Day 11: Nordenskiöld Glacier

Day 11 — Nordenskiöldbreen Glacier. As close to the North Pole as we'll get on this trip. I doubt I'll ever beat this record, but… who knows. Never say never.

We anchored right in front of the glacier and spent the "night" at anchor. Not a single moment of darkness, of course. Whenever I photographed the ship's clocks, it was to show that the sun was still out at midnight and at 2am — not that I took them during the day. Then I slept only about three hours and woke up in time to catch the anchor-raising maneuver, which I didn't want to miss.

Lucky for me there are two straight days at sea coming up: that'll give me time to sleep, recover, and sort through photos. Once I'm home the vacation's over and I'll have to get straight back to work — no time for fussing over vacation photos and other such trivialities.

That's why I already decided before the trip that I wouldn't film — just take photos — and sort and process them right away, every evening, so I'd have nothing left to do once I got home. Video eats up way too much time and space, I'd never have managed, and I'd have ended up like so many times before, with a pile of unedited footage sitting in some forgotten folder in a dusty corner of my computer.

This way was much nicer: every evening I'd post the best photos of the day and enjoy the interactions and conversations with old and new friends, in comments and private messages.

I couldn't have not taken photos at all, and I couldn't have taken them and kept them just for myself either. There's too much beauty out here, and I can't enjoy it alone. I'm lucky to have gotten to see these places, and yes, I'm only human, I have my own vanity too, and I admit I post partly to show off now and then.

But the first time in my life I reached Mallorca, for instance, and the beauty of the mountains and the sea there overwhelmed me, I felt like crying that I couldn't share the joy of that moment with my grandmother, say. I would have loved so much to be able to bring her along, to show her the beauty that exists in this world, that she'd never seen.

Same thing now — I might act big and full of myself now and then (especially since I am), but the main impulse when a landscape's beauty touches me isn't to rub it in anyone's face, it's to share my joy with someone.

I felt the same way here, and that's why I couldn't stop taking photos and posting on Facebook and chatting with friends.

And I loved it, I could do this for the rest of my life! 😊 Now I understand better the people who work on this ship and can't give up this way of life. I can't wait for AI to replace me at the office so I can do this nonstop! If not on my own boat… I'll find some way, even if I have to sign on as a deckhand on some rusty old oil tanker! 😁