Narwhale! Seven O'Clock and Moving Left!

I woke this morning feeling the absence of my CPAP.  I've been doing the ExciteOSA, which is like a TENS unit for your tongue to try to get by without the CPAP for this trip.  It seems to be helping, as I feel less tired than I usually do after going this long without the machine affectionately known as "Darth Vader", and people have been talking about another member's snoring instead of mine!  Usually, without the CPAP, my snoring is atrocious, and the other guy's snoring wasn't really too bad compared to my normal, untreated chainsaw.  

I did my whole routine of dressing in the sleeping bag before climbing out and throwing everything into the vestibule that needed to be put on after going to the bathroom.  After dressing, while waiting for breakfast, I started feeling my blood sugar bottoming down.  One of the other group members is a type 1 diabetic, and she gave me a couple of glucose tablets.  I felt much better after that.  We had scrambled eggs, bacon, and hash browns for breakfast, and Ken said the Windy app says we'll have some wind today, so we packed an extra layer, just in case.

We found a good spot very quickly, and since I thought my pictures sucked yesterday (what I looked at of them), I put the 2x extender on, hoping they would be better.  

The weather was wonderful.  We had nice, clear, and smooth-ish water.  Still cloudy, but okay.

A small breeze kicked up and gave some waves and pushed the brash ice and bergs further out.

We saw some birds and seals.  I got this thick-billed murre just before it dove under to catch food.

I though I missed this long-tailed jaeger, but I got a few poor shots.

This ringed seal played around for a while, too.

While we were sitting around waiting, I mentioned to Ken that I only had the Arctic Ocean left for getting into, and that any body part counts.  I've been in the North and South Atlantic, the North and South Pacific, the Southern Ocean, and the Indian Ocean.  The only ocean left is the Arctic.  The International Hydrographic Organization defines Baffin Bay as a marginal arm of the Arctic Ocean and we were well above the Arctic Circle, so this would, in fact, be my last ocean to be in.  So, we asked the local guides if it would be safe, and one went over to check the ice all the way to the edge.  He found me a spot.  I put my coat on (because I was laying down in the snow and ice and needed that waterproof outer layer) and laid down, putting my hand in and splashing water!  Just a little after I took my hand out, a murre popped up at just that spot!  I'm glad he didn't get my fingers!

I started a fad.  After guide Andrew helped me up (which was a chore in all those layers), there was a small line to also touch the water!  Of the 10 tourist members of our group, at least four others (so half) also dipped a paw into the frigid Arctic waters!

Andrew also pointed out more polar bear tracks along the floe edge/polar bear highway this morning.

Soon after the last of us finished, just about lunch time, a compliance officer with the Canadian Wildlife Service stopped by to make sure everything was copacetic, which it was.  

It wasn't long after they left that we heard that call we had come all the way up here for - "Narwhale!  Seven o'clock and moving left!"  We all ran to our cameras, doing the best we could to track and photograph them while they bobbed up and down.  I did my best, but I practiced for harsh light, and my skills aren't so great to begin with.  I have decided that I really stink as a photographer for pictures of moving targets on the water.  But, I think I'm the only one of us that got a tusk!  In this case, a poor picture is better than no picture!  

After lunch, we got a similar call with these guys heading to the right.  I'm glad our guides knew most of us didn't have a clue which way was east or west, but we could tell our right from our left!  Again, my pictures still sucked, but here is one of the better ones.

The video is a little better.

When he dove, many of our group walked over to the next little cove, hoping he would come up there.  Notice that anytime somebody went away from the core group, an armed guard had to go with them, just in case a polar bear showed up and decided to attack.  They tend to try to stay away from groups of people and groups of tents, but they have been known to attack individuals or groups of two.  The gun (a .30-06 rifle) is hard to see, but the guy fourth from the right is the guide carrying it, and it is the little line over his right shoulder.

I never saw any of them grab for the cameras while they were there, and they said it came up, but still too far away, so I'm glad I rested and shot some more kittiwakes

and scenery.

Baffin Island on the left; Bylot Island on the right.  Eclipse Sound opening into Baffin Bay is the frozen icy part!

