love this place. We are meeting Fred and Darla for dinner. Looking forward to this meal. Sour dough bread and Halibut with crab. Like to come here every time I am in Anchorage.

Wishing all a great trip! Ngaire, pLease say hi to Fred and darla for me!
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Helen

Picture perfect day in Denali yesterday. We took the park tour all the way to the end to Katishna Roadhise, but I guess the Levins and Halls were off fly fishing. We saw moose, caribou, plus 6 grizzly bears. The Denali driver/guide was one of the best guides we’ve ever had. Super knowledge plus a sense of humor. We had lunch at the Roadhouse, free time plus a sled dog activity, and then flew back. Fabulous day.

Pix of the mountain during the day. Will post some flight pix too.

We are on the ship!

Familiar faces amongst the expedition team always nice to see. Lifeboat drill is over, we are unpacked and ready to start this new adventure. Fun seeing everyone again.

So we arrived in our first port, Providenia. Supposed to be cleared by 1.00 pm but that was delayed and it appeared for a while we would not get cleared at all. Finally at 4.00 pm we got the announcement we were cleared. It took six hours.

We went straight to the cultural center for a local show. I really enjoyed the show. It was varied with adorable kids performing. One little boy was probably about four and he did so well. Nice costuming as well. One girl had bright red hair and very white skin. She stood out with all the others who were mostly Inuits.



A pretty depressing town from our point of view but the people seemed happy lots of people out and about and saying hello. It was a nice stop so happy we got ashore.

Two landings tomorrow. Weather is great.

Twisted my knee a bit - darn it. Felt pretty good today so I think all will be well. So I decided to take a day off today to give it a rest.

Super calm seas barely a ripple in the ocean. But very foggy. Danger of brown bears here and visibility was about 500 yards. So the long hike was abandoned but everyone could still go ashore to see a ceremonial site and whale bones that I guess decorate the site. Not very cold in the 40’s and zero wind.

As I am writing this a whale came up right next to the ship full body and flute. A WOW. Running down to get my coat.

Yesterday was whales, whales and more whales. Humpbacks and grey whales. The local Russian rangers put up a tent and offered food, including walrus meat. This was my stay onboard day but I thought about going ashore. However, the walrus meat was just not quite appealing enough.

Woke up this morning to a stunningly beautiful day. Sun shining in calm water. We did a zodiac cruise around the bird cliffs and saw two waterfalls. On the way back to the ship we saw a sea lion and it is unusual for them to be this far north.

A hearts game was in process when “Orcas ahead” was announced. We all raced out and we caught glimpses of them. The second zodiac cruise was in process and some of those zodiacs got fabulous views of the orcas quite close. Very exciting for them.

Now we are off to Uelen village. A town of 700 people. Located at the base of a hill with snow on the hillside and a beach in front of the town. Barely a ripple in the water. What a day!!!

Internet is on and off not sure if Ken can get pictures posted but he will try.

Wow, I hope the whales and orcas hang around for us.

And I would even be up for trying walrus meat, as long as it is cooked. It has to be better than whale blubber, which is the most awful thing I have ever placed in my mouth. Though the putrified shark in Iceland was a close second.

Uelen village was neat. Mostly because of the locals. We landed on a very rocky beach with little children everywhere. We wandered up to the children’s play area where the kids were playing.
One little old lady with one tooth was hugging everyone and trying to communicate. We took a picture with her. I think they were more interested in us than we were with them.



The locals gave a cultural show on the beach. Then we walked down to the museum to see the museum of ivory carvings. They were really exquisite. It was VERY HOT. I had on a light jacket and short sleeve T-shirt and I was burning up. Cannot believe the weather we are having,

This evening after the recap they announced we were surrounded by whales. Constant blows and flutes in every direction. We cannot believe the amount of whales that were we were seeing. Absolutely amazing.

June, Ralph, Ken and I did Hot Rocks tonight. Weather was great and the food excellent. Whales blows and flutes to watch.

Tomorrow we land at a place the ship and none of the expedition team have been to before. Then in the afternoon another zodiac cruise.

Delayed again. Ship avoiding any ice stopping in every village on the Chokotka coast We will make it to Wrangel but the Medvezhiy Islands are now highly unlikely. Original revised schedule blamed on refueling; will not make initial stop in Pevek so Silversea reasons now suspect. Hopefully some explanation tomorrow.

Cruise is great. Just had room service movie night with Russ and Susan.

Edited to add: good news; we can extend Wrangel Island if we can’t reach Medvezhiy Islands. Our permit is not limited to three days.

Marc

Interesting briefing tonight ; we were told that we were going no farther west than Vankarem. I asked about the two fuel stops in Pevek. Brad started that pevek was currently closed but not a problem as we left nome with 14 days fuel; only problem is that this is a 19 day cruise.

Polar bears and seals today a nice start; hopefully many more beats in days to come.

This morning at 6.00 am. “Hate to wake you but there are two no make it three polar bears on the ice. Bounced out of bed and up to the open deck. I never saw them as they were so hard to see on the ice and a bit far away. However those with good cameras got good pictures. I did spot a walrus on the ice.

At one point a humpback whale surfaced between the ship and the ice, very close. So it was still a successful morning. This delayed us of course so the landing was put off until this afternoon. We did see pictures in the theatre and all three bears were in great shape and looked well fed.

They sent some of the expedition team to shore and the rangers said they saw two polars bears today so no hikes further afield as we must stay together and not too far from the zodiacs.

Happy about all these polar bears. This is definitely polar bear country. Which is hard to believe when we were so hot just yesterday.

Just got internet back. Zodiac cruises around an island tomorrow where the Russian rangers say there will be polar bears on the island. Whether we will see them is another story.

