Tue
4 Aug
2015

Bell­sund – sounds almost like home, a peaceful place J far away from all that ice, back in the green tun­dra under the noi­sy birdcliffs, the colourful flowers, the reinde­er, the ele­gant­ly cur­ved bays. After a day on the ship yes­ter­day, it was nice to stretch legs a litt­le bit, a good 300 met­res up to get a pan­ora­ma view of Bell­sund. Akseløya with its ama­zing struc­tures in the north, Fri­dt­jov­breen, the lar­ge val­leys Ber­ze­li­us­da­len and Reind­a­len. The lush tun­dra with count­less flowers on Mid­ter­huks­let­ta, inter­rupt­ed by deep­ly incis­ed ice wed­ges. The litt­le rocky capes on the sou­thern side, and some jag­ged moun­ta­ins and wide gla­ciers in the distance. An ama­zin­gly beau­tiful coun­try, on a good day.

Gal­lery Bell­sund – 04th August 2015

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

A calm evening at anchor with a view to Fri­dt­jov­breen rounds the day off.

Mon
3 Aug
2015

Yes, the ice keeps on kee­ping us busy for some time. The next den­se belt of drift ice is just ahead of us. Sør­kapp Land seems so clo­se. Given the­se con­di­ti­ons, the­re are not many other ships in the area, but we are not the only ones now. The Hur­tig­ru­ten ship MS Fram is north of us, steam­ing south, a fast, strong ves­sel with a fri­end­ly Cap­tain. We con­ti­nue behind Fram, the ship is wide enough to crea­te a nice chan­nel in the ice. Their pas­sen­gers are enjoy­ing the ope­ra­ti­on, and so do we. Not an ever­y­day thing, defi­ni­te­ly.

Pho­to Sør­kapp – 03rd August 2015 – 1/3

After a first, den­se sec­tion, the ice is get­ting more open. Kit­ty­wa­kes are fishing in Fram’s wake, and the wild sce­n­ery of Sør­kapp Land pro­vi­des a sple­ndid back­ground. And as a final high­light, a polar bear is show­ing up. A big, strong, proud male, batt­le-scar­red with many scars on its face and nose.

Pho­to Sør­kapp – 03rd August 2015 – 2/3

The wide pas­sa­ge around the south cape takes most of the night, and the­re are drift ice fields bet­ween us and the coast all of the time. Same now, in the ear­ly mor­ning. Horn­sund is in view, but behind wide ice fields. We are crui­sing bet­ween the ice floes, Pål is enjoy­ing his time on the stee­ring wheel, while I am wat­ching for polar bears and wri­ting this blog in bet­ween.

Pho­to Sør­kapp – 03rd August 2015 – 3/3

We will keep a distance to Horn­sund, let’s see whe­re we end up today, pro­ba­b­ly Bell­sund. A good, safe ancho­ra­ge is the next thing we need, some rest for the skip­per, a landing for ever­y­bo­dy else.

Mon
3 Aug
2015

Ice … we’ve had a simi­lar head­line befo­re, didn’t we? Pos­si­bly. Now we are off Isbuk­ta, sou­thern east coast of Spits­ber­gen. At least, we have not been this far south befo­re, recent­ly, the south cape seems so clo­se.

Ear­lier today, we thought once again that we were through, the ice stay­ed behind, open water ahead … but a few miles later, more ice, the next den­se belt of drift ice. Accor­ding to today’s ice chart, it should have been an iso­la­ted field of „open drift ice“, well, we have heard that befo­re.

Pho­to Ice – 03rd 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.

Sat
1 Aug
2015

(31st July – 01st August 2015) – The day star­ted nice and sun­ny, but soon it tur­ned out to be quite win­dy, which is not par­ti­cu­lar­ly hel­pful on the rather unpro­tec­ted shores of Storfjord. Against expec­ta­ti­on, we mana­ged a landing on Edgeøya, enjoy­ed the love­ly tun­dra, the wide land­scape, a group of wal­rus­ses sun­bathing near an old trap­per hut, not far from a wal­rus gra­vey­ard whe­re hundreds of their grand­grand­par­ents were slaugh­te­red by wha­lers and hun­ters for their ivo­ry, blub­ber and skin. Now, wal­rus­ses are again enjoy­ing their life near the old, blea­ching bones. Natu­re is taking her space again, even if it takes time.

