2013, 2014: Spitsbergen-Svalbard.com’s look back – polar voy­a­ges

The core of my polar acti­vi­ties in 2013 has been the direct, unfil­te­red expe­ri­ence of the Arc­tic and Ant­ar­c­tic. This has always been and will always be the most important part for me, of my life. And regar­ding this, 2013 has defi­ni­te­ly been a very suc­cessful year. Some high­lights:

The semi-cir­cum­na­vi­ga­ti­on of Ant­ar­c­ti­ca, inclu­ding a visit to the Ross Sea, was wit­hout any doubt a high­light and some­thing every polar enthu­si­ast will have on his or her wish­list. I am glad that I could be part of it in Febru­ary 2013. The next voy­a­ges of this kind are sche­du­led for ear­ly 2015, and I am alre­a­dy loo­king for­ward to it!

Seve­ral months in Spits­ber­gen in win­ter and spring 2013 were defi­ni­te­ly a high­light bey­ond the per­spec­ti­ve of 2013. Just have a look at the pho­to gal­le­ries!

This was fol­lo­wed by seve­ral voy­a­ges in the arc­tic on board SV Anti­gua. Always a high­light, that is fore sure. And this sum­mer was cer­tain­ly no dis­ap­point­ment. We star­ted in Nor­way, went to Bear Island and then around Spits­ber­gen seve­ral times. Inten­se arc­tic expe­ri­en­ces of all kinds, beau­tiful impres­si­ons. This kind of arc­tic voya­ge will cer­tain­ly con­ti­nue to be a focus for me.

Then fol­lo­wed two trips in Score­s­by­sund in east Green­land on SV Ópal from Ice­land in Sep­tem­ber. Just gre­at. Beau­tiful, big Green­land. Good boat, good peo­p­le. I am loo­king for­ward to more of this in 2015.

In Novem­ber I had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to visit the South Sand­wich Islands. Rare­ly visi­ted, and new land for me. Exci­ting stuff! This was part of a voya­ge that went to some of the gre­at places on Earth: the Falk­land Islands, South Geor­gia and the Ant­ar­c­tic Pen­in­su­la.

I will con­ti­nue tra­vel­ling in polar are­as as long as I can, by all means. For sure. I’ll be in Spits­ber­gen seve­ral times next year: soon in the polar night, then during the spring sea­son which is ide­al for any kind of win­ter tra­ve­ling, and of cour­se during the sum­mer sai­ling sea­son. I’ll tra­vel on sai­ling ships of tall ship size (Anti­gua) and smal­ler (Arc­ti­ca II, a true arc­tic yacht). In July, I’ll spend about a week on Jan May­en. And I’ll be back to Green­land in 2015 at the latest. 2014 will be too short. As every year.

Do you agree that spitsbergen-svalbard.com is a gre­at re­source for any arc­tic enthu­si­ast?

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