August 21^st, 2026

Northwest Passage

We were awakened by the sound of the bow thrusters early this morning. I love being low down on deck 5 as you feel so close to the water, but being over the bow thrusters can be an issue.

Anyway I looked out of the window to see what was happening. It was worth being woken up. The sea was completely calm, there was sea ice everywhere, and the sun was rising. It was totally stunning.

It was freezing standing out on the balcony with bare feet wearing just a bath robe, but I couldn’t move. I wanted to take in the scene around me.

The bow thrusters had stopped, and we were slowly gliding through the water. Wow! This is so cool.

We spent the rest of the day slowly making our way through the sea ice, weaving around the large ice flows, making slow progress – less than 3 knots an hour. Every now and then we would hit some ice and there would be a bump and a shudder, but that was rare. The captain and the ice captain were doing a remarkable job.

One of the great things about the Venture is the open deck at the bow on deck 6. It is the perfect place to watch what’s happening, and they even have Cokes and snacks, not to mention hot soup. Seabourn really does think of everything.

We all know about the crossing the line ceremony when you cross the equator, but who has heard of the Blue Nose ceremony? This is what happens the first time you cross the arctic circle.

King Neptune, his lovely wife, and a strange collection of animals,

led by an orca whale looking surprisingly like Olivia supervised the 3 part ceremony.

First you have to walk though ice water

Then knock back an evil concoction

And finally kiss the fish,

a rather nice looking arctic char.

My toes were really cold after walking through the ice water, so I dangled my legs in the hot tub to warm them up. Probably not the best way to do things, I am prone to chilblains, but a whole lot better than frost bite.

They were serving hot chocolate, so I went the bar to get some, and it turned out that the evil concoction was Bushmills Irish whiskey.

Despite the fact that we are sailing through rather treacherous waters captain Simon opened up the bridge so we could all see how it is done. Captain Simom, the ice captain Alex, and another officer were sitting there intently watching the ice in front of us, discussing what path to take.

Captain Simon was controlling the bow thrusters

And it seemed that with minimal effort the ship was responding to his commands and we were weaving our way through the ice fields. It was amazing to watch how skilled they were, and how responsive the ship was.

At this evening’s expedition recap Luciano showed up a photo of the icefloe where the team had provided us with champagne yesterday.

Apparently it is OK to walk on the area of blue patches – they are solid ice.

At about 11:30 PM we were thinking of calling it a day when we got a message that there was a lovely double rainbow on the port side. We grabbed our coats and cameras and headed up to deck 9. Sure enough the rainbow was still there, but probably past its prime.

We watched it for a while, and then decided that seeing as we were right next door to the Constellation Lounge, we might as pop in for a nightcap.

We had just got our drinks and were chatting with Barry from Barry and Merle who are the musical duo on board, when Luciano announced that there were polar bears on a nearby icefloe. Great excitement. Brian rushed down to the cabin to get his longer lens, and I searched the icefloe for the bears. Yay – in the distance I could see a bear! But this looked like a brown bear, not a polar bear. What was a brown bear doing on an icefloe? Soon everyone was emerging from their cabins, still half asleep, and wearing their bathrobes, stumbling around to see the bears.

There was a second bear there apparently, but I never saw it and apparently it swam away.

There was much discussion about the bear, but the consensus was that it was indeed a polar bear, just a very dirty one. Who knows how it could get dirty out here in the pristine white Northwest Passage?

We watched the bear for a while, and then the bath robed passengers returned to their cabins, and we returned to the Constellation Bar to finish our drinks. It was midnight and the sun was setting.

It had been a very special day. My favorite day so far. I am mesmerized by the icefloes. I just want to sit and watch them all day, and if a polar bear happens to be on one as it floats by, then all the better.

We watched the sun set. No green flash, there were way too many clouds, and does the green flash even occur in the arctic one wonders?