We had a continental breakfast on the aft of deck five before heading out for an early (7am) zodiac cruise along the base of the enormous cliffs of Prince Leopold. These cliffs are the breeding sites of thousands of pairs of kittiwakes ( today's photo) Brunnichs guillemots, northern fulmars, some black guillemots and glaucous gulls. The cliffs are relatively safe from predators because of their tall sedimentary faces with ledges for birds but too small for marauding mammals - albeit polar bears have been spotted climbing in the fault lines - not easy though. The Brunnich's single chick starts his fledged life by leaping off the cliff into the water then sticking with his dad for several months while he feeds him and his flight feathers develop. This usually happens over a 3 day period which it looked about to start as we saw one dead chick on the ground being eaten by a glaucous gull.
While we were out the ship moved and we rejoined it for more breakfast if wanted - we didn't partake - and a trip to Port Leopold - a historical site used by early explorers. The landing to the historical hut, put in place by the Hudson Bay Company, was thwarted by a polar bear and cub wandering the shore line - instead they landed on the opposite side of the bay to visit a waterfall and do the polar plunge. We decided to stay on board as it looked cold and unappealing - I went to the cold gym instead and John did his crosswords.
Lunch wasn't until 1430 - we finished at 1600 - all meals were out of synch today as the late supper for 2100 was thankfully brought forward to 1930 to allow for an after dinner walk in Maxwell Bay as opposed to a pre dinner walk - the new plan probably worked better as we didn't go to bed on full tummies - albeit I wasn't that hungry!
Apparently 2 weeks ago the channels we are sailing in were ice covered - today they were ice free save for the odd chunk and a large grounded iceberg in Maxwell bay which looked out of place but reminded you that you were still in the Arctic and not Arizona. The sun was out now and we had a really pleasant walk - the landscape was very rounded, from glacial and ice action but it looked like a brown desert. It was only when you got ashore that you were able to see lots of plant growth - all small hardy tundra species - saxifrage predominated along with small flat willows, lichens and mosses.
We watched the sunset over the mountain behind the ship - this was the first sunset we have seen for ages and the first that has been today's sunset today - up until today - today's sunset has been tomorrow ( notably @1.30am ish) and yesterday's sunset today!