To the Arctic, part 2: The ship, its amenities, and its food

I really should describe trips as they happen, but this wasn’t possible on my trip to the Arctic as there was no Internet most of the time. Also, for me the impetus to post wanes after the trip is over. So I apologize for not being able to post in real time, but I’ll put up at least one post a week, and promise to cover the whole trip.

I’ve already posted part 1, recounting our arrival in Svalbard  and a tour of the rather anodyne town of Longyearbyen, the capital of the archipelago, here.  Today I’ll talk about about life aboard the ship, and then onto the landings, glaciers, iceberg, birds, walruses (walrii?), polar bears, and so on. The routine was to get up, eat breakfast at about 7:30 or 8, have a landing or a Zodiac cruise immediately thereafter, go back to the ship to shower and rest a bit, eat lunch, and then have another landing or Zodiac (rubber inflatable boat) cruise thereafter.  There were then a few hours before dinner. After dinner you could stay up as late as you wanted, but, given my insomnia (which largely disappears on trips), I read until about 9:30 pm or so before retiring. I thus missed much of the evening frivolity, which included quizzes, competition, and non-frivolous lectures about the Arctic.  Most lectures were in the breaks during the day, and I attended about half of them.

So on to the ship, the Quark vessel Ultramarine, designed specifically for polar voyages. The preceding link gives you plenty of photos of the ship and its features, and here are the specs:

Although it holds 199 passengers, I think there were about 140 on this trip, matching the number of staff and crew, including crew you never see—those dealing with the engines and other technical stuff.

Here’s the Ultramarine. It’s a lovely ship and I had no complaints about the voyage. I had a spiffy cabin (half price, which is why I took this trip), the food was great, and the staff and crew were uber-friendly.

The first thing one has to do after boarding is find one’s cabin. Mine is below. It was not fancy compared to other cabins, but it was plenty fine for me.  After that I explored the ship before people got settled.

Below: my cabin—spacious, comfortable, and with the essential porthole to see outside. It was light nearly 24 hours a day, and I checked that by waking up around 2 a.m. and looking outside. It wasn’t much different from how it looked at noon.

This cabin is meant for two people sharing a queen-sized bed, and on cruises each person sharing the cabin pays the same (substantial) fare, but I got this to myself for the price of a single person. What a deal!

Looking toward the other end with the essential porthole. There was also a t.v., but I turned it on only once and watched a bit of Cleopatra, which I’d recently read about (Burton and Taylor version).

The bathroom was compact but had all the essentials, including that nice hot shower—essential for washing off the cold and grime after a landing. I am visible, too. The shower is not visible, but to the right:

One of the great pleasures of such a trip is waking up and seeing what the view is outside. (The curtains are tightly drawn at night because it’s light outside.)

Two views as we approached Jan Mayen Island, part of Norway. As I said, it’s usually off limits to tourists but our head naturalist, Sarah, knew one of the military guys who, with meteorologists, are the sole occupants of the island, so we got to have a two-hour landing. More on that later:

The island is dominated by the world’s northernmost active volcano, the Beerenberg, which you can see here. It last erupted (a fissure eruption) in 1985.

The peak of the volcano, to the right (again through my porthole) has a snow plume blowing from it. (More pictures of the island in a later post.)

Iceberg Day! I was excited to see this one morning, and later that morning we got in Zodiacs anc cruised for an hour among a number of weird bergs carved off a nearby glacier.

There are four lifeboats, two on each side, and each is huge, provisioned with clothing, food, and other requisites. Lifeboat drill and issuing of lifejackets is one of the first things you do after you settle in. Note the crane used to lower the boats, which are on deck 4.

The bridge, with the captain in the front. It’s not like you’d expect; there is no wheel to steer the ship, but a knob. And when the ship is at sea, it’s often on autopilot. On this ship, unlike others I’ve traveled and lectured on, you are encouraged to visit the bridge at nearly all times.

Things get busy when there’s manual steering, as when we’re going through sea ice. Sarah, the head naturalist/guide, is at the right, with the captain to her left:

And the knobs that steer the ship. I believe they are duplicates for redundancy.  THERE IS NO WHEEL, MATEY!

The bridge is full of electronics that display course, depth, surroundings, and so on. Here’s the course display (click all photos to enlarge them).

And here’s the captain, who seemed very young! But I’m sure they wouldn’t put him in charge if he hadn’t proved his mettle. This is taken on the last night of the trip when they have the “Captain’s Farewell”, and all the ship’s personnel parade across the auditorium.  No staff are allowed to drink on the ship, at least not that I saw, so the Captain toasted us with a flute of water.

Part of the parade: the people who make the food: very important people!

The two photos above are in the auditorium, where there are several lectures per day (none by me this time; I was a passenger), as well as the nightly recap and the highly-awaited plans for the next day, which depend on ice, weather, wind, and other factors. Sarah, in charge of the planning, would always have two or three alternatives if we couldn’t do what we wanted. Fortunately, no plans were canceled on this trip: the weather cooperated greatly.

