DAY 7: BUCHAN BAY 



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After all those days at sea we were told that we would be making a landfall this evening at Buchan Bay.  This is not shown on the map but is to the left of Gibbs Fjord showing just how far we had travelled in recent days.  But that was for the evening so they filled our day with things to hear about and do.

Two talks in the morning, one on underwater archeology which related to the Erebus expedition and another on Seals. There talks were always excellent and well attended.

 For a change of pace in the afternoon we had the opportunity to tour the ship into parts you normally don't get to see.  Whereas the bridge was usually open to spend time searching the ice flows and the sea for birds and animals the crew explained the details of the bridge operation.  

The chart room on the bridge

Second visit was to the Mud Room which we used to change into our outer gear and we were shown the scientific gear still in place.  There were series of transmitters that were lowered into the sea to send transmissions over very long distances to the sister ship - the Sergei Vavilov.  Finally we reached the engine and control room.
One of the six cylinder diesel engines.  Exceptionally clean and tidy but noisy

The control room

The final presentation this afternoon before dinner was by Alex, the Inuit lady from Pond Inlet, a stop on our itinerary.  She showed how to make a series of items including mitts out of seal skin.  She was getting quite excited we neared her home.

At last, land, ice bergs (and fog) in sight

After dinner were were in position in Buchan Bay to go on an evening zodiac ride.  It had been many days since we had donned our gear.  The team leader was relieved that after all those days at sea we were about to get afloat.

Buchan Bay
There was low cloud everywhere so we couldn't see the extent of the fjord but we could see where we were going.

Low cloud

Ready for kayaking
There was an option to go kayaking and there were about a dozen takers, not us.  This was the first time that they were able to take to the water so they were really happy.  The kayaks were loaded onto zodiacs on the ship and lowered into the sea.  They were then put onto other zodiacs and transferred on the water, pretty hazardous looking.

 It was evening and quite cold!

Low cloud and a glacier
This was a dirty one


Some melting going on

Glacial melt into the sea

Always interesting ice formations and so blue
We were on the water for about two hours and it was really cold!  We were greeted back with a warm drink fortified by a dash of Bailey's.  It must have been colder than usual because this only happened once.  Things were looking up and the weather and ice conditions were looking much more favourable.  The adventure picked up speed.
Next Post: Guy's BIght and Pond Inlet

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