Denmark Strait

This morning, there was a very early morning zodiac cruise between 2 islands off the east Greenland coast. Sadly, I didn't go because I slept in. I also knew that by setting the alarm clock early - it would have woken Paul up. He had got to bed after 4am. this morning.

Many lucky guests got to see a polar bear and her cub. This was spotted by the Captain. He got the prize for being the first person to spot a polar bear on this cruise. The prize? Big bar of Toblerone chocolate!

The ship set sail again, just after 9am and we have been heading in a north easterly direction through a "window of opportunity" in the ice rather than sailing quite a bit south to get around it.

Progress has been slow at times as we zigzagged through sea ice sheets, sometimes down to 1 knot or less in speed. Once or twice, we were stopped by very thick ice until a path opened up, or an alternative direction around the ice was found, or we plowed through and knocked the ice sheets. We will eventually head south once we have got through the band of ice.

Visibility hasn't been good either - fog and more fog.Read more