July 03 – Magdalene Fjord and Smeerenburg Glacier

This bright, sunny, clear, morning we sailed into Magdalene Fjord.  The fjord and mountains are just beautiful. 

We took small zodiacs into the rocky beach...

and broke into 4 groups for tours.  The groups were Scandinavians, German speakers, French speakers and English speakers.  The area was beautiful.

The area was used extensively by whalers in the early whaling days.  There are a large number of whalers buried there, the remains of a fire pit where blubber was melted down to whale oil, and a small old cabin.

We hiked out to a point where we could see the Gullybreen Glacier.

There was a small harbor seal sitting on a rock near the shore.  Across the way were some walrus’ but we couldn’t really see them.

Then it was a hike back to the waiting boats.  On the way back some people (mostly from the French group) stripped down to swimming suits and took a quick dip in the frigid waters.  The water was 3°C (37.4F).  Burrr!!

Once back we stripped out of a few layers and went up to the lounge where we visited for a while with a couple from Norway.  Then it was lunch time.

By the time lunch was over we were in the Bjornfjorden Fjord where we dropped anchor in front of the Smeerenburg Glacier.  This afternoon’s excursion was a walk on the moraines in front of the glacier.  We decided to skip the walk as we have been on a number of glaciers in the past and it was noticeably colder out.  Perhaps we are becoming fair weather travelers as we get older.   

This evening the ship headed as far north as possible with hopes of crossing the 80° North latitude.  The area was just beautiful.

We hit sheet ice in one area where we also saw a polar bear in the distance.  

After nudging the ice a few times the captain decided on a different course.

We made it as far as 79°55’17” North.  Here we hit the arctic ice flows and since we aren’t on an ice breaker we really couldn’t go any farther north.  

Mary's phone gave us exact readings on our latitude.  However, the phone at one point also showed us as being at an elevation of -40 feet.  Since we weren't on a submarine we aren't sure how accurate it is.

But not 80° North latitude didn’t stop the celebration of champagne and orange juice.  All things considered it was exciting to be so far north.