SHIPWRECKED IN THE ARCTIC
A recent trip with ‘One Ocean’ to the Arctic ‘In the footsteps of Franklin’ proved to be more exciting than planned!
Due to the melting of ice north of Greenland, a huge quantity of ice has swept south, covering the area we had planned to explore on the Franklin route.
So we were flown into a tiny Inuit community, much further south, called Kugaaruk, and transferred by zodiacs to a Russian ship, the Akademik Ioffe.
The area is poorly charted, so the Russian sailors didn’t know about this slab of submerged rock in their path. The next day during a briefing about the dangers of polar bears, and how to get into a zodiac, there were a couple of big bangs.
We were sent to our cabins to “dress warmly and await further instructions.” The ship was listing at an interesting angle, and some of the white-faced Russian crew were dashing about.
We loaded up with battery gloves and socks, many layers of clothing, and heavy jackets, coveralls and boots issued by the ship, and stuffed our pockets with passports, credit cards, cellphones and other things we didn’t wish to lose if banished to the lifeboats.
We spent a few uncomfortable hours lurching around while the crew used thrusters to try to force the ship off the rock.
After a very anxious night, we were transferred to the sister ship, which had been diverted to rescue us. We were sent upstairs to the bar and fully expected to spend the night on the floor there.
However the company managed to arrange charter flights in the evening to take the original passengers off, so we could have their cabins. Next morning we went ashore in the zodiacs with our luggage also transferred, to catch two planes which had been chartered to take us to Edmonton.
So we were very well looked after and it could have been much worse. There were numerous sci- entists, authors and a film crew on this ship, who proved interesting to talk to at meal times, so the loss of this trip is huge for all of them.
We did manage to see two polar bears, two narwhals and an arctic hare, so saw some wildlife on our brief journey. However we will not be taking any more trips to the Arctic.