Authenticity and Sense of Adventure on the Ultramarine

      Having been a naturalist in a past life, and subsequently trained guides in another life, I understand what it is like to explore an area you know, with a new set of travelers every week.  It can be hard to be authentically excited.  But the staff on the Ultramarine were amazing.

      There was the sheer joy of the guides when we found a den of baby Arctic foxes.  The little buggers were so playful, so camouflaged, and so darn cute.  The excursion was extended that afternoon, allowing for more time, more photos, etc.

      There was the guide whose response when I asked what we were likely seeing down below us in the glacier, decided to tie a rope to his girlfriend’s expensive camera and lower it into the hole.  Results were inconclusive, but the giggles that accompanied the exploring of this little chasm were certainly authentic.

      There was the determination to get us Kayaking on the last day.  Weather and logistics had conspired to make it difficult to get very many groups out on their Kayaking adventures earlier in the trip.  So on the last full day the Ultramarine pulled into an area where dozens of large icebergs had become grounded in shallow water.  It was an all-hands-on-kayaking situation at that point, and they managed to get every last traveler an experience paddling around this graveyard of icebergs.  The sounds of cracking, and creaking, from the glaciers… and the sounds of whooping and hollering from excited kayakers… made for a great adventure.

      There was the moment where we pulled into an as-yet-uncharted fjord.  Guests stood along the front deck, as two zodiacs with depth sounding equipment preceded the Ultramarine in a zigzag pattern at a slow pace.  At the publicly-facing map in the lounge, I found we had left the known world behind a few hundred meters back.