Habe­nicht­buk­ta – 01st + 02nd August 2015

Sun
2 Aug
2015

Let’s for­get yes­ter­day. Too many tough hours were spent criss-crossing Storfjord, back and forth, in strong wind and high seas, try­ing to find an ope­ning in the ice and a pas­sa­ge south. What loo­ked like a pas­sa­ge tur­ned out to be a dead-end road. The east coast of Spits­ber­gen loo­ked so clo­se, Horn­sund­tind was cle­ar­ly visi­ble, but as out-of-reach as the moon.

Habe­nicht­buk­ta – 01st + 02nd August 2015

Final­ly we declared the case as hope­l­ess for the time being and stea­m­ed off towards Edgeøya, some more hours against the waves, but then we found a good ancho­ra­ge in Habe­nicht­buk­ta, shel­te­red from the sea and thus reason­ab­ly calm. Soon, life came back on our good, litt­le Arc­ti­ca II, peo­p­le appeared again and cha­os was tur­ned back into a cosy home.

The idea to sit the wea­ther out in this rather com­for­ta­ble posi­ti­on was quick­ly wel­co­med by ever­yo­ne. We could also expect that the ice, which accor­ding to all available infor­ma­ti­on couldn’t be more than a rela­tively thin stri­pe, should be spread by the strong wind, so a pas­sa­ge to the south cape should be pos­si­ble in the near future. So the next thing to do was a good din­ner, an enjoya­ble social evening and a good, long night’s sleep J

Pho­to Has­sen­stein­buk­ta – 02. August 2015

The wide tun­dra of sou­thwes­tern Edgeøya is an arc­tic dream, so of cour­se we went out this mor­ning to explo­re a bit, and our litt­le sun­day mor­ning walk tur­ned out to last a good cou­ple of hours. The tun­dra has an ama­zing dis­play of colours, it covers a low­land of rol­ling hills on basalt rock. Altog­e­ther, this attracts the eye and the atten­ti­on wit­hout any limi­ta­ti­on. The wide flat-top­ped moun­ta­ins in the distance give the sce­n­ery the cha­rac­ter that is so typi­cal for sou­the­as­tern Spits­ber­gen. A wild, beau­tiful arc­tic coun­try. Colourful flowers, the polar wil­low is show­ing the first hints of autumn. A mul­ti-chan­ne­led arc­tic river, a reinde­er, old fox traps from times of hun­ting which are histo­ry now sin­ce long. A long, silent rest to enjoy the impres­si­ons and let the eye wan­der and the spi­rit won­der.

Pho­to Habe­nicht­buk­ta – 02. August 2015

A second landing in the late after­noon tur­ned out to be a short-lived affair. After a short walk only, we saw a polar bear wal­king a bit fur­ther south. We went back to the ship and left him alo­ne in his king­dom.

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