June 29- At Sea

Today has been a lazy, lazy day. We are plowing through the waters to reach the northernmost city in the world, Ny Alensund. We are beyond the 66 degrees of the Arctic Circle as we head toward the group of islands called Svalbardt. In 1533 William Barents discovered these islands and named the islands as well as the Barents Sea.

We slept late and ate a quick breakfast at the Coffee Corner before going to the theater to hear a lecture entitled Beyond the Arctic Circle. He was interesting as he told about the history, the life style, the animals and the plants of this area. When Barents discovered this area there were so many whales of many different kinds so a huge whaling industry began- major whaling and major waste as not much of each whale was used. 

He talked about polar bears and their struggle in this time of melting ice. It is difficult for the bears to get around on the fewer and fewer pieces of ice to get food. Life is very fragile here for animals and for plants. He showed some beautiful arctic flowers but cautioned a step on a plant in this area would leave a footprint and do damage that would last for years and years. 

We learned about Arctic Terns- big black birds- that hatch here and then for the winter season fly all the way to the South Pole. That is quite a migration!

Bear Island that we will sail by today was named by Barents to remember their first encounter with a polar bear.  He told us lots about our port in a few days-Longyearbyen. Hopefully when we have some photos I will add that information.

We also heard a great historical lecture by Sandra Bowren about the Vikings. The history and culture of the Scandinavian countries are intertwined. She said Denmark (population of 5 million people and made up of 500 little islands,) Sweden (9 million people,) Finland (3 million people with 1/3 of the area above the Arctic Circle,  Norway (4.5 million people and 1/4 of them live in Oslo), and Iceland (300,000 people.)

The myth that she debunked was that a Viking helmet always had horns on it. Rather she said the helmets were conical shaped and had a nose guard as a face protection. 

Today is our anniversary . When we returned from lunch the doorbell rang and we were presented champagne and a small mousse cake. Plus we got a card from the Captain. Who would have thought 46 years ago we would be sailing in the Arctic Sea on this special day for us.