A crack in the floe ice behind our chairs.

Soon after the rest of them got back, we loaded up and headed back to camp.  When I dumped my pictures, I thought they all sucked.  My focus tended to be short, but it was hard to track them.  I think I need to go to a marine park and practice shooting moving marine mammals when I get back to Biloxi.  I also need to remember to use sunscreen because my face got sunburned today.  Dinner was a rice, vegetable, chicken stew type meal.  I went to bed feeling very downhearted about the quality of my narwhal shots.  Hoping for more opportunities!

First Day on the Floe Edge

 Well, somehow, I made it through the bright, cold night!  I crawled painfully into my tent, over the plywood that was used as a base and through the zipper hole onto my -35 sleeping bag.  I shed my outer layers and set them to the side.  I had stopped by my suitcase on the way to the tent and tossed fresh undies and socks into the sleeping bag, then I crawled in with them.  When the bag started warming up, I shed my base layers, tossing the dirty undies and socks outside, but leaving the base layer in.  I was wearing them again tomorrow.  I tried my blow-up camping pillow, but it sucked, so I tossed it to the foot of the tent and put my parka under my head.  I pulled my Ozempic out of my inner coat pocket and into my sleeping bag, too, so it wouldn't freeze.  I tried to read, but was too tired.  Put on my eye mask and had a mild panic attack, so I took it off.  Surprisingly, I had difficulty sleeping with the daylight.  I used to sleep with the light on, falling asleep reading!  But I couldn't sleep without the mask.  Eventually, I was so exhausted, I went out with the mask.

I did wake up well rested-ish, though.  It was interesting trying to give myself a shot of my Ozempic in a sleeping bag, but I was able to do it!  That was the last dose in that pen and I would be home in time for the next dose, so I didn't have to worry about it anymore.  I "shimmied" into my undies and base layer, threw everything else I needed for the day into the little vestibule of the tent, stepped into my boots, and headed for the outhouse!  After that trip, I grabbed the rest of my clothes, meds, and other things from the vestibule, zipped the outer layer (couldn't reach the little inner circular zipper from outside), and headed to the dining tent to finish dressing.  This became my routine.  I could stand and move around in the dining tent, and since I left my suitcases outside my tent, I could just go over there to get my toothbrush and hairbrush and other things I may need.  About the time I was ready to go, the guides woke up and powered up the generator, giving some heat.

Oatmeal and oranges were the first breakfast.  I never developed a taste for oatmeal, but the oranges were quite good!  They had Tetley black tea, but one of the other ladies in the group had some really good other tea she brought with her.  King Cole orange pekoe.  I'm going to have to order some.  I traded her hand warmers for tea bags!  Dropped a bag in my big, old fashioned, Stanley thermos to take to the floe edge with me.

While outside, I got a shot of the guides harvesting part of our iceberg for water!  That Greenland glacier water sure is good!

After breakfast, we loaded up in our komatiks and headed to the floe edge, where the ice has melted away from the open water.  On the way, we saw some ringed seals hanging out by their holes in the ice.  They apparently dig several holes in the ice with a claw they have on a flipper.  Anytime a polar bear comes, they can just drop down into the hole and come up at another.  Kind of like a "whack-a-mole" game!  Even though we were going pretty fast, and they would drop down if we got very close to them, I got a couple of decent shots with the Lumix hanging around my neck.  I liked the iceberg behind this guy, too!

We drove past several very lovely spots, but they just weren't right for the narwhals!  Mostly it was because the wind had been blowing toward the floe edge, blowing chunks of ice in.  Narwhals apparently prefer a bit of clear water without all that brash ice mucking it up!

We know narwhals have been in the area because we also passed by some carcasses left by some hunters who had already harvested the meat and tusk.  Narwhals are not endangered.  They just have such a small normal habitat that few people can see them!  Here, glaucous gulls are feeding on a fresh carcass.

We got a little close and the gulls flew away.

