Got up at 5am for my first proper polar bear watch shift of the day. It was still darkish then. Can’t believe how we got from the sun never setting to almost proper day-and-night cycles THAT quickly. It is a bit of a concern of mine that it might be A LOT harder to spot bears during dark nights, even more so when the thick fog of the fall season starts settling over the Arctic land and waters gradually more frequently.
It seems that we are unlikely to see anything as much as the eleven polar bears encountered by last year’s team. Some people tell us that we are unlikely to spot any polar bears in the polar bear habitat we are in at the moment, and more likely to spot grizzlies in the grizzly bear habitat we will be entering later during our journey. Despite climate change, overlaps of those two bear species’ territories are still rare. National Parks Canada seemed to find it entirely likely that we will come across a few polar bears. Their bear-related advice was largely relating to polar bears, not grizzlies.
BIRD BLISS – L’AMOUR ARCTIQUE
At around 6am a cute pair of Arctic terns (“Just ‘terns’ up here in the Arctic,” Shawn would say) rocked up. They were very playful and came up to 3m or 4m (9.8ft to 13ft) close to the boat. At times they were dancing around each other mid-air, maybe they were lovers on their honeymoon. Other times Leven and I would watch them hover in a stationary position close above the water. And when an unsuspecting fish made its way close to the surface, they would dive down into the water to catch the prey.
Most of the day was spent in anxious anticipation of the next rowing section of our expedition, discussing different approaches, the current plan for the coming week, the ever-changing weather forecasts. Until 11pm it looked like we were going to put our oars into the riggers at midnight, then Leven decided to make it 1am, to allow for the winds to further settle down.
