Greenland has long been high on our list of places to visit. We love high latitudes and wild, untamed places. Our initial plan for eventually returning to North America from Europe on Dirona was to travel the “Viking Route” from the Faroe Islands to Newfoundland via Iceland and Greenland. We didn’t have a firm timeframe…
Tag Archives | Nordhavn
From Hot to Cold
August brought more warm and sunny weather to Seattle, and the return of NFL season. We attended two Seattle Seahawks preseason NFL games, and a couple of Seattle Mariners baseball games, all in T-shirt weather. And we had fabulous weather for a hiking trip to Washington’s North Cascades National Park, known as the American Alps…
Svalbard
We got our first taste of Svalbard back in 2018 when Dirona was in Tromso, Norway and we flew to Longyearbyen for three nights. We really enjoyed the raw beauty of Svalbard, and wanted to see more. Our North Pole itinerary aboard Le Commandant Charcot didn’t include spending time in Svalbard, however, as we’d be…
The North Pole
Despite dozens of attempts, the first undisputed expedition to reach the North Pole was Roald Amundsen’s team in 1926, flying over in the airship Norge. Thirty years later, the submarine USS Nautilus became the first vessel to cross the pole, by travelling entirely under the ice. A year later the submarine USS Skate broke through…
Le Commandant Charcot
Le Commandat Charcot, owned by French cruise ship operator Ponant, is the most capable non-nuclear icebreaker in the world. While the term icebreaker typically connotes a military or research vessel, long on capability, but short on comfort, the Le Commandant Charcot has plenty of both. Launched in 2021, the 492 ft (150 m) LNG-powered ship…
Paris
After many months of anticipation, the departure date for our trip to the North Pole aboard Le Commandant Charcot finally had arrived. We would be flying from Seattle to Paris, spending a day there, then taking a charter flight the following morning to Svalbard, where we would board the ship. Packing for the trip was…
Seattle Yacht Club Presentation
Yesterday we gave a presentation at the Seattle Yacht Club on our trip around the world. We had a great evening, chatting with old friends and new. It’s a wonderful organization. In the talk, we described some of the techniques we used to make the trip more safe and comfortable for longer passages and at…
Ballard Locks
The Chinook salmon, commonly known as “Kings” or “Tyee” (Chinook jargon for chief), is the largest of the salmon and the iconic species of the Salish Sea. They typically grow to 3 feet (0.9 m) long with a weight of 30 lbs (13.6 kg), but can reach 4.9 ft (1.5 m) and 129 lbs (58.5…
July Sunshine
July in the Pacific Northwest typically is wonderfully warm and sunny, and this year was no exception. We took advantage of the excellent weather with several outdoor activities, starting with a weekend of hiking in Whistler, Canada, and later a local hike and an overnight camping trip. At restaurants, we dined al fresco whenever possible….
North Cascades National Park
North Cascades National Park is known as the American Alps for its dramatic mountain scenery, with jagged snow-covered peaks, alpine lakes, hundreds of the waterfalls that give the Cascade Range its name, and over three hundred glaciers. The 1,068-square-mile (2,768 sq km) park encompasses the Cascade Range from Washington’s Lake Chelan to the Canadian border….
