Greenland, fjord, bears and an owl!

So now that I am off of satellite internet and back in civilization I can update you on the rest of my voyage! So after we left Devon Island we sampled at a whole bunch of stations leaving the Northwest Passage and out in Baffin Bay. Once we started our transect to Greenland however, ice and a storm prevented us from continuing. We took shelter at the Thule US Air Force Base on Greenland and headed back out the next morning but after a couple more attempts the chief scientist decided that we would have to abort the rest of the transect. 

This gave us some more time to sample further South and so we hit some stations off of Baffin Island, in Gibbs Fjord and near the second half of the Ice island that broke off and grounded nearby. After the ice island we sped towards home. We hit another storm just off Labrador, though, so we got delayed and chief decided to do some multibeam mapping of the ocean floor instead of continuing.  The next day it was calm and we even spotted a pod of Orcas! Six in total, but they were up and down too fast for pictures. We moved through the Strait of Belle Isle and into the Bay of St Lawrence and from there it was smooth sailing all the way to Quebec City. I can honestly say that there is nothing in the world like being on top of a ship when she sails into her home port! It was amazing. We passed the CCGS Pierre Radison on the way, one of the Amundsen's sister ships, too! And so ends my Arctic Journey.

Full moon over Devon Island and Peterman Ice Island PI

Iceberg Off Greenland

So many icebergs

View from Thule Air Force Base

The base itself. Danish government wouldn't let us disembark though...

The storm that foiled our transect plans

Riding the couches during a storm is, sadly, prohibited

Seal hanging out (Jessy's picture)

Glacier on Baffin Island, Gibbs Fjord

More of the Fjord

Mama bear and her cubs

The Amundsen conquers (and multibeam maps for the first time ever) Gibbs Fjord

Leaving the Fjord

The other half of Peterman Ice island: P-II

And again, this one is grounded.

Our resident snowy owl. Stayed with us for quite a while and relieved us of a few seagulls.

Oh hey there

Cudos to Jessy for snapping such good pics

Devon Island, Baffin Bay

So today we are hanging out near Devon Island which is in Baffin Bay just north of the westernmost portion of Baffin island. The AUV team and all of the ice related teams were out either in the barge or had landed on the ice in the helicopter. For us, we got a small break before the next station. We sampled the night before just north of Somerset Island which is very close to Beechy Island where the Franklin expedition wintered. I took the chance to grab a few pictures of the ice bergs and of the mountainous island. Apparently there is an impact crater from a 2km wide asteroid on Devon Island that has as close a climate and geology to Mars as you can get on Earth, who knew! Incredible to be in the Northwest Passage between it and Baffin Island!

Bear and other pictures

So for the last two days we've been in Viscount Melville Sound in the Parry Channel. This is where we saw the most ice. The pictures below are from when we came close to a small glacial ice island between where we were and where our station was. There is a picture of one of the polar bears we saw there too. Pictures with the signature in the bottom are courtesy of our rosette operator Jessy.

Shadow of the Amundsun on the ice island.

The infamous, probably hungry for scientists, polar bear!

The Amundsen leaves a trail.

The ice island.

Daytime ice rosette. The best kind! To get this nice patch of water to sample in the Captain had to basically drive in circles to break enough ice. On the ascent a huge piece of ice floated over the rosette and we had to veer away in order to bring it back on board.

Arctic Sunset, good way to end the day : )

Just had to post this one of Jessy's. The really Northern Northern Lights.