Polar Ice...
The other day we sat in Longyearbyen on the Isle of Spitsbergen in the area of Svalbard in the country of Norway. Yes, we're still in Norway. We get to a new country soon. We had a slight change of plans before reaching Longyearbyen. It was a gorgeous day as we sailed north to see the polar ice and maybe some polar bears and seals. It turns out one of the passengers got acute appendicitis while we were en route so we had to turn around to get them safely to a hospital for the surgery. 
We arrived in Longyearbyen late the night before around midnight, but we didn't start tendering into town until 8:00am this morning and understandably so. This city is actually an American settlement for mining. It's at the 78º latitudinal line. The day before we got to about the 80º 33.00' latitudinal line before taking a u-turn. We're going to attempt to go back again. The sun doesn't actually set here since it is so far north from mid-April to mid-August. 
This is our northernmost port of call since we will be missing Ny Alesund due to the change in course. On the map we're about the same latitudinal line as the top of Greenland and above Canada and Alaska altogether. It's pretty neat although there isn't much to town at all. It's about as scarce as a desert town and has that same feel. Evidently there's a species of bird here that dive bombs your head as your walking down this particular road from the ship to the town to protect its nests. We saw such birds, but they were not in attack mode thankfully. I would've found it amusing, but from all the stories I heard from past visits it would've been a painful experience. There are also signs on the edge of town marking polar bear territory.
Evidently when you see these signs, you're not supposed to venture beyond without a gun in your possession. I guess a girl got killed on a hiking trail last year by a polar bear because they were walking without guns and a baby polar bear attacked. The other girl jumped off the cliff saving her own life, but breaking both arms. It is my understanding that polar bears like the taste of humans, so we are food out here. I'm glad I didn't see any today and I was assured that we wouldn't see any since there's no ice in the area right now. I'm definitely excited about seeing the ice caps and interested to actually see how far north we get to go.
I also just learned that there's a shadow of snow in one of the mountainsides here that forms a champagne glass. The snow does that is. When the stem of the champagne glass appears to have broken, that's the first day of summer. Interesting.
We reached the polar ice. Finally!!! It took longer than expected. We were expected to get there by 8:00am, but we didn't make it until 11:30am. The trouble was that we went 40 or so miles more north than the ship was able to go last year. Last year the ship was troubled with thick ice about the 79º latitudinal line. 
That day we hit a latitudinal line of 81º 31.50' North and a longitudinal line of 13º 22.00' East. This is a Prinsendam record for getting North and a Holland America record for any ship in the North Arctic. We were only 508 miles away from the actual North Pole. 
I can't believe I was up this far on top of the world. The temps outside were cold, but only just below 50ºF. You would think it'd be a lot colder. 
However I did learn the other day that in the winter it does get down to about –40ºF. Everyone in Longyearbyen has to cover ALL of their skin just to go outside, and they only know each other by the color of their jackets. So no one can wear the same color or style of jacket. We all thought we saw a polar bear asleep on the ice while in the polar ice, but it turns out that it was only a pile of dirty ice. There was a pile of leftovers from polar bears on some of the ice bits out there. No visuals of polar bears though. Now we head south to Scotland.
We arrived in Longyearbyen late the night before around midnight, but we didn't start tendering into town until 8:00am this morning and understandably so. This city is actually an American settlement for mining. It's at the 78º latitudinal line. The day before we got to about the 80º 33.00' latitudinal line before taking a u-turn. We're going to attempt to go back again. The sun doesn't actually set here since it is so far north from mid-April to mid-August. 
This is our northernmost port of call since we will be missing Ny Alesund due to the change in course. On the map we're about the same latitudinal line as the top of Greenland and above Canada and Alaska altogether. It's pretty neat although there isn't much to town at all. It's about as scarce as a desert town and has that same feel. Evidently there's a species of bird here that dive bombs your head as your walking down this particular road from the ship to the town to protect its nests. We saw such birds, but they were not in attack mode thankfully. I would've found it amusing, but from all the stories I heard from past visits it would've been a painful experience. There are also signs on the edge of town marking polar bear territory.
Evidently when you see these signs, you're not supposed to venture beyond without a gun in your possession. I guess a girl got killed on a hiking trail last year by a polar bear because they were walking without guns and a baby polar bear attacked. The other girl jumped off the cliff saving her own life, but breaking both arms. It is my understanding that polar bears like the taste of humans, so we are food out here. I'm glad I didn't see any today and I was assured that we wouldn't see any since there's no ice in the area right now. I'm definitely excited about seeing the ice caps and interested to actually see how far north we get to go.
I also just learned that there's a shadow of snow in one of the mountainsides here that forms a champagne glass. The snow does that is. When the stem of the champagne glass appears to have broken, that's the first day of summer. Interesting.
We reached the polar ice. Finally!!! It took longer than expected. We were expected to get there by 8:00am, but we didn't make it until 11:30am. The trouble was that we went 40 or so miles more north than the ship was able to go last year. Last year the ship was troubled with thick ice about the 79º latitudinal line. 
That day we hit a latitudinal line of 81º 31.50' North and a longitudinal line of 13º 22.00' East. This is a Prinsendam record for getting North and a Holland America record for any ship in the North Arctic. We were only 508 miles away from the actual North Pole. 
I can't believe I was up this far on top of the world. The temps outside were cold, but only just below 50ºF. You would think it'd be a lot colder. 
However I did learn the other day that in the winter it does get down to about –40ºF. Everyone in Longyearbyen has to cover ALL of their skin just to go outside, and they only know each other by the color of their jackets. So no one can wear the same color or style of jacket. We all thought we saw a polar bear asleep on the ice while in the polar ice, but it turns out that it was only a pile of dirty ice. There was a pile of leftovers from polar bears on some of the ice bits out there. No visuals of polar bears though. Now we head south to Scotland.
posted by Chris | 11:12 AM
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