August 20^th,2026

Northwest Passage

The day started off well with caviar on the rocks. This isn’t quite the same as we have had on ocean cruises, where you can have caviar in the surf, but it still involved caviar. Instead of having caviar being presented to us on a surfboard, as we soaked up the sun in the Caribbean, we were sitting in the Constellation Lounge listening to rock music observing the sea ice outside. Still there was plenty of caviar and I suppose caviar is really more endemic to arctic regions than the Caribbean, so all was well. Now caviar on sea ice would be perfection, but I don’t see that happening.

In the afternoon we got to get up close and personal with the sea ice. One of the best things about the Image Master photography program is that the 10 of us in the group get to go out first in our Zodiac so as soon as the Zodiacs were in the water off we went in search of polar bears.

We zig zagged around the ice floes and marveled at their extraordinary shapes. Then someone announced on the radio that a polar bear had been sighted, so off we zoomed to see if we could find it. Their description of where the bear was was rather vague, and it was also getting more and more foggy. Our search turned out to be in vain.

Meanwhile the fog had become quite thick. The ship had gradually faded into the fog.

I was concerned about how we would find the ship again, but Kyle, our driver reassured me that he had dropped a pin on his phone showing the ship’s location, so he would be able to find it.

Then captain Simon came on the radio and said he was moving the ship. Could this be a problem? Kyle said no, we would always be able to find the ship again. OK.

I wasn’t convinced but we were having fun riding around looking for the polar bear. It’s like being on a game drive looking for a leopard, only much colder.

Then all of a sudden we saw what looked like the expedition team hanging out on an ice floe. Could it be? The bar team were there too. Strange. We pulled up on the icefloe and lo and behold people were handing us glasses of champagne. Yay! This is my kind of safari.

We polished off the champagne rather quickly and continued our polar bear search. We never found the bear, but found clear evidence that it had been there.

On the ice was the remnants of a kill. Probably a seal. The bear was long gone alas, but at least it looked like it had had a good meal.

The fog had been quite thick, but with the aid of modern navigational tools, we were able to find the ship again.

We passed the kayakers on our way back to the ship.

We returned to the ship, cold, but so excited about our expedition into the frozen icefield. Sad that we hadn’t seen a polar bear, but we had seen a beautiful, pristine, part of our planet. This is the most amazing part of the world.

Back to reality we had the Seabourn Club cocktail party this evening. Usually at these parties only guests who have previously sailed on Seabourn get to be invited, but interestingly enough all of the guests, Club members or not, were invited today. I actually quite like that, they are all going to be Club members soon, so why not invite them now.

Jacco is the Club representative and he gave the usual speech about how many Club guests at what level were on board, and where we all come from. As usual the majority are from the US and Canada but there are also quite a few from Europe and Australia on board as well.

Captain Simon, who must have been taking a break from guiding us though the ice field presented service awards to the crew, and congratulated the guests who had the most sailing days on Seabourn. I thought he said 8 years, but I may have been confused. It happens.

Then at the end of the Club party Olivia treated us to a show. She really has a lovely voice. The highlight of the show was when she said she was going to do a song by Celine Dion. I knew what was coming.

Sure enough she attempted to put on a life vest. Now if anyone has ever tried to put on one of those life vests that inflate when you get into the water, they can be tricky. We have to put one on every time we go out on the Zodiacs, and I still manage to get myself into a tangle. This is what was happening to Olivia, but a member of the audience leapt up to assist her.

Then the backdrop changed to that of icebergs and the prow of a ship, and not surprisingly she burst into singing My Heart Will Go On.

Kind of appropriate when we are here surrounded by ice.

The she pulled the red toggle, and the life vest inflated. She continued singing.

All I could think of was yes, I was right. If the life vests of all of us in a Zodiac inflated at the same time because we were getting swamped by water, it would be a real problem. Definitely to be avoided. I also looked carefully at the prow of the ship in her backdrop. Is that us? Hopefully not.

Olivia put on a great show and we were hungry for dinner at the end. There are limited options for dinner on the Venture. There is no Solis nor Earth and Ocean. There is only the Restaurant, the Colonnade, and the sushi bar in the Club.

It was time to try sushi.

When we got there, it was very quiet and there were only 3 other couples there.

We had a cozy table by the fireplace.

The chef made very acceptable sushi for us. I ate a lot before I remembered to take a photo.

It was great, but we have got used to a lot more food at our meals, so when we were finished in the Club, we headed down to the Restaurant and had dessert. A good choice.

Although Wendy Law was playing again, we gave it a miss – I was exhausted after our afternoon in the arctic air. And who knows what tomorrow may bring.