Sea Ice Walk

In the afternoon the Captain managed to pilot the ship into a shelf of sea ice off the mainland coast. During the first attempt, large cracks formed in the ice and a huge piece broke off. It took 2 or three goes before the ice was hard enough to withstand the force of the ship barging its way through, until there was enough distance past the gangway towards the back of the ship.

Once that was done, someone was sent to test the ice, to see more or less how thick it was and how deep the snow was – for safety purposes. Then a small group of expedition team members set off carefully through the snow, from the gangway towards the bow of the ship and just beyond. They had a rope attached to the first person – in case he/she fell through the ice. But all was good, so the rest of the team set about trying to form a path through the snow that guests could walk through.

Well, it didn’t quite work because we walked through slushy snow, often breaking through the top powdery layer and going through down to our needs to a harder layer of snow.

Each colour group went out in turn, and even the staff got off. It was a fantastic time for everyone, to walk on a thick plate of ice. Crew set up a rope from the bow of the ship and people took turns to have a photograph of themselves ‘pulling’ the ship.

Once everyone was on board, the Captain reversed the ship out of the ice sheet and we headed back out into the channel.Read more