June 16, 2025
What started out as a dreary day turned into a spectacular day!! The seas were rough so we had to pivot from the original plan and went to a more sheltered site for our Zodiac cruise. We we headed out the wind was blowing and it was raining but in just a few minutes the rain stopped and the sun popped out.
We are in search of wildlife!!! As we headed to the small sand spit where a group of Walruses all huddled together. Interesting fact after they have hunted they can sleep up to seven days. We were lucky to see three hunting in the water . We kept our distance both to protect the walruses and us since their sharp tusk can puncture the Zodiac.
We received a call that Beluga whales were spotted near the old gold mining shack and sped over to the sighting to see several whales including a juvenile. Beluga’s are white when they are adults and grey when they are juveniles.
On our way back to the ship we spotted reindeer on the hillside.
Back on board we pivoted again because a polar bear had been spotted. The deck is always full when we are all looking in the distance for Polar Bears all while trying to whisper so they don’t hear us and run away. We were treated to quite the show as the bear walked for a bit then stretched followed by a nap.
Our planned hike for the afternoon was cancelled as a pod of Beluga’s was spotted and we quickly went in that direction. There were at least 20 breaching in all directions as we watched.
I have gotten better at taking pictures though the power scopes so i was able to capture some detail of the bears.
As we were doing our nightly briefing the bear on the ice that we had been watching earlier returned so meeting over and we headed out to watch the bear.
A day of unexpected made this a “Best Day Ever….So Far”!!!
