Day 1 – 7th August 2009

Well, I don’t really know where to start! This place is so awesome that it’s incredibly difficult to describe with words. We have all heard icebergs, seen pictures of them and probably have some idea of their size, but I certainly was still blown away when we saw them for the first time. Their immense size and colour are just awe inspiring and I have just got back in from standing on the foredeck taking picture after picture after picture!

The day started again nice and early at five in the morning Newfoundland time. Our flight north was on the Canadian Coast Guard crew change charter flight which flew from St. Johns to Thule (Greenland) via Iqaluit on Baffin Island. The flight was pretty standard except the security. It was like getting on a bus!! The entertaining part was when we landed at Thule. Someone, either the Americans of the Danes, had decided that to move the 500m between plane and boat they needed to take our passports away for some sort of closer inspection. We did get a Greenland stamp though!

We boarded around 1pm and the rest of the day was spent moving boxes around containing all the ‘stuff’ needed for the cruise. There were boxes of computers, sampling bottles, ADCPs, CTDs, railway wheels, floats etc etc etc. Dinner on board is at 5pm and the guys were not kidding when they said there was food everywhere. At any time of the day, you can walk into the galley and eat whatever you want, be it cakes, ice cream, cereal and probably lots of other stuff I have not discovered yet! After dinner there was of course the safety talk during which we all had to try on the full Arctic immersion suits. They are incredibly hot inside but in the water I can still imagine them not giving you that much more survival time seeing as the water temperature is zero or below!

Well that’s enough for now – I am going to head off to one of the lounges (there is both a crew and officer lounge) to see what is going on. But first I must go and have a look at a massive berg that has just passed by our cabin window!