The blog

Sean Norman 2025-08-15 Sean Norman 2025-08-15

Sea of love

We spent days cruising fjords, surrounding ourselves with glaciers and jagged snowy peaks. The weather changed quickly and frequently. It was cold and crisp, but beautiful. I couldn’t stand to miss a moment of any of it, which is why you could find me on deck almost always, and yes, sometimes with a bowl full of vegan chocolate pear ice cream despite being bundled up in my parka, balaclava, mittens and toque.

These final days really felt like a time of total disconnection, but reconnection to something else altogether. It was a time of reflection and slowness, and it opened up real connection to other guests and crew on board, and these were some of my favourite, favourite life moments. I could have stayed living in them forever.

Sailing slowly down these fjords, leaning on the railing on the side of the ship and just chatting our hearts away was the absolute best. It was completely surreal but there wasn’t anything that could have been more genuine. They were moments and times I’ll always, always remember and forever cherish.

I couldn’t be more thankful for every one of these experiences of a lifetime.

A sliver of one of the beluga whales passing alongside us through a part of Smeerenburgfjorden

Sean Norman 2025-08-12 Sean Norman 2025-08-12

The chargers reunited, and wildlife all around us

Waking up in Ymerbukta, a beautiful bay that ends at a glacier, I opened the curtains and off the balcony were reindeer on a hillside. Am I still dreaming?

So they had their breakfast, we had ours, and then it was off to cruise the bay in zodiacs.

Later that afternoon at lunch, a few of us chargers ambushed one another in the dining room to decide if we would go again as chargers or drop back to the ‘medium-fast’ gang for something more relaxed.

Down in the ready room, the chargers did reconvene but we had lost 1 more. Now just 4 of us from our original 6 - but we were eager to head to shore to tackle another hike through deep snow and narrow ridges in search of wildlife and gorgeous vistas.

We hiked kilometres over the most gorgeous afternoon, and ultimately after a few pushes further, we met a small herd of reindeer. Magic. We sat ourselves down on the hill and soaked up every last second we could, promising Tara we’d hurry our little bums back so she didn’t get in trouble.

The reindeer wandered closer and closer to us, just some metres away at one point. It was magical. My face hurt from smiling so much. These were some of the best moments of my life.

On our walk back, we rehearsed our future social interactions with the rest of the ship. No photo sharing until after the last day of hikes, and if anyone asks if we saw any wildlife… “A few reindeer, from a distance” so the next day the chargers group wouldn’t be all 103 guests aboard the ship. We were joking of course, but mostly serious too.

An arctic fox on a mountainside as we approached from a zodiac

After another unbelievably satisfying day and evening, I and each one of my sore muscles crashed for the night while we sailed up further north up the west coast of Svalbard.

We woke up in Magdelenefjorden, where we would zodiac out to meet a walrus colony. They were sprawled out over a small peninsula just in front of a glacier. It was really like a fairy tale we were living in here, if you take away the smell and sounds of the walruses of course.

Reaching the Arctic pack ice at just beyond 80°N later that night

Sean Norman 2025-08-09 Sean Norman 2025-08-09

Burgerbukta - First feet on Svalbard

Through breakfast this morning, south Spitsbergen emerged from heavy low cloud out at sea. The white on the distant horizon was dense enough to make you wonder if it was actually Svalbard or just more cloud. But it became clear these were glaciers and ice fields. Ohh my heart. I felt home.

“I’m so excited! I’m so ready!”

Today, our little group of 25 or so were the first called down to the ‘ready room’ to gear up for the zodiacs. Life vest, boots, mittens, toque and done. We had by this time perfected the getting ready process, life vest strap from our back, down snuggly between our legs back up to our chest and all. I was so excited and so ready as I stood by getting scanned off the ship waiting to jump into our zodiac.

6 5 chargers to rule them all

In our daily briefing the night before, it was explained that this afternoon we would break ourselves into 4 groups to go ashore for the opportunity to do some hiking - the chargers, medium-fast, medium, and to raucous laughter - contemplative. The chargers would be described as wanting to go as far and fast as possible to see as much as possible, while contemplative was… not so much needing an explanation.

