Last night had us bonking and bashing a little bit in the ice, but by the time we awoke this morning, celebration was in the air. We are the first ship to cross the north end of Spitsbergen this summer season, putting us well on our way to be the first ship to circumnavigate the island this year! Our pay off was a sighting of another polar bear! This bear was deep in the land-fast sea ice (ice “held fast” or “fastened” to land) and to conserve its icy habitat, we were not able to approach the bear. While our sighting today was distant, it always warms our hearts to see bears out on the ice being bears. Along our morning travels, several walruses were spotted resting on remnants of sea ice, just offshore. The sun was shining and everything was great!
In the afternoon, however, we finally came face to face with the fog that has been looming over our daily weather forecasts. The very fog we had successfully evaded thus far had caught up with us...
Scouting for bears thoroughly enough to make a safe landing becomes very difficult in the fog, and as is often the case on an expedition cruise, we shifted our plans with the weather. The wilderness of Svalbard never disappoints, and we came across a gigantic haul-out of walruses on the northwest tip of Edgeøya at a place called Kapp Lee. We launched Zodiacs and set out into our foggy surroundings to explore the sights (and smells) of these magnificent creatures. Approximately 200 male walruses were lazing, grunting, and lollygagging on the beach, utterly ignoring the subtle sounds of snapping cameras in the mist just offshore. Several creatures were swimming in the water with their great tusks not too far from us. For a few moments during our cruise, the fog was so thick that we completely lost sight of our beautiful ship just a half mile away. Thankfully we were able to find our way “home” just fine. As I write this before bedtime, the fog is finally lifting for our overnight cruise around the southern tip of Spitzbergen.
