July 28, 2026

The winds picked up as we got farther north, about 600 nautical miles from the north pole. This unfortunately cancelled our zodiac tours through the pack ice, and kept the ship itself to the edges of the ice, where. It was less likely we would see any wildlife.

Despite braving the meat-locker temperatures outside, the only thing spotted was an icebreaker, glowing light peach and orange in the soft arctic sunshine.

The light up here is amazing-a sort of gentle opalescence that gives everything it touches a sense of internal luminance. The clouds far on the horizon seem afire from below, and it truly feels like another planet.

From the warmth of our cabin we watch as little auks careen about the ship, their movements seemingly random and a hair’s breath from being out of control. Northern skuas ride the wind and two very plump-looking harp seals regard us curiously from their private iceberg.

We snoozed, attended lectures on seabirds and the evolution of whaling, and hung out on the ship’s bridge, where the captain and his officers answered our myriad questions with good humor. 

Around 3 pm we got the message that we had to turn around, having reached our farthest north point of the cruise. 

As we made our way back south, I thought of those early polar explorers, alone in this vast wilderness of ice. In their day, it must have been like being on the surface of the moon in terms of it’s remove from the known world. How brave they were, and what amazing sights they must have seen here, in the farthest north reaches of our planet.