18 Jul 2018

Ice and Polar Bears on Wrangel Island

Sailing north from Kolyuchin we headed towards Herald Island and from there sailed through the ice to the eastern end of Wrangel Island. As we sailed through the pack ice that surrounded Wrangel Island we saw three Polar Bears and had a lovely encounter with a young male bear in the evening light as he moved between ice floes.

The next morning we landed on Wrangel Island at Dragi Bay, ashore we were met by the park rangers and an enjoyable morning was spent exploring the tundra, the flowers were in full bloom and by climbing onto the cape we had a great view over the pack ice. During lunch the ice moved into Dragi Bay exceptionally quickly and what had been open water quickly filled with ice, the rangers were dropped ashore and a hasty exit away from the shore was made. Once the Spirit of Enderby was in more open waters we enjoyed an evening with Walrus, both before and after dinner we encountered groups hauled out on ice floes. It had been our intention to land again the next day but ice conditions prohibited this, however a full day was spent in the ice; during the morning the zodiacs were launched and we explored the ice including enjoying the novel experience of walking on the Arctic ice. Returning the vicinity of Herald Island we found two Polar Bears, the first wandering the shoreline while the other was slumbering on an ice floe, this bear was in great condition with a thick wrapping of fat and a casual attitude to our approach…so some great views and photographs were had!

Now we are sailing south towards Chukotka headed into a 30kt southerly breeze which is no doubt moving the ice around both to the north and south of us.