Click for more photos from Day 3

In briefings in Ottawa and again aboard ship, expedition leader Geoff Green has emphasized safety and responsibility (including playing by the rules, getting enough sleep, and looking after yourself and your fellow expeditioners). "It's a fine line between someone getting hurt and having a great expedition," he says. Today's boat drill is serious business, but as we work into the rhythm of lectures about climate processes and arctic flora and fauna in the forward lounge, Green emphasizes that "good karma" (meaning, I think, hoping — praying — for the best possible outcomes for this expedition) and "flexibility" are the keys to success.

As if to answer that call, an unusual pod of killer whales is sighted off the starboard bow in the middle of Hudson Bay and we stop to meet them. While the professional camera types board a Zodiac for an on-the-water view of the magnificent orcas (which takes them kilometres away from the ship), the pod reappears RIGHT BESIDE THE SHIP, a couple of them rolling up alongside as if to have an eye-to-eye look at the heads peering over the side. On deck in the aftermath of this amazing sighting, I hear: "I'm so writing this in my journal," says one. "I'm so writing this on my forehead," says another. "I'm so writing this on my bedroom wall," says another. Shared experience is getting people talking.

The Yamal group are teaching us a bit of Russian:
Good morning = "dobroe utro" (spelled phonetically)
Hello = "privet"
Thank you = "spasibo"
Oh yes, and although this is definitely NOT on the general menu ...
Cold beer = "holodnoe prio"

Later, Geoff Green explains that the photos taken will be sent to whale researchers in the hope of identifying the individual animals in this pod, which may help us discover what they're doing here in Hudson Bay. But, like many of the rest of us, he's a bit breathless from the encounter, saying: "Any time you share space with an orca is one of the most profound things that can happen to a human being."