Fred's Logbook
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| Date / Time: 2011-07-05 18:00:00 | Voyage from: to Woodfjorden-Liefdefjorden-Moffen | ETA: |
| Fred-Report: This morning Spitzbergen welcomed us with its typical weather. Looking outside it was a bit misty, the cloud base very very low and I could see only the very low part of the mountains. The wind was fresh from Northnorthwest and our goal today was to find polar bears. It did not take long to discover the first one... ohhhooo my first polar bear... he was walking on shore along a beach but unfortunately went inland where we could not see him again.....  so we continued our way to the fast ice a bit deeper in the Liefdefjorden.... everybody looked concentraded through their binoculars.... no bear around... another hours passed without success until Brandon shouted ... POLAR BEAR...POLAR BEAR... yes, yes, yes!!! there he is walking and wondering over the fast ice... quickly we got ready and jumped into the zodiac to bring us a bit closer to the bear. Wohooooo, that was great... he walked over to the small hilly island where he went out of sight... but being patient is our success then after a while a Mother with baby bear appeared close by... awesome... they are so cute even though dangerous they looked very friendly to me.... after a while the mother with baby walked away and we headed happily back to the ship....   Now we want to cross the latitude of 80 degrees North.... ohohhhhh, that is cool... That will be certainly the farest I will get... it is only 600 Nautical Miles to the North Pole... wow, that is very close, folks!!! At 3 o'clock in the afternoon we crossed 80 degrees and I drank together with our guests a glass of champagne....  then just a few hundred meters East a very remote island is laying: Moffen. Home of hundreds and hundreds of walrus. We were not allowed to get closer than 300 m to the island this is to protect the walrus. So we admired the herd of walrus laying on the flat sandy beach through the binoculars.  Then while we were drifting in front of the island, some walrus played around in the water and came closer and closer.... wohooooo... the group were not shy at all and observed us very carefully before coming closer. Finally I almost could touch them from the bow and I could see their eyes looking at me. It seemed to me they had a lot of fun playing around the ship, pushing eachother away and under water.... ohooo they were really huge.      Do you remember my picture from Bodo with the walrus made out of stone? Now only a few days later, I really am in front of those guys, awesome, and I can tell you they are even bigger than on that picture. Their body is light brown, redish and sometimes with pink spots... ohhh and some of them have very long teeth... very impressive those walrus       .... well well... it's time to say goodbye to them, I waved a last time and we continued our journey to another certainly beautiful place in Spitzbergen. Photos                 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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