Magdalene Fjorden, 80 North, and The Polar Icecap

     In the early morning hours of the 14th day of our cruise to the “Top of the World” our schedule for the day depended entirely on fog and low cloud conditions.  Captain Albert advise all hands that we could possibly deviate from our scheduled itinerary if the fog burned away and the cloud cover lifted.  We were first scheduled to cruise Magdalene Fjorden with all it’s beautiful glaciers, then proceed to Ny Alesund for a port visit.  But if the visibility improved we would first visit the Fjorden and then make a dash for the Polar Icecap, and visit Ny Alesund the next day.  As we neared the entrance to the Fjorden, the fog/clouds lifted just enough so that the peaks were obscured, but the glaciers were viewed in all their glory.  Folks who had cruised College Glacier in Alaska felt there were similarities.

    Note the grey “trim line” along the left side of the glacier and the pile of moraine from the snout to the water line.  The trim line indicates how high up the valley the glacier was at it’s peak.

     This “tidewater” glacier was calving chunks of bergie bits into the fjorden.  Here again note the trim line above the crevasses.  It is difficult to gage the height of the ice at this distance, but it was substantial.  Our good Captain pushed our elegant explorer as far as he dared, and to give all the Veranda cabins a great view, turned the ship 360 degrees so they would not have to leave their staterooms.

      During our “dash” to the Polar Icecap we crossed another amazing waypoint; 80 degrees north.  The next waypoint would be the Icecap, which happened to be 83 degrees north.

     A good friend of mine, Johny Key past away this year and I had always admired how well he dressed.  There was one sports Jacket that I admired in particular, and when I learned that his wife June was sending his clothes to Goodwill, I asked for and received that jacket.  I told June that I was going to take that jacket to the Top of the World on this cruise and the below picture was taken as far north as we could get.  The Polar Icecap is in the background as well as the picture below that.

     I know it is not as impressive as the some pictures, but there it is  at 83 degrees North.  This also marked the highlight of the one hundred and fiftieth cruise of the ms Prinsendam

Next: Our Visit to the scientific outpost of Ny Alesund, Spitsbergen