This day was planned to be very busy and interesting by our expedition leader Karin, like every day. She
has lots ideas and most of the time the plan works out, but today Nature
took over and Karin as the expedition leader, her team and of course all
passengers had to accept this without any discussion. Nature can be very
strict.
In the early morning
around 6 o’clock we sailed through the Freemansundet between Barentsøya and
Edgeøya. At 6:15 we heard the first announcement: Polar bear at starboard side!
Those of us they have been still sleeping jumped out of the bed, dressed up,
took the camera and run out. Best possibilities for a good photo shot had all
the early birds who were standing on the open decks already. The polar bear was
a huge male; good to be seen walking on the black rocks, but it was not very
cooperative and did not stay with us for a long time.
Our first landing of
the day should have started around 8:30 at Cap Lee on Edgeøya. The wind was
picking up at this time and the swell became so strong that is was not possible
for the passengers to step into the Polarcirkel boats in a safe way. Even though the
expedition team had everything prepared at the landing site, the
landing had to be cancelled. But at least another Polar bear showed up. It
was far away but still very nice to see that they are still here, the “white kings” of
the Arctic.
We used the bad
weather for our lectures on board. The lecture team gave us lots of information
about ice, history, birds and polar bears. And between we could even watch some
whales, which have been on the same route like us.
