On Wednesday afternoon, we were in the midst of “Thinking on Your Feet,” a leadership skills session led by Action Canada advisor Prof. Andrea Rose. Our Fellows were each given a prompt—on topics that ranged from foreign investment regulation to military operations in Afghanistan—to speak off-the-cuff for ninety seconds at a time. Any Action Canada alumnus will tell you how nerve-wracking the exercise can be; even experienced public speakers can find themselves tongue-tied in front of their fellow Fellows.

So the adrenaline was flowing, when the announcement came over the Louis’ “pipes”—marine vernacular for the ship’s public-address system—that we had visitors:

“Polar bears off the starboard bow!”

We moved even more quickly than we did during Tuesday’s evacuation drill. In seconds, our delegation was outside, cameras in hand. Sure enough, we soon spotted two polar bears, perched on a small pan of ice as it floated past the ship.

Few Canadians ever get to see these magnificent creatures in the wild—and fewer still see them without fearing for their safety. They are breathtaking.

We were in the middle of the Victoria Strait, nearly forty miles from terra firma. The bears had evidently not wanted for food; one side of the small iceberg was streaked with blood, the remains of their last meal, likely a seal. There was precious little else nearby, but members of the Louis’ crew who joined us on deck assured us that the bears would have no trouble swimming to bigger ice or dry land.

After a few minutes, off they swam—and onward we sailed.