Friday 7th August - Greenland Sea

We woke up to calm seas, which makes the crossing so much more fun. After breakfast, we went to Kit's lecture on polar bears. One word summed it up - excellent!

I then walked ten laps of the deck while Wendy washed her hair and then I lazed around for the rest of the morning. We had lunch with the photographer, Daniela from Ecuador, and Judith from Perth. Also on our table were Cindy and Lee from Colorado Springs, who have done ten voyages in the Discoverer. Cindy is a freelance photographer working for various cruise lines.

After lunch, I took some photos and video from the aft deck of the fulmars following the ship.

Sailing across the Greenland Sea to Scoresby Sund

Wendy went to Bruno's talk on photography hoping to get advice about her camera, which has blotches on the display in certain conditions. She then listened to a lecture on glaciers by one of our fellow guests, Prof. Jack Vitek, Professor Emeritus, Texas A&M University, Department of Geology and Geophysics. 

At 5pm, we went to John Fonseca's lecture on the politics of the Arctic and the commercial interests vying to gain a foothold in the region. 

We have been invited to sit with the Chief Engineer at the Venetian Society Dinner.

First, we went to the Venetian Society Cocktail Party, hosted by Selvaggia. We arrived in the theatre just after 7pm, not realising it had started at 6.45pm and were then embarrassed to be presented with a card celebrating 100 days on Silversea and free laundry!

We went down to the dining room for our Venetian Society dinner with the Chief Engineer. He is Bulgarian and his name is something like Zdravko Simeonov, but he is known as "Chief" on board, which made life easier for us.We were lucky to sit next to him and we had a very informative chat about Silver Explorer and her various destinations. The others on the table were a couple from Christmas Island, Audrey and Andrew, the ship's doctor from South Africa and Peter and Jackie from Brisbane.

By the time we go to bed, we should be over halfway to Scoresby Sund. The sea is getting rougher and some people are suffering from seasickness. We put the clocks back by one hour tonight.