It's the last night on the ship. I'm sitting in my suite watching the sun track over Baffin Bay. Andy is still under quarantine in his suite across the hall. Tomorrow we disembark at Pond Inlet and are shuttled back to Iqaluit on charter planes. On Monday we fly to Montreal. It was a spectacular trip, but I'm ready to go home. This trip wasn't without its challenges. Our original route was disrupted when the ship couldn't pick us up in Pond Inlet because of ice, this required us to spend a day at sea getting to where we should have started in the first place. It didn't help that the view was hidden in heavy fog.
Lucky the fog lifted and we got a kayak in, saw some wildlife and hiked to a glacier before Andy came down with COVID. He was quarantined for the last five days of the trip, but really only missed three days. And of those, he was able to experience the view and some fun from the balcony. He's feeling better, but tired and sick of being stuck in the suite. We sailed to Greenland overnight because Canadian law requires foreign ships to leave their waters than re enter them, so we had to go to Greenland. Therefore, at 4:00 am we looked at a cliff in Greenland. Well, I didn't because it was on the other side of the ship and it was 4:00 am. I'll have to go there another time.
Today we sailed across Baffin Bay. At one point, the wind speeds were 72 k/hour (45 mph) with 15 ft swells. I got sick and spent most of the day unable to move from my bed. It was awful. Andy didn't far much better, but was able to sneak over and check on me. Things were falling off the shelves and doors that weren't securely latched were banging back and forth. The seas calmed and the wind let up at about 4:30 pm. It was scary. We're still rocking back and forth, but it's not nearly as bad.
Besides spectacular views of the ice pack, glaciers, mountains and waterfalls we saw the following wildlife...
4 - Polar bears
2 - Seals
A bunch of walrus
Birds
Black-legged Kittiwake
Ivory Gull
Thick-billed Murre
Northern Fulmar
Final notes...
The expedition team was great, friendly and always helpful. They answered questions, we're willing to chat and seemed to enjoy telling us about their experiences. They were also serious and professional when it came to our safety and the care of the Arctic, whether while helping us board the zodiacs or surviving the landscape for polar bears.
The food on the ship was wonderful. I'm not a foodie, and I'm kind of picky, but I could always find something on the menu that was delicious. They were also very helpful in accommodating my pork allergy to the point of telling me if I ordered something that had some hidden lard or gelatin in it. Andy took advantage of room service while quarantined and was able to get whatever was being served in the restaurants.
I was not as thrilled with the medical service, which on a ship of this class and in the remote area we are traveling in, is surprising. They did not have antiviral medication such as Paxlovid to give Andy, and thankfully Andy is fully vaccinated and boosted so he wasn't seriously ill. However, a dose of Covid antiviral medicine would have been helpful. Secondly, they did not have sea sickness patches available today. They had them earlier in the week, but must have run out. They shouldn't run out of something like that. They gave me some seasickness pills, and sold me ($22) the pressure point wrist bands. I used both and stayed in bed until the ship stopped swaying.
They told us at the briefing that the sun set for 6 minutes last night. Good night sun, good night Arctic!
