First days on board are always filled with housekeeping activities – more drills, safety equipment, boots, life jackets etc but the next day we launching into action. There will be many days at sea as we cross the Arctic Ocean but many exciting milestones along the way and interesting lectures. As we sailed north from Alaska, passing the ‘Yesterday’ and ‘Tomorrow’ islands of the Diomedes, we watched a wee bit bleary-eyed as morning dawned in a fiery strip along the distant Alaskan coast. 
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| We are the blue spot |
Sunday started what promises to be an engaging program of lectures; first up an introduction to the Arctic world - its flora, fauna, ocean currents etc. That was immediately followed by an introduction to the twenty on-board scientists and their projects. Quite impressive! The scientific aspects of this exploration voyage are diverse and interesting with projects spanning 6 themes - air, water, sea, ice, plastics, carbon. The projects include vessel performance in ice (there are a couple of Naval architects on board), microbiology, oceanography, biology. Also on board there is an ethnographer/anthropologist. Incidentally the projects being undertaken are long term studies and all the data that is collected will be shared in the public domain. To support this program of scientific investigation, the ship has some impressive labs and equipment available. It promises to be an engaging exploratory voyage particularly as this is the first transect of the Arctic Ocean through the North poles and no one knows exactly what we will encounter - the Captain is pretty excited.
All the while we were navigating into through the Bering Strait into the Beaufort Sea. The Strait, the Pacific's northernmost part, separates the Eurasia and North America land masses and connects the Bering Sea to the Beaufort Sea of the Arctic Ocean. At its narrowest point, Russia and the USA are just 85 km apart; we sailed through here barely 12 months ago at the end of our Northwest Passage expedition. The Strait is relatively shallow with an average depth of 50m and it has been theorized that during an Ice Age when the sea level fell significantly the Bering Strait formed a land bridge between North America and Asia enabling plants and animals to move in either direction. It has numerous islands, including the two Diomede Islands - Big Diomede Island on the west belongs to Russia, while the Little Diomede Island on the east belongs to USA. The International Date Line runs between the two islands hence the colloquial names 'Tomorrow' and 'Yesterday' islands.
Once through we were in the Beaufort Sea named for Francis Beaufort (1774-1857) one of the most influential figures in the history of Arctic exploration in the first half of the C19th. We sailed passed an island in the Antarctic is also named for him. In 1805 he invented the Scale of Wind velocities (the Beaufort scale) which indicates the average wind speed.
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| Alban Michon |
In the afternoon, we were treated to two engaging lectures; the first presented by French adventurer and polar explorer, Alban Michon, and then by expedition diver, underwater photographer and passionate ocean activist, Paul North. These men are special guests on board Le Charcot (Le Commandant Charcot). The days promise to be filled with delights.
And indeed they are particularly of the food variety. You know me and food! Well I am trying to exercise restraint but it’s hard! I promise not to drown you with pix of food - but the choice at each meal is amazing as you would expect; I’m trying to be sensible but ….. and then we take turns around the ship (330m) to work a wee bit off.
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| Deck 5 |
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