 

We made a quick stop to check out...

the polar bear tracks.  This area along the floe ice is known as the "polar bear highway".  Our guide said these prints appeared to be made by a 4-year-old, barely weaned and on his own.

The sun (when it peeks through the clouds) moves in a circle since it doesn't set.  It was clear on our first day, and the sun behind the distant icebergs gave them an otherwordly glow.

We finally found a spot with some water devoid of brash ice.  When we got there, there were some thick-billed murre, a member of the auk family.  Relative to the puffin and dressed like an adele penguin.  So adorable!

It didn't take long for Elisha to set up our lunch.  You could always tell when it was lunch time on the floe edge!  If you blow the picture up, you can tell that one of the chairs has a parka hanging off the back.  That would be my Antarctica parka.  My base layers were apparently really good!  One of the people with us asked what they were.  (Just FYI, I got MerinoTech 320 superfine.)

This is where we all were.  Scarfing down sandwiches and soup.

After lunch, we were back watching the floe edge.  Don't worry, though.  Our local guides were watching for narwhals while we ate!  Also, when the wind started blowing, I had to put my parka back on.  There were three Antarctica cruises represented by the jackets on the floe ice.  Mine is Albatros Expedictions (blue).  There were also Quark Expeditions (yellow) and Lindblad/National Geographic (orange) jackets.

It wasn't long before a ringed seal came by and played in the area.  After checking to make sure we were looking,

he floated on his back for a while, 

did some side stroking,

and even posed for us!

Before time to head back to camp, we also saw the black-legged kittiwake

and pomarine jaeger.

There was one call for "Narwhal!" (pronounced narwhale by our Inuit guides), but our guides and Ken (the group leader) were the only ones who saw it, so it doesn't count as far as I'm concerned.

On the way back, we stopped by the narwhal carcass.  Apparently, they only have the one tooth, and it's the left molar, which protrudes through its head as the tusk/horn.

Not everybody got their pix before the guide let go of the head, and I'm one that likes to touch things and see how they feel, so...

It felt like a bunch of small barnacles!  The guides said the head is hard and prickly, but the skin is softer and smoother on its body.

All of you who know me know that I was still taking pictures all the way back to camp, and I really liked this shot of the tandem komatik behind the bumpy ice with Baffin Island as the backdrop.

Dinner of pasta and meatballs was waiting for us when we got back to camp.  After dinner, I dumped all of my pictures on my computer and the new external hard drive Chrissy got me for Mother's Day, talked a little bit with my new friends, and headed to bed.  Same routine as last night!

Off to the Great White North!

For my 60th birthday, I booked a trip.  I know.  That's such a surprise!  So, on June 2, I boarded a plane to Ottawa, Canada, (Well, two of them, to be exact.) where I met up with a group of folks bound for cold weather.  The plan from there was to get up early the next morning to catch another two planes to a place inside the Arctic Circle called Pond Inlet.  The Arctic Circle is the location where there is polar night and midnight sun.  In our case, we were expecting the midnight sun.  It sits at approximately 66° North latitude.

The hamlet of Pond Inlet, in Nunavut Territory, Canada, sits at about 72° North latitude.  It has a population of about 1,500 people, mostly Inuit.  It sits on the northern edge of Baffin Island, a little over 1650 km from Greenland.  The Inuit name of Pond Inlet is Mittimatalik, or the place where the landing place is.  Some translations say it means the place where Mattima is buried.  Nobody seems to know who Mattima is other than some ancient person.  Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself.

So, after waking up at 3:30 am and heading to the airport, we learned our first flight to Iqaluit was canceled for mechanical reasons.

Our initial schedule was that we were to fly all the way to Pond Inlet that day.  We were scheduled to spend the night and the next morning in town, leaving for the ice floe and our camp site after lunch.  Our guide, Ken, and the tour company, Eagle-Eye Tours, managed to get us rebooked onto the afternoon flight to Iqaluit with a morning connection on to Pond Inlet.  They just weren't able to get us all in the same hotel.  Iqaluit is just below the Arctic Circle at about 63° North Latitude.  Not high enough for the midnight sun, but it never really got dark there, either.  Around midnight, I got a picture out my window.  The sky looked like a sunset.  It's easier to see how dark it was through the hotel window.  It never got darker than this, but the camera drew in more light than was actually there just taking a picture of town.  The picture in the room was really more accurate, but you can still see the lights from buildings in the lower shot, too.

