A Night to Remember: Northern Lights on the Venture

It’s 1:45 a.m. Thursday, September 12, and I get out of bed to pee. It is a night I will remember until creeping dementia steals it away. I look out the porthole of my room on board the expedition ship Venture, and the faint green glow in the sky draws my attention. We are on a Lindblad Expedition trip to northern British Columbia in search of the Spirit Bear. When I went to bed, there was only an overcast sky to see.

Based on the scant amount of news reaching us in this remote location (anchored in a fjord about halfway between Juneau and Vancouver Island). it was a possibility that the Northern Lights might be visible from our current location in the we might get a chance to see them. But the overcast was persistent and I hadn’t expected the amazing scene outside my porthole – Green Streaks in the sky!

Two confessions. First. my Apple phone records much brighter colors than I saw with my own eyes. Second, all of the images were handheld. Apples imaging processing made the photos possible. The little white specs in the images are stars not dust specks on your screens. With that said let’s move on.

“Gretchen, I think the northern lights are happening.”

I say this quietly so she doesn’t wake up alarmed.

She gets up, looks out the porthole, says “You may be right. I’m going back to sleep.” (or something like that, my memory is a little sketchy nowadays).

I’m literally running around the ship in my bare feet taking pictures with my iPhone I never expected to turn out and giggling. I run back down to the cabin and tell Gretchen she HAS to get up, she will never see anything like this again. I don’t wait for her and run back up to watch the show.

Soon something truly magical occurs, the lights surrounding us reach up and form a dome over our heads. We were now in an inverted bowl of glowing northern lights! The ship is in calm flat water surrounded by dark mountain ridges, We are floating in a sea of green lights reflected from the sky. I giggled some more and took pictures.

Finally I run out of energy. I’ve been taking pictures for a little over a couple of hours.The little toe on the my left foot was throbbing from when I hit it on something, and it was time to go back to sleep. The show had started tapering off by then and I felt like I was done.

Needless to say, this event was the topic of discussion for several day after. It is certainly something that left a clear impression in my mind.

Dear Friends, Thanks for reading this. It’s been a long time between posts for many reasons and not least of all just plain laziness. I’m excited to get this posted. Hopefully it won’t take as long to get the next one up. I plan to get a post finished describing the rest of this trip out soon. Thanks for reading this.

Don’t let the bastards get you down.