Breaking News The last 24 hours have been absolutely amazing. Yesterday afternoon we saw our first iceberg of this epic and historical voyage. This was part of some of the unexpected sightings. A good deal of pad was built into the schedule in the event that we encountered ice that would slow down our journey. Since that has not been the case, this provides opportunities to spend more time in certain areas and to do unexpected sightings and excursions. As we started sailing towards the two icebergs, the sun was shining bright and the outside temperature was 30 degrees Fahrenheit . About seventy-five minutes later the temperature rose to a balmy 36 degrees F. We call the one on the left the boot. Looks like cowboy boot. On the right, we call this one layer of a layer cake. On the right are butlers Cetin and Jijo. Metin was a Waiter in Prego before becoming a butler and Jijo is our butler. The Captain turned the ship so we saw one of the Icebergs from a different angle. The ship also launched one of the drones to take some photos. Once again we returned to the Avenue Saloon for a pre-dinner drink. On each cruise we often find ourselves changing some of our patterns. For several years we used to go the Crystal Cove for a pre-dinner drink but the last few cruises we now go to the Avenue Saloon. Plus side for the Avenue Saloon before early dining is that it is relatively quiet. Downside is that we miss out on a live pianist. Next cruise we'll try the Palm Court. LOL. Dinner was back at the Crystal Dining Room for the second consecutive night. This time we were by ourselves. We do love to mix it up and dine with others some evening's while dining by ourselves on other nights. Head waiter Augusto made Keith tuna tartare and Anne Marie had jumbo shrimp cocktail for her appetizer. We each had salads for our next course. This was followed by Fresh Halibut Fillet. The featured evening entertainment was a special cabaret show. This featured Jonathan Hawkins, along with Curtis and Natalie as well as Sarah Combs and Eric Strong. They were accompanied by The Galaxy Orchestra. This was a pre-dinner show performed at 7:00 PM for those on early seating and at 8:30 PM for those on late seating. The performance was amazing. Jonathan sang a wide range of music from a song by Justin Timberlake to an opera song.
When we arrived back to our room we received tickets for an unexpected adventure. Weather permitting we will take a zodiac and make a beach landing on Beechey Island. We will have time to walk around the island. We will rebound the zodiac for a short ride over to Northumberland House for another visit. Let's keep our fingers crossed that this happens. Sees were relatively calm and we slept well as we sail towards Beechey Island. We began the morning as we normally do. A workout for Keith, early breakfast and a workout for Anne Marie. Two lectures on the program. We watched the first one from our room as we got ready for our unexpected tour. It was given by Expedition Lecturer Henry Pollack who spoke about glacial landscapes. He spoke about moving ice as an erosional agent, capable of carving deep valleys and plucking and transporting bedrock to new locations. The next lecture we watched later in the day. It was given by General Nick Halley and covered what he calls radical Islam and why he thinks the fight will go on for 5000 years. It's his guess and none of us will be around to know whether or not he is right. In the past two days we have heard about the centuries of exploration of the Northwest Passage starting with the first exploration and continuing through the 19th century. In this afternoon’s talk, Destination Lecturer Adam Lajeunesse took this a step further by discussing exploration starting in the 20th century. The reality is that by the early 20th century European explorer had mapped most of the Canadian Arctic. However, some of their information was limited and the majority of the sea-lanes were not well understood. He spoke about the exploration that occurred in the 1950’s with both American and Canadian icebreakers finishing what men like Sir John Franklin had started. We took the 11:45 AM unexpected tour over to Beechey Island. various Once on Beechy Island we walked the area and payed our respects to the brave people who lost their lives. After we finished walking around we took what they called a shuttle (zodiac) over to Northumberland House where we saw artifacts including the woodshop. We then took a zodiac back to Serenity. For the first time we were on the 10 person zodiac rather than a 20 person one. We were on with just some of the people from the expedition team and one of the ship’s photographers. We did get some splashes of water inside the zodiac, which added to the experience. Words cannot adequately express our emotions from having to do this unexpected adventure. We visited a place where so few on this planet have ever put their feet on land. We also felt humbled and felt the emotion of those who risked their lives as part of discovery. This is how the world got discovered with brave people who set sail in vessels far from the luxury ship we are on. We would say that about 400 or so guests did one of the unexpected adventures. This was mainly those guests doing the zodiac landing as well as those doing the fastboat. The fast boat visited the same sites but they don’t land as we did. We did see some helicopters and we believe some guests when up on them. The landing at the respective beaches was just a bit more challenging for some as you had to walk on rocks while in water and then up a steep incline. As they say, weather can change rapidly in this part of the world. By late afternoon, it was snowing. We’ve included a photo of one of the zodiacs arriving back to Serenity when it was foggy, windy and snowing. We hope that our photos will give you a feel for our experience. The past few days have clearly been one if not our most memorable experiences of all our cruising. More fun planned for this evening
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