After a nice evening in the hotel, not long enough to be able to use the huge bathtub in my room, but only allowing for a quick shower, it was back to the airport.  The Iqaluit airport has a variety of handmade Inuit tapestries on the walls.  Some of us spent some time trying to figure out some of the meanings and hearing stories of the area from our tour guide.

It was a beautiful flight over snowy mountains and frozen rivers and lakes.  We finally landed in Pond Inlet, where even the airstrip is unpaved!  We all went in one door and out the other of the approximately four-room airport (3 private offices and one open hall for passengers and friends).  They took a truck to the airport to gather our luggage and dropped it off outside, where we claimed our own out of the pile.  Jim from the hotel we were supposed to have stayed at met us there with a van and loaded up our bags.  Since it was only about a quarter of a mile from the airport to the hotel, most people walked.  I rode with the bags.

We had a few minutes, so some of us walked up to the town's gazebo.

From the gazebo, you can see Bylot Island across the frozen Eclipse Sound.

Following a delicious burger lunch, we changed clothes and headed for our final destination.  I was glad I brought Bruce's suspenders with me because I bought my insulated snow pants a little too large, even considering all the layers that were under them!  We traveled by komatik pulled by Skidoos over the frozen Eclipse Sound close to the mouth of Baffin Bay, where the ice opened into the open water along the migration path of the unicorn of the sea, the elusive narwhal!

A komatik is a partially enclosed sled that travels along the ice and snow behind Skidoo snowmobiles.  Our local Inuit guides were expert at pulling us over the ice and being careful to cross any cracks in a safe manner.  We rode two to a komatik.

The Sound in front of Pond Inlet was a parking lot of Skidoos and komatiks.

This is the inside of my komatik.  Thankfully, Lee, our guide, had a mattress in it.  That came in handy when we got cold and decided to duck inside for part of the ride.

A video of leaving Pond Inlet

One of the cracks we crossed.  The wood is the side of my komatik.

Driving down the Sound and crossing a crack.  We were moving pretty fast!

Just a lovely view with Baffin Island on one side and Bylot Island on the other and the trails of the vehicles.

The first iceberg we encountered.  These icebergs flow in from Greenland and get stuck in the ice as the Sound freezes (floe ice).  I liked this framing, which shows how large the mountains on Bylot Island are.  This may not have been a huge iceberg, but it was not small by any stretch of the imagination.

We took a break about an hour and a half down the Sound.  They put up a tent for a bathroom for us.

We finally arrived at our camp, where the kitchen tents (blue) and the dining tent (orange) were already set up and waiting for us.

This was the iceberg that was by our camp.

After we arrived, the local guides set up our individual, yellow tents.  Then they unloaded sleeping bags, which we chose.  I got a good, brown -35 sleeping bag, but some got some flimsy regular temperature bags.  The guides ultimately had to send some folks back to town to get heavier bags.  Once the sleeping bags were chosen, our luggage was unloaded and we grabbed it.  I kept mine outside my tent because crawling in over the plywood base was absolutely miserable.  I didn't want to enter the tent other than getting in and out for sleeping.

When they set up our bathroom tent, we chose to leave the flap down.  This was the view from our bathroom.  The iceberg was much more imposing, but the camera wouldn't focus right to make it look as close as it actually was.

The interior of our toilet. 

I never took a good shot of just our tents, but here is a shot of Bylot Island with the generator that gave us heat in the dining tent, a komatik, and a couple of our little yellow tents.

The interior of my tent.  I'm not sure how they fit two people in these, but they did!

We had finally arrived at our camp site and settled in for the week.  Three days of travel for five days of camping on the floe ice.  And time to try to sleep in broad daylight.  All the time we were there, dusk never arrived.  The only time the sun wasn't shining was when the clouds were blocking it (which, to be honest, was most days).