Besides the auditorium, there’s a lovely lounge on Deck 7, with a coffee machine, goodies like cookies and cinnamon rolls set out 24 hours per day, and, when the bar is open, free drinks. I find that i lose my appetite for alcohol when I travel, so I didn’t take full advantage of the booze. I think I had two beers the whole 11-day trip!  There is also a cozy library nook with tons of books about the Arctic and Antarctic (the ship goes south during our winter, when it’s summer in the Antarctic and not much ice to impede traveling). Having been to both areas now, I suppose you could consider me bipolar.

There are screens in the lounge in the front so you can see where we are and the ice and weather conditions.  In slack times, I’d often make my way here, have a cup of hot cocoa and a couple of cookies, and dig into one of the books about the Arctic. And I’d often go on deck to marvel at the scenery or take photos.

Again, you can see many of the ship’s amenities at the Ultramarine link at the top. They also include a sauna, spa, and gym, which I assiduously avoided.

Now on to the feature second in importance only to the scenery and landings, the FOOD.  There are three meals a day, all served in two places: the fancy “Balena” restaurant upstairs, which has buffet service for breakfast and lunch and individual-course service at dinner. There’s also the “Bistro 487,” a few floors up, which serves almost exactly what the Balena serves, but it’s laid out buffet style, three meals a day. I found the Bistro cozier and with better views (fewer tables, all by windows), and a place that was easier to meet people.

So, the menus.  First the Balena’s breakfast menu, displayed outside the restaurant:

Lunch (one menu, two pages):

Lunch, page 2. You can always get a burger if you want

And dinner (two pages):

Desserts are always of great interest to me, and this ship excelled in their quality and variety (see below):

And the Bistro. As I said, the food is pretty much the same as served upstairs, which is expected, but you can serve yourself at all meals. The guy at the end is the Omelet Man who will make you an omelet of your choice at breakfast. One day I asked for my version of a Barney Greenglass special: omelet with eggs, onions, and lox (yes! they had lox!)

Breakfast at the Bistro. Omelet man:

And his wares. In a failed attempt to eat healthy, I had a spinach omelet with vegetables. But there are always freshly scrambled eggs on tap as well. And since there are many Brits, Aussies, and Kiwis aboard, there are sausages, baked beans, blood pudding, and grilled tomatoes, as well as everything else you’d expect for breakfast. I fancied the plain rolls with local butter, which I’d slather with delicious strawberry or lingonberry preserves, which I think were homemade.

Another iteration of my breakfast with fruit, grapefruit juice, a chocolate croissant, a roll, scrambled eggs, and hash browns. So much for eating healthy! But I emphasize that I don’t eat like this at home, where I usually have one meal a day (dinner), along with a latte for breakfast and a light lunch like a grapefruit.

The all-important coffee machine, which grinds the beans on top. I always had two cappuccinos for breakfast. You can see there are eight hot drinks to be had, including cocoa. A waiter was constantly circulating with American-style coffee, but I eschewed it.

LUNCH!  My attempt to create lox and bagel with a schmear:

Most of this is in the Balena restaurant, where I’d often have lunch since it was buffet style. I don’t think I have any photos of dinner, but you can see the Balena’s layout at the Ultramarine link.

Cheese, and lots of it (with crackers). My theory, which is mine, is that Scandinavians like cheese:

The salad bar (only a part of it). There must have been about 20 items you could put on your salad, and always three dressings:

I always started lunch with a salad in my futile attempt to eat healthy. Note the CARBS at the top and some lox that found its way onto my plate:

Salad was followed by another plate, usually light to allow me room for dessert. Here we have some chicken, an unknown food (cottage pie?) at 3 o’clock, a few fries, and spanakopita to the left.

They also offered these luscious stuffed peppers, but I saw them too late—after I’d loaded my plate:

Finally, the crown jewel of the comestibles: desserts. There was always a tray of different fancy desserts, as well as three kinds of ice cream. You need that sugar after a spell among the icebergs! Photos are from both restaurants and from different days.

There is fruit for the timid, but I had my fruit at breakfast:

Bread-and-butter pudding with vanilla sauce. I could not resist!

And the requisite three ice creams, one of them vegan (sorbet, I guess). Here you get a choice of chocolate, pistachio, and apple (vegan) frozen desserts:

I always had at least two desserts, but more often three. Hey, they were small!

Now I didn’t spend all my time eating, nor did I expect this much food, and of such high quality. But it’s vacation, and that means it’s a Free Zone for Gluttony.  In the next photos, I’ll show our landings, glacier cruises on the Zodiac, and animals.

I do recommend the ship highly, and perhaps may take it again. I have a big hankering to go to South Georgia Island, where Shackleton and a few mates went to rescue their crew. But it’s a long haul at sea with nothing in between.  But it has the largest colony of king penguins in the world: 450,000 breeding pairs, or half the world’s population. I need to see that!  They also have many seals and birds, and there Shackleton is laid to rest as well. It’s traditional to have a tot of whiskey by his grave.