Icebergs in the Labrador Sea, Canada

 L'anse Aux Meadows was our last day in Canada, on the Canada and Greenland cruise. We then had 4 days sailing, which included scenic cruising. We were in the Labrador Sea. 

We saw our first iceberg of the cruise on the first sea day. We weren't expecting to see any so far south. It was really exciting. Approaching the first iceberg at 9 am, some people came out in shorts and Tshirts and were surprised how cold it was!!! The captain announced we would circumnavigate it. Captain Mikael Degerlund was brilliant on this cruise as he enabled us to get as close to some icebergs as we could, and some we went around, or turned the ship around, so passengers got the best possible views. We had 3 ice pilots on board whilst we were in these waters.

There was a big crack in the right hand corner -

Rough v smooth -

As we went around the iceberg we had a good view of the other sides -

That evening we saw another big iceberg, our 2nd. There was a line of gulls on the top -

It was 8 pm so many people were having dinner. Those that came out were more sensibly dressed! -

That evening we found we had some stowaways on the back deck -

 I think the one on the left is a siskin. The one on the right is a redpoll,

They were obviously very cold and tired and spent the night sheltering under the roof and some heaters.

The next morning, this one was still a sleeping bundle of fluff, standing on a chair -

That morning we saw our 3rd iceberg. We were still off the east coast of Newfoundland and Labrador. On this map, the numbers 1-4 relate to the first 4 large icebergs we saw -

The 3rd iceberg, at 8.40 am -

Note the hole in the ice  -

A really beautiful sight especially as we turned and the sun was shining on the crystals. We were 1 km away and the iceberg was apparently stuck on the seabed.

I went in to warm up and saw one of the birds asleep on a rubbish bin -

The 4th iceberg was a very nice shape. We were 1.5 km away and as we approached it, it calved which was really noisy. Then we saw a bearded seal in front. 

There were a lot of gulls on the water on one side -

Just as we were leaving the fog started to cover the berg, so we had been really lucky with the timing.

It had been a memorable 2 days of cruising, seeing those 4 icebergs.