Lots of heavy ice around which is unusual but hopefully it is breaking up with the sun and warm temperatures. Plus winds are coming (it has been really calm) which help move the ice as well. Time will tell.

Having trouble cannot post pictures. SmugMug is blocked. So we sent two pictures to Julie and will send more in the future. She posted them on an earlier thread as they were pictures from Uelen island also the dance troop at Provideniya.

Plus we have no idea when we will have or will not have internet.

Seeing all the whales and polar bears sounds so wonderful. Love the picture of Ngaire & June with the old lady...maybe a good place for someone just out of dental school to start a practice. Keep having a great time kids.

Uelen Village pictures from Ken H.

Yttygran Island, Russia - pictures by Ken H.

Proliv Senyavina, Russia - pictures by Ken H.

Cape Dezhnev - pictures by Ken H.

First Polar Bear sighting from very far away - pictures by Ken H.

Had a lot of fun last night at hot rocks. Our group was joined by Luke, Robin and Corey of the expedition team. I had a great meal, filet, four shrimps and a lamb chop. Finally figured out how to cook properly on a hot rock. We will send pictures to Julie to post.

I opened the drapes this morning to see the weather and two whales were close to the ship. They obliged by diving and we saw two nice flukes right from our cabin. Beautiful day again, calm seas, blue sky and sunshine. Today we are visiting Vankarem. A village of 700 people and we are the first cruise ship to visit this village. I love these remote places so looking forward to this landing.

This morning they announced a polar bear in the water swimming close to the ship and very visible. All you could see was the head but no idea where he was going. No land or ice flow in sight. They can swim long distances.

If Michael is still onboard, please give him a hug from Alice and me. We met him on the PG in 2005 when we did a b2b, then he was still on it in 2008. He was on the Silver Explorer when we did WALRUS last year.

Kim all pictures are blocked so we cannot see any graphics on LCT. Not met anyone I remember called Michael but if you will embed the picture in an email I may be able to see it that way. We keep thinking we will totally lose internet but it goes and comes back constantly.

Vankarem was great. The expedition staff saw three polar bears on land and the bears all went into the water. So we were able to go ashore. Only 200 people live here. In the months of October to December they can see around 200 polar bears on the ice surrounding the town. Never had a polar bear attack.

The kindergarten kids were great. Our Russian guide was the head of the hunting committee and really a manly man. We had the Russian interpreter from the ship who did a great job. The village was clean with nice small wooden houses. They had a tiny greenhouse to grow vegetables in the summer. They were fishing from the shore with nets and catching really nice salmon.

It was a very interesting experience I really liked the morning. Now we are heading to Wrangel Island. Still a ton of ice around Wrangel Island and we are hoping it will break up before we get there.

Great dinner tonight, rack of lamb outstanding.

Hot Rocks Dining on the Silver Explorer and a Group Photo

Thanks, Ngaire. I sent the photo. He’s tall, thin. Filipino waiter or doing something in the dining room. His wife is Daisy, who was also on the PG until they got married and had children.

Did not make it to Wrangel Island on first attempt due to ice. Second attempt aborted due to medical emergency. Now heading towards Alaska coast to meet up with coast guard helicopter tomorrow night. Wrangel totally off plan; will learn revised plan tomorrow.

Marc

Sorry for the changes in your itinerary and what a shame to have a medical emergency on board. Hopefully all will work out well for you Wrangelers.

Disappointed for you! What an awful place to suffer a medical emergency. Looks like a long way to go to get any real help. Hope that person is ok.
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Helen

Medical evacuation was successful. It only took 15 minutes to get him into the helicopter. So once that was accomplished we turned around and we are heading back to the ice edge to go looking for polar bears. Will take us a day to get back into that area. It has been rocking and rolling but now we changed direction it is not as bumpy.

The weather forecast is good for our ice cruising so we have our fingers crossed for some great days around the ice.

Special birthday dinner for Dave tonight. He ordered a special meal last night so it should be fun.

Posting for Marc:

Fabulous dinner last night. Food was fantastic best filet mignon ever. We are finally out of the rough sea and back around the mainland of Russia. Sun is shining again, sea is calm and we are heading to the ice edge to look for polar bears. Hope we have a successful afternoon.

We headed in the wrong direction; no ice; no polar bear. Trying to recover now. Captain will cut off the search sometime due to fuel; frustrating. This will probably go down as biggest waste of money of any cruise. Of course, if we see lots of bears I will edit this post.

Marc

After the medical evacuation we headed back to the ice edge to try and find wildlife. The ice had moved a long way from when we left it. So we kept going further North and West back towards Wrangel Island trying to find the ice edge. Then came the announcement we would make another attempt to reach Wrangel Island.

This morning we arrived at Wrangel Island. But although we could see it we could not land. I think it was about 10 miles to shore. The ice was too thick even for the zodiacs to reach all the way to shore. It was very calm and we did a zodiac cruise around the ice. We got very close to two walrus hall outs. There was a sighting of a polar bear but we just got a quick glimpse and he was gone.

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.

Definitely sounds very disappointing Marc, to say the least...It will be interesting to see if they offer you any compensation at all.

I do hope we have better luck on our Antarctica cruise!!

Marc, Arlene and all the rest of you Wranglers, I am so very sorry to hear this cruise has been less than successful. I feel bad because I know how excited you all have been and how much planning and thought has gone into this adventure! Enjoy each other's company and I hope you have some good days left on your cruise!

Antarctica is very different. No Russia permissions are required which was an underlying issue to everything done on this cruise. While some of the landing sites may need to be slightly modified due to sea conditions etc one will always see the penguins and the other sites to see.
Wrangel is conditional on the ice where Antarctica does not have near the same issues. Some ice can be incontered in the Waddell sea but there are several alternate sites that can be accessed.