Tuesday, June 30, 2015
We woke to the alarm Clay set this morning at 7am. We got up
and went to breakfast. It was a filling, if annoying, buffet. There was no
berry yogurt, only plain or melon. I thought I’d wait for it to be refilled and
went for hot. I had seen fried eggs and bacon. I got there as the last fried
egg went. I waited but then filled my plate with steam tray scrambled. As I was
leaving, the new fried eggs arrived. I went back for berry yogurt as I had seen
it going by in people’s bowls. None. I asked the attendant. She didn’t speak
English but communicated that she didn’t know. Of course, I ate plain and then
the berry bowl was refilled. I went for a coffee refill. The urn was empty!
Good news, the one on the other side was full. It was like that.
We went down and Clay checked us out and we carried our
shoes out to the boot room and our luggage. We got our shoes on and went
outside to wait. We had a thermometer outside our room and it was 10 or 11C the
entire time. I guess if the sun never sets there is not much temperature
variation between day and night. There were 2 buses. One for German and
Norwegian. One for English and it seems we also get the Finns. There is a tour
group of 12-18 people from Finland with their own guide. Evidently they don’t
speak anything but Finnish and their guide also speaks English, so we get them.
The guides speak and then their guide translates for them. We left a little
after 9am. We went to the polar bear sign on the border of the settlement of
Longyearbyen. Longyearbyen was started around 1900-1906 by an American, John
Longyear. He started the first coal mine. Svalbard was discovered in the late
1500 by Willem Barents. He died of scurvy after the discovery and before
getting back to Holland. Next we went to view the remains of mine 1,2 and 3 and
the old church and then to the Svalbard Museum. We spent about 45 minutes there
and it was interesting. We asked about the Svalbard Seed Vault and learned it
is in old mine space above the airport. We saw photos and a model of it and may
have been able to see it as we sailed out. Lastly we visited the Svalbard
Galleri of Art. We had about an hour there. Then it was to the Nordstjernen.
It looks like an old-style steamer. It is old from the
1950’s. We are in cabin 212. They helped us with our luggage from the dock. We
came up the gangway and got our ID cards and our keys and went down to get our
luggage and then to our cabins. This was between noon and 12:30pm. 12:30pm was
an information meeting. 1pm we set sail. 1:25pm was the safety instruction on
the top deck by the llifeboats. 1:30pm was a buffet lunch. Clay had gotten our
table reservation right after we boarded. We are at table 4, a six top between
a window and the kitchen door. We each had a map and a complimentary souvenir
thermal mug at our places. We have 2 men as our only table mates. One is from
Norway and one is from Germany. There was plenty of variety and we all left
full. Clay went to look for dessert and announced there was none. He was wrong.
It was a self-serve buffet by the 24-hour complimentary coffee in one side of
the aft lounges behind the dining room. I don’t know how he got out to the back
outside deck but that is where he headed for the afternoon. I had to walk
through there to find him. He wanted a pastry so I brought him one and skipped
dessert. We saw a bunch of glaciers in the distance as well as the mother ice
cap of them. This was sailing out of the Isfjorden.
It was warm in the sun. The weather has finally broken today
and it has been blue skies and bright sunshine. At 4pm we docked at
Barentsburg. It is a Russian-leased coal mining town of about 400-500
inhabitants. They really welcomed us after we had climbed the 270 some steps to
get up there! No one mentioned that when they told us we could go ashore for
walking tours. They divided us into 2 groups at the top. (They did have one van
that ferried those who wanted but couldn’t take the stairs to join us.) Both
groups were guided in English only. It took about an hour to walk the “main
street”. We learned a lot about the lives of those living and working there. I
guess I forgot to mention that only people young and active enough to work are
allowed to live on Svalbard. If you are elderly or ill, you have to leave. The
governor will not allow you to live on Svalbard if you aren’t healthy and
working. Clay thinks if you are healthy and wealthy enough, that may be enough
to be allowed to live here. The cost of living here is a bit higher because
everything has to be transported in, but they pay no VAT in return. We noticed
that things seemed cheaper here than in mainland Norway, but I guess it depends
what you’re buying. At 5:30pm they put on a concert/cultural show for us. First
we went to the Barentsburg Brewery where Clay had his cheapest beer yet on this
trip at yet another northernmost brewery. At above 78 degrees N, this one was
certainly further than Tromso’s at 68 or something. At 6:30pm, we sailed again.
When we leave we are told to bring our ship’s ID cards, but
they just use a paper list and you give them your cabin number and how many are
leaving or returning.
When we got back to the ship, I wanted to start typing up
notes before I start to forget things. It had been a busy day. We had the door
propped open because it was very hot in the very small cabin. We do not have
announcements in 212. Because the door was open, we heard the announcements
from the closest speaker out in the hall but not clearly. In English, we both
heard: we are serving beluga something something starboard side. Then in
English the next time, we both heard: we are serving beluga whale something
starboard side. I told Clay to go see if he wanted but I wasn’t having any so I
would keep typing. He got mad and laid down on his bottom bunk and sulked
because he said it was time for dinner. I said they would announce it when they
wanted us to come up. Finally, a few minutes after 7pm, I shut down the
computer and agreed to go up. We did not find people in the dining room but out
on open decks with cameras and binoculars! They were looking at a large pod of
beluga whales! We both agreed about what we heard and that at dinner time, it
was a poor way to phrase a wildlife sitting report!
We made a big loop at the intersection of 2 fjords near
Barentsburg to look at beluga whales. All you can see are their white backs
breaching at a distance. Dinner was delayed. I had gone after lunch to say that
I would not eat fish or seafood and learned that dinner was always a set 3
course meal. Since I let them know again (my booking request had not made it to
the ship again) I would not get salmon. Dinner was salmon, beef tenderloin and
orange sherbet over hot berry compote. I got the same salad as everyone else
but with ham instead of salmon. I didn’t eat much. I can afford to skip several
meals.
Clay went out on deck again after dinner and learned that we
were sailing past an island with a known walrus colony. The problem was that it
was so distant that the spot, much less the walruses were not visible. He learned
that this is the 6 cruise of Nordstjernen this season. The last cruise 3 polar
bears were spotted in the area we will cruise past overnight. Those are the
only polar bears spotted in 6 cruises. The guide that told me about the
glaciers, told Clay they just got very lucky. That doesn’t sound good.
Evidently, they will always change course for wildlife sightings and make
announcements, but if we’re asleep in our cabin, we won’t even know anything
happened since we don’t get announcements in 212. I know I can’t stay awake or
out on deck for 3 days!
The map and the temporary schedule for the rest of the
cruise are posted outside the dining room. It shows us going almost to our
northernmost point by morning. We are scheduled for 2 landings tomorrow. We
should have breakfast and then a landing briefing before our first landing at
Mashamna (I think. It is not on our little maps as they are not as detailed as
the big one on the wall.) They have a wildlife photographer onboard who is
giving several talks over the course of the cruise. The first is at 9pm
tonight. I don’t even carry a camera most of the time so I doubt I’ll go. Clay
is back and asleep in his clothes on his bunk. It isn’t looking good for him
either.
Clay got us a password to the Internet wi-fi network, but I
haven’t been able to get online yet. I will stop now and go to some public
spaces and see if I can upload and publish this. Fingers crossed. If not
successful, I’ll just keep these notes up to date and publish the entries when
I can. No joy, so I guess I’ll try to upload all these entries on Friday, when
we get back to Longyearbyen.
