Day 15 – Day at sea along the south east coast of Baffin Island

I’ll actually start this entry with the moments just after submitted last night’s entry. As we headed out of Cumberland Sound for the Davis Strait, the swells started to pick up, along with one heck of a good wind.

Since we had a few minutes before student curfew, I grabbed my windbreaker and headed out to see what a true sea wind felt like. I could come up with all sorts of clichés to describe it (takes your breath away, sweeps you off your feet), but it still wouldn’t do it justice.

Just another experience on my second Arctic expedition that I can’t put into words.

It’s pretty obvious that there’s a lot to the Arctic that can’t be put into words. That’s why a big component of our voyages is documented on video. We have two videographers on board – Alex Taylor and Pascale Otis. Both are Arctic explorers in their own sense, but have temporarily given up those titles to record our exploits for posterity.

The journey of how one of our videos is made is quite extraordinary. Both Alex and Pascale head out with the students on landings and zodiac cruises. One usually captures the candid moments and reactions of the students, while the other makes sure to film all the sights that we get to see. Together, with a bunch of interviews with staff and students, they gather all the raw footage they need.

If our landings or cruises took place in the morning, Pascale would then hibernate into her cabin-turned-editing-suite for the afternoon, barely coming out for air and food. It would seemingly be a daunting task to edit the enormous amount of footage taken during our always-eventful excursions.

Yet somehow, in time for our daily briefing in mid-evening, in would walk Pascale with a thumb drive in hand and a tired smile on her face. And then we would sit in awe as she paraded her five-minute masterpieces on the large screen in front of us.

As always, thunderous applause resounded through the ship as the credits flashed on the screen. But Pascale’s (and often, Alex’s) job was far from done. Next up is the arduous task of getting the video out to the world via satellite transmission.

This involves climbing up to the top deck of the ship, no matter what the weather or sea conditions. Often it takes multiple attempts to successfully send the videos, photos and our journal entries (including the one you are reading), before it’s received by the Students On Ice head office in Ottawa and uploaded to their website.

If you haven’t already checked out these great videos, please do so. Because if pictures really do say a thousand words, then you are in for a one heck of a long novel…

Tomorrow, we race towards Ungava Bay to start our journey home. In the morning, we’ll stop for a cruise around Akapatok Island, home to a large collection of seabirds. Then it’s back to the ship to begin a long period of celebration as we wrap up our time on the ship.

LAST MINUTE UPDATE! Northern Lights! As we ended our evening briefing, word got out that there were some aurora to be seen. I quickly grabbed my warm weather clothes and headed out to the bow of the ship. There, I saw one of the most spectacular displays of northern lights that I have ever seen!

Curtains of green and white, tinged with purple, danced across the sky above our heads. As people gazed with awe, the astronomer in me came out, and before long, all sorts of constellations, planets (well, one anyways) and other nighttime sights were getting pointed out.

Alas, curfew hit and the impromptu astronomy workshop was put on hold for a while. Who knows, maybe I’ll get another chance before this expedition is over.