On the Boat! (Day 1; 6-9-12)

Hey Everybody!

It's nearly 11:30pm - of course, time means nothing in a place where every hour looks like Noon! We are about 7hrs into our trip. We've got great weather conditions. The only possible negative in terms of conditions is that the ice charts show clear passage in many areas. Great for boat safety, but not so great in terms of polar bear activity since they use floating ice for hunting. I'm still hopeful for sightings though.

Here are a few pics to get you started.

Top deck of the boat. Yes, that's a picnic table! Yep, I've sat there after 10pm to watch in amazement as we pass mountain after mountain, glacier after glacier.

As we left Longyearbyen, we got a good look at the global seed vault. I cannot tell you how difficult it is to find. Hidden in plain sight; looks like a boulder until you know what you're looking at.

Some of the mountains surrounding the fjord in Longyearbyen.

Because the weather was so nice we wandered into another fjord to see an active mining town, Barentsberg. We only viewed it from the boat.

More mountains....