Today’s Daily Program:
What’s the best way to celebrate a full circumnavigation of Spitsbergen, plus an epic series of landings, zodiac cruises and wildlife spottings?
You might be tempted to say “a sea day” – but the correct answer is two sea days.
(And the wrong answer is definitely three sea days – because we are desperate to land at Jan Mayen.)
Anyway, we won’t spend all of our time doomscrolling Windy (yet), because there’s breakfast to be had. I take a break from the buffet and order eggs Benedict:
Only for the English muffin to come back untoasted. Sigh. Ah, well – the eggs, bacon and hollandaise are good at least.
I ask for berries, too, but there are none to be had. They offered cherries instead. Not equivalent, by a long shot.
Thankfully the muesli has plenty of dried fruits in it. I’m not sure why cruise lines don’t do more with dried blueberries and dried cranberries. You would get a lot of mileage out of adding those two items to the menu – and they keep forever.
But I digress. After our leisurely breakfast, we then head over to the Main Lounge for a spell before eventually heading up to Observation. We read / write / relax. My wife challenges the kids to games of Battleship, while I catch up with my blogging and other administrivia.
(Our December Caribbean trip has suddenly become problematic as Winair has moved their flight three hours earlier to 10:45 am – so we have booked a cancelable flight for the next day as back-up and are looking at VIP transfer / departure services out of BGI.)
I’m long overdue for a haircut, so I’ve booked one for this morning. The stylist asks a series of questions, such as: “What kind of shampoo do you use?” (Whatever the hotel provides) and “What’s your haircare routine?” (Uhh…) If I’d known there was going to be a test – I would have studied.
The haircut itself is excellent, though – a long, leisurely shampoo followed by a careful trim. Well worth the 45 Euro cost – and there isn’t even a tip option at the bottom of the bill. (Though I do a bit extra in cash.)
Meanwhile, our son has gone down to the constellation quiz and does fairly well despite flying solo – apparently there is some sort of prize for the person that gets the most total points throughout the cruise? Still hoping we might be able to win some of the Ponant onboard credit that we’ve heard so much about.
We then head back up to Observation for the Yacht Club cocktail party. They serve some canapes and pour champagne, and we congratulate the captain on his unexpected circumnavigation of Spitsbergen.
There isn’t any kind of formal ceremony or announcement about who has the most days as done on Silversea. We ask the future cruise manager, however, and she notes that the top cruiser has more than 77 cruise segments!
Off to lunch at the Grill. They have fish and chips today:
It’s very, very well done – I’d say the fish is hotter and crispier than what I’ve had served in many of Silversea’s sit-down restaurants.
The chocolate pie is also out of this world:
Perhaps one of the best desserts I’ve ever had
There’s a bit more time for reading / writing / relaxing, and then we have the mandatory polar plunge briefing at 3:30 pm:
Of all the lines we’ve sailed, Ponant seems to be taking this most seriously – all polar plunging passengers are required to have a consultation with the doctor and a recent ECG. Thankfully, we all had ECGs done before we left so we should only need to do a 5 minute visit with the doctor.
Expedition Leader David warns us that the water is extremely cold – roughly 1 Celsius – and that we will want to try to keep our exposure to 10 seconds or less if possible. The absolute most we can do is a minute, and that is likely to result in a loss of feeling in ‘all extremities’ for upwards of a day.
There’s a helpful slideshow that shows recommended attire – bathing suit, robe, parka and boots – and clarifies that we should not drink any alcohol in advance, “but there may be a surprise for after.” David delivers the briefing with his signature humour, showing a picture of a man floating in the ocean, saying, “You see, he’s not attached to the tether. He’s still floating around Svalbard.”
We then head to the expedition briefing, where we step through the planned expedition activities for the next few days. A landing at Jan Mayen seems iffy due to the forecast 2 metre swells, but David is hopeful for a zodiac cruise if not a landing. We will then be visiting several sites across eastern Greenland, including a visit to the remote settlement of Ittoqqortoormiit – which is icebound 9 months of the year, and considered to be the most isolated town in Greenland.
The expedition guides then provide a series of recaps. Pierre delivers a brief lecture regarding the Svalbard reindeer, in which we’re surprised to learn how different they are compared to Eurasian reindeer – the Svalbard reindeer is a dwarf species, and are short legged and have a small, rounded head, and does not migrate.
However, as many as 80% die off over the winter months due to starvation. This is particularly severe following freezing rain, which has gotten worse due to climate change. Overall, however, the species is thriving.
Alex then explains the differences between fin whales and humpback whales, both of which were spotted while departing Svalbard:
Fin whales – often dubbed the ‘greyhounds of the sea’ – are much larger and faster, and can be recognized by their more vertical blow (as opposed to the triangle-shaped blow from humpback whales). It’s also interesting to learn that humpback whales are believed to stay in the same hemisphere in which they are born, moving into krill-dense polar waters to feed and then migrating to warmer tropical waters to give birth.
Whales have also been affected by Atlantification, and some fin whales are now staying around Svalbard year-round. There’s also a population of fin whales that never leave the Mediterranean sea.
We get a bit more relaxing time, and even manage to spend a bit of time out on the balcony – though it’s grey, damp weather:
We’ve seen a few seagulls and some passengers have spotted the occasional whale, but there hasn’t been a tremendous amount of wildlife – though admittedly we’re not glued to the rails in search of it
The sea is remarkably calm, though, considering we’re in the middle of the Greenland Sea. We really have been tremendously lucky to get such nice weather.
We then head off for dinner – surf and turf (lobster and beef cheek), roast venison, gnocchi and potatoes gratin:
All quite tasty, though the venison and lobster steal the show – the beef cheek tastes a bit like airline food, while the gnocchi is a little on the dry side
I get my first beer of the cruise, and I’m pleasantly surprised to find it was brewed in Longyearbyen:
And I’m even more pleasantly surprised to learn that we’ll gain an hour’s sleep tonight:
One last glance toward the Arctic’s perpetual sunset:
Then it’s time for bed. It’s been a great sea day – but we can definitely use one more as we catch our breath for the adventures ahead.