Thu
16 Jul
2015

No Spits­ber­gen-trip would be com­ple­te wit­hout a visit to one of the Rus­si­an sett­le­ments, so we were in Pyra­mi­den today. Again, luck with the wea­ther: last night, we engi­ned against strong wind into Bil­lefjord, rain and sleet around mid­night, and as we star­ted our excur­si­on today – suns­hi­ne! Someone here seems to have excel­lent con­nec­tions to the hig­hest places.

So we could spend some very plea­sant hours with various, con­trast-rich impres­si­ons in the old ghost town. And as it tur­ned grey and wet again around noon, it just made the tea and other goo­dies in the bar in hotel Tuli­pan tas­te even bet­ter.

The wind in Bil­lefjord was not as strong any­mo­re as yes­ter­day, but enough to let us sail all the way to the ent­rance of Advent­fjord wit­hout the engi­ne. A nice, calm roun­dup for a very rich, inten­se Spits­ber­gen-trip, which was an impres­si­ve exam­p­le for a trip that was gre­at wit­hout having gone around the island alt­hough this had been the initi­al idea. It is the expe­ri­ence that counts, and that lea­ves not­hing to be desi­red. Add good atmo­sphe­re among­st pas­sen­gers and crew, and you have got all ingre­di­ents for the per­fect trip.

At the time of wri­ting, Anti­gua has alre­a­dy left Lon­gye­ar­by­en again – and again, under sail. And we are pre­pa­ring to board the local sai­ling yacht Arc­ti­ca II today: advan­ced Spits­ber­gen 2015. This will pro­vi­de ple­nty of stuff for this blog, so keep coming back!

Gal­lery Pyra­mi­den – 16th Juli 2015

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

Final­ly, a big thanks to all par­ti­ci­pan­ts of the Anti­gua-voya­ge and the crew of Cap­tain Joa­chim for a gre­at trip and good spi­rits!