Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Hello Readers,

TODAY WAS INCREDIBLE!!!!! We did so much and saw so much that was not only eye boggling but made me think as well. SOI woke up this morning to a ship surrounded by sea ice!! There were mini-icebergs everywhere!!! As we sailed further and further into Hoar Bay (a bay on the eastern coast of Baffin Island that we had sailed to last night) the ice started getting more compacted and harder to sail through. Eventually we reached 10:10 ice (100% ice, 0% water) and the boat had to stop. The next little while was spent looking at the beauty and magnificence of our frozen landscape. It finally hit me that this was what was in danger; this was what was at risk because of humans. The thought that ran through my mind at that time was, “what right do we have? Who gave us the right to destroy?” I couldn’t imagine this bay without the splendor of the ice. This is one of many amazing things that humans are unknowingly changing. It is hard to see so much beauty and bear the thought that the next generation might never witness it.

After a while of a frightening yet sometimes hopeful daydream about the future I was awakened by the announcement over the PA system that we were going to be making an hour long Zodiac cruise through the ice. I grabbed my camera and ran upstairs. When I finally boarded a Zodiac I had an excitement welling up inside me. The next hour was amazing. A calm silence fell over everybody. It was like everybody knew without communicating that we were somehow guests in somebody else’s home. About halfway into the cruise we saw the distinctive spouts of water coming from the blowhole of a Bowhead whale. Unfortunately we never saw the actual mammal.

We were all upset to go back to the ship, that is until we found out that we were going to go swimming!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We were going to join the Arctic Swim Team. The gangway (a stairway that leads to the water) was lowered and one by one we jumped into the small patch of open water that was completely surrounded by ice. When I hit the water it felt like a baseball bat had just hit me in the stomach, all the wind was knocked out of me. That was only for a short while though. As soon as I climbed onto the gangway I felt great (cold, but great). It felt like I had had a cold shower after a 13-year-long hike. We (later) found out that the water temperature at that time had been -1oC. That is roughly 3o away from the freezing point of salt water. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

The rest of the day was great. I was still on the adrenaline rush from swimming. We had workshops on conservation strategies and we talked about our experiences on the expedition.

At the end of the evening we listened to and watched songs/art/poems that students had written/drawn while on board. It was a funny yet emotional night because tomorrow is our last day on board the ship. After that we fly home from Iqualuit.

Thanks for Reading,

Connor