I was undecided between being a charger and medium-fast. I wanted to see everything but I also wanted to photograph everything and breathe everything in. I ended up with the chargers, 6 victims total to Tara, our expedition leader who was also the first person (in the world) to circumnavigate Svalbard in a kayak 10 years earlier. Within the first 10 minutes, we lost 1 in our break neck pace, and were down to 5. Thankfully, the other chargers were just as happy to make time for photography so we did keep a good pace and time for photos. It was amazing, and the shower back on the ship before dinner was probably the most heavenly one I’ve ever had, aside from the one I just took two days ago at the completion of my main bath renovation back here at home. Finally. How does grout sealer need 72 hours to cure anyway?!

And then as we were just sitting down for our daily briefing in the theatre right before dinner, we were told to make our way very calmly and quietly to the front of the ship for a wildlife sighting. With no one dressed for the -3°C outside, and more of us with drinks in our hands than cameras, we went out and saw our first polar bear poking around on some sea ice. He was far in the distance, and difficult to see with the naked eye, but incredible all the same.

Another best day.

Our polar bear friend out on some sea ice

Sean Norman 2025-08-06 Sean Norman 2025-08-06

Birding at Bear Island, and meeting the midnight sun

The state of the sea ice and current state of the weather gave us a unique opportunity to make a special little detour on our way to Svalbard - heading off east to Bjørnøya, or Bear Island.

While I was in the middle of some morning yoga, announcements were made about whales and dolphins being spotted, and I cannot tell you how cold it is running out to the exterior deck barefoot in shorts and a t-shirt at 74°N in May. Despite the wildlife and scenic sea ice, the ocean was so calm this morning, I wasn’t going to pass up an opportunity to go from standing crane to warrior 3 without being thrown sideways onto the floor as we rolled through 5 metre swells.

After yoga, it was the perfect morning for a second slow coffee in the panorama lounge while we slowly forged our way through the ice to the island. Once there, we again jumped into zodiacs for some scenic cruising along the cliffs.

Through all of my travels, for all of the time spent in polar regions over the last 20 years, so little of it has been in the summer, let alone outside the darkest depths of the winter.

Even living in Yellowknife, and for a few years the Yukon, I was always just a little south of meeting the midnight sun and 24 hours of sunlight. And then halfway through this cruise, the sun would just no longer set. I was excited, it was something I really looked forward to. I dreamt of staying up all night on deck bathed in low orange sunlight as we cruised past snowy mountains. There was a little of that, but our days were so full and I was so exhausted, there was just no hope of the all-nighters I was fantasizing about. But that was okay. These special moments of waking through the night and seeing sunlight on the curtains at 1am and 2am, and just taking some minutes alone out on the bow of the ship were enough. It was magical, and for a reason I don’t understand, the midnight sun just meant so much to me. I’ll never forget it.

Sean Norman 2025-08-03 Sean Norman 2025-08-03

Jan Mayen - a glacier covered volcano

Our first views of Jan Mayen were a mostly white mass of snow and ice far in the distance, kind of lost against a grey sky and darker grey ocean. Huge flocks of birds danced in unison just above the horizon far away. It felt kind of surreal.

We’d once again need to zodiac to shore, after just the night before, getting permission from the Norwegian military to visit, so as we approached a protected cove, we got the word that conditions were “workable” and out we went to the island.

We were sort of restricted to a smaller area, but I felt again like I didn’t have enough time. I spent so much time bird watching at the top of a cliff that I didn’t have all the time I wished I could have had to explore other areas. Everything just felt sort of intoxicating, I lost track of time and was obsessively interested in everything. There was just too much to see, too much to photograph, too much to breathe in.

Killer whales cruising the coast of Jan Mayen with us

At the end of our day on Jan Mayen, I joined the last zodiac back to the ship (because of course I did) with a few others, and we took a little detour cruising up the coast to where some puffins were hanging out on the water and on the cliffs. Our guide was so thoughtful, manouvering us around the puffins so the sun would be at our back for photography, so we’d drift in closer to them. It was just the best, it was so special being so close and at almost eye level with them, watching them disappear between swells. And then it was here we ran out of gas (oh no, how terrible), and it took some time while we switched tanks. Finally we did get fuel flowing from the backup tank and we were back at the ship, all of us even happier for the extra time out, obviously.

Then during dinner, as we continued to sail the coast, gorgeous blue skies opened up over the volcano peaks. It was just like magic, truly. There was an energy you could feel, everyone was so happy and completely amazed.