After a late night case of the blue – blue whales that is! – we woke to sunshine and blue skies spattered with lenticular-ish clouds in the icy wonderland of Isbukta (which means ice bay) at Spitsbergen’s southern reaches.
Given the ideal conditions of light katabatic airs and smooth seas, we launched our flotilla of kayaks to explore the phantasmagoria of icebergs adrift in the polar paradise. By Zodiac we made closer approaches to the glaciers that dominate the coastline. Towering icy seracs collapsed off the glacial face and submarine shooters erupted from below in calving events, as the birth of icebergs to the ocean was heralded with ricocheting sound and propagated wave energy.
Ivory gulls as white as winter sought meals with kittiwakes and daylight-loving arctic terns in the freshwater outflows by the glacial front, as a bearded seal hauled out on a floe in a stringer of brash ice.
After lunch the National Geographic Explorer ventured north in Storfjorden, with cameo appearances from a blue whale and harp seals. Captain Oliver Kruess gave our young travelers an educating bridge tour, and pioneering Arctic explorer Joe MacInnis and mountaineering National Geographic photographer Tommy Heinrich made captivating presentations.
After dinner we entered a jumbled area of sea ice and glacier ice in Wichebukta further up Spitsbergen’s eastern coast. Watchful ringed seals were hauled out on expanses of fast ice in the distance. Captain Kruess slalomed our ship through the ice maze of floes, bergs, brash and drift ice, a veritable palette of whites and blues. The captain masterfully brought us in to a surreal icy cul-de-sac corner of Negribreen Glacier where we discovered a pod of beautiful beluga whales blowing and feeding at the glacier face. We traveled with the white whales for some miles along the vertical ice wall that makes up the shoreline in this bay into a nonexistent sunset, stopping to nudge the bow up to a gushing meltwater waterfall pouring from the glacial surface above.
A few late night/early morning enthusiasts experienced a whirlpool of currents and wildlife as our vessel navigated dramatic Heleysundet passage on our way towards further adventures.
