Each evening there is a fireside chat at 9:00 pm. Last night was James, a 22 year old Inuit, who described his life in Nunavut. He grew up in the western area on the shore of the Arctic Ocean. He showed pictures of his home, his family, his hunting and his ancestors. He had pictures of the various animals he had hunted and described how the meat is distributed amongst all the community – they don’t hunt for themselves but for the community and use all of the animal. His only language is English although he can speak one of the Inuit dialects. His grandparent had been sent to residential schools so all they spoke was English and that was the main language in the community. When asked his opinion of the schools he said he thought they did some good as it introduced the community to schooling and other ways of life. He thought he would not have had the opportunities he did without them. I had the impression he was trying to answer what he thought we wanted to hear; however, Ken (RCMP) had said earlier the Inuit are incapable of misleading and always speak the truth.
James had worked in a diamond mine for a while, then returned to college and now is studying on Baffin Island.
This morning we had a couple of lectures – one on how mammals adapt to their environment, the other on glaciers. As before excellent speakers and a lot of very interesting information.

In the afternoon we set out on a zodiac trip to explore a local glacier at Hay Point on Bylot Island.

The zodiacs heading to Bylot Island

On the way we spotted a polar bear on shore. The experts advised it was a young male, not in great health. Apparently the first group saw 3 bears. When the bears met up one, the largest, went into the water and the other 2 headed off in opposite directions. Except for females with cubs the polar bears lead a solitary existence and avoid each other.

We also saw a number of birds, a couple of seals, ring seals and a larger seal. When we were at the face of the glacier it started to rain and sleet, such joy!

The face of the glacier – all the rubble it picks up as it moves across the land

The glacier close up, almost looks like a slab of marble

The whiter object is an iceberg from Greenland, the glacier is behind it

Then as we approached the ship we realized the sea ice that was on the other side of the bay earlier had been blown over and was now between us and the ship. As each for a path through ensued. The last zodiac squeezed through as the ice was closing up.

At about this point the sleet started

The ice between us and our ship

A cup of coffee laced with Baileys was a welcome sight as we reboarded the ship. Our special cold weather gear had been very welcome during the excursion and so was the hot shower after.

To get the zodiacs on and off the ship the zodiac driver is in the zodiac and has a life line. The zodiac has a set of belts on the floor with a ring. The crane has a hook that the ring is fastened to and the zodiac is lifted on and off the ship with the driver on board.

The glacier was receding and showed evidence of being 2 glaciers that had flowed together. The face was ambled with debris and looked like a pice of Italian marble. A small Berger Bit that had broken off a Greenland Iceberg stood out in front of the glacier, it’s white and blue colouring making it stand out against the grey, mottled face of the glacier.
The fireside chat tonight was the Siberian Circus – a story of Mark’s experience in Siberia which really did involve a circus. He said there were lots of bendy women involved!