Seabourn 2021 - 2022

HIGHLIGHT: NARWHAL. The unmistakable narwhal is a light-colored porpoise living exclusively in the Arctic. Its spiral ‘unicorn’ tusk is actually an extended tooth up to ten feet in length with millions of nerve endings inside, though no-one has yet determined its use. They are born a blue-grey color, and mature into mottled grey adults up to 20 feet long, gradually lightening to white with age. We believe seeing them is good luck. Included air from REYKJAVÍK Labrador Sea Atlantic Ocean Ilulissat Eqi Glacier Qilakitsoq Uummannaq Upemavik Pond Inlet Croker Bay Beechey Island Dundas Harbour Sisimiut Lady Franklin Island Monumental Island Kangerlussuaq ST. JOHN’S Baffin Bay Davis Strait ARCTIC EXPEDITIONS 53 the 1,000-year-old stone remains of an Inuit settlement. To the west, Croker Bay is a fjord flanked by colorful, table-top mountains on Devon Island. The tidewater glacier at its head terminates in a spectacular two-mile (3.5 km)- wide glacial face that calves huge amounts of ice into the bay. Polar bears, seals and a pod of beluga whales may frequently be seen traveling amongst the brash ice. DAY 9 | BEECHEY ISLAND Beechey Island entered the annals of Arctic exploration during the search for Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin, whose party vanished in 1846 while seeking the mythic Northwest Passage. Franklin’s ships spent the winter of 1845 locked in ice here. Three of his men died and are buried on the island. Few places better embody the description ‘barren and lonely’ than this. Its treeless, windswept landscape of gravel ridges and wide beaches is interrupted by the small white crosses marking the final resting place of the young Englishmen, so far from home. Should a polar bear with two cubs walk the shoreline, as sometimes happens, it would be a poignant reminder of the resilience of the fascinating creatures adapted to thrive in the Arctic. DAYS 10-11 | BAFFIN BAY & DAVIS STRAIT We cruise Baffin Bay southward, transiting the North Water, a slightly warmer sea area called a polynya that remains unfrozen throughout the year. This crucial Arctic ecosystem feature sustains a myriad of sea life when most of the surface is locked under ice, providing surface access for walruses and beluga, narwhal and bowhead whales. Polar bears hunt seals along its ice-edge, and two-thirds of the world’s little auks and thick-billed murres are found here. From Baffin Bay, we enter long Davis Strait. Narrow and relatively shallow, the strait is notorious for some of the most extreme tidal currents on earth, created when tide changes of up to 60 feet (18 m) funnel through it. In the era of sailing ships, those currents discouraged many potential explorers. Despite this, the skilled Viking seamen crossed from Greenland to Vinland in open-decked long- ships centuries ago. DAY 12 | LADY FRANKLIN ISLAND & MONUMENTAL ISLAND Today we visit two islands named by fellow Arctic explorer Charles Francis Hall, one as a tribute to British Royal Navy explorer Sir John Franklin’s wife and the other in memory of Franklin himself. Lady Franklin Island is truly breathtaking. Tall and imposing, its sheer cliff walls are some of earth’s oldest rock, formed some 2.5 to 4 billion years ago. Barren, rocky and exposed, the island is a seasonal home to breeding seabirds, ducks and walrus. With a bit of luck, we may see colorful Atlantic puffins and the small, grey- headed Sabine’s gull here. Monumental Island hosts nesting black guillemots on its grey rock shores. Walruses may also be viewed hauled out, often along with calves, at numerous spots around the island. Restless, elusive polar bears patrol the shorelines for any food source and haunt ice-floes in search of seals. A variety of whale species can be seen feeding offshore. DAYS 13-14 | LABRADOR SEA & NORTH ATLANTICOCEAN Some 2,500 icebergs annually drift south through the Labrador Sea where we are sailing in the area known as ‘Iceberg Alley.’ The largest can run aground on the shallow Labrador Shelf extending from the Canadian coast. Pushed by wind and currents, these create scored areas of sea floor hundreds of miles long, up to hundreds of feet wide and an incredible 60 feet deep. The Labrador Sea supports a healthy population of sei, minke and bottlenose whales, and the drifting sea ice is a breeding ground for seals in early spring. Common seabirds include pomarine jaegers, great shearwaters and northern fulmars. The Grand Banks in the North Atlantic Ocean off Newfoundland is one of the most productive fisheries on earth. This underwater plateau deflects the cold, nutrient-rich Labrador Current upward, creating a prolific food source for Atlantic cod, swordfish, haddock and capelin. Scallops and lobster are found here in great abundance. The area’s teeming biomass also attracts seabirds including shearwaters, northern gannets, sea ducks and various sea mammals such as seals, dolphins and many species of whales. DAY 15 | ST. JOHN’S As Seabourn Venture threads the ‘narrows’ and enters into the inner harbor of St. John’s , the capital of Newfoundland, the cultural and traditional flavor of the city quickly becomes apparent. The oldest settlement in North America, it was founded by John Cabot in 1497 and displays architecture befitting one of the first British colonial capitals. Here you will disembark and begin your homeward journey, with vivid memories of the remote and beautiful Arctic realm you have explored.