More wal­rus­ses, more wind, more ice – 07/31 + 08/01/2015

Assum­ing that com­ple­ting a cir­cum­na­vi­ga­ti­on of Spits­ber­gen would only be a mat­ter of sai­ling down Storfjord and around the south cape, we set cour­se that way. But the ice field that was shown on the latest ice chart as a rather thin belt of open drift bet­ween sou­thern Edgeøya and the east coast of Spits­ber­gen tur­ned out to be solid, den­se pack ice, pushed tog­e­ther by the strong nor­t­her­ly wind. Now we have been try­ing for more than 12 hours to find a gap in that ice field, and if we don’t find it soon, then we have to turn around and head nor­thwards again, back through Heley­sund and Hin­lo­pen Strait … not a very plea­sant thought at all, but natu­re rules. A king­dom for an accu­ra­te, up-to-date ice chart and a good wea­ther fore­cast!

Thu
30 Jul
2015

An incre­di­ble day. It star­ted quite ear­ly in den­se fog and with a group of wal­rus­ses, who were in good shape and pret­ty acti­ve. It con­tin­ued in fog and with more and more ice. The ice stay­ed, the fog went, and so we con­tin­ued through an extre­me­ly plea­sant after­noon, crui­sing under a bright sun through the most beau­tiful ice, wat­ching seals and birds. Pure high arc­tic.

Then the­re was the ques­ti­on if it would be pos­si­ble to pass through Heley­sund. Wat­ching the fields of drift ice, which were get­ting lar­ger and lar­ger and den­ser and den­ser, one would hard­ly have pla­ced a bet on a suc­cessful pas­sa­ge. But wait and see. The cur­rent increased, and final­ly we had rea­ched a point whe­re a return would have been dif­fi­cult and then even impos­si­ble. Unfort­u­na­te­ly I can’t send a video at this time (later!), and it is hard to descri­be this pas­sa­ge. A rol­ler­co­as­ter ride in strong curr­ents, tog­e­ther with a lar­ge field of drift ice. The indi­vi­du­al ice floes were all drif­ting here and the­re and ever­y­whe­re, pure cha­os. Skip­per Pål maneou­vred fran­ti­cal­ly, try­ing not to bump too much into ice, but that was hard to avo­id. Lucki­ly, the Arc­ti­ca II is built to take some bea­ting in the ice. Any other sai­ling boat with a hull made from any other mate­ri­al than good, strong steel would have been crus­hed to pie­ces. The views of the near­by ice­f­loes see­med to indi­ca­te a tur­bu­lent, but sta­tio­na­ry posi­ti­on, a look towards the rocky shores made clear that we were actual­ly drif­ting with some ama­zing speed, far bey­ond the capa­bi­li­ty of the engi­ne alo­ne.

Gal­lery Wal­rus­ses, ice and curr­ents – 30th July 2015

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

Now we are through, a very impres­si­ve expe­ri­ence richer, and loo­king for­ward to a calm ancho­ra­ge, a litt­le late evening walk on Barent­søya, and defi­ni­te­ly some hours og good sleep.

Wed
29 Jul
2015

Yes, good wea­ther, that’s what we want and what we need. The wind had lar­ge­ly cal­med down and even the sun was coming out at times. So on we went, with sand­wi­ches and ther­mos bot­t­les, into the tun­dra and up the moun­ta­ins. Gre­at views of the land­scape near and far, bizar­re shapes of wea­the­ring snow on the banks of litt­le rivers, ptar­mi­gans and reinde­er, flowers and erra­tic bould­ers, lar­ge val­leys with gla­ciers and morai­nes. Six hours exact­ly as we want them.

Pho­to Faks­eva­gen – 29th Juli 2015 – 1/2

Hin­lo­pen Strait its­elf, howe­ver, is less hos­pi­ta­ble, but bet­ter than yes­ter­day, less wind. And the lively acti­vi­ty of hundred thou­sands of Brünich’s guil­l­emots at Alkef­jel­let is always extre­me­ly impres­si­ve, also when the sky is grey.

Pho­to Faks­eva­gen – 29th Juli 2015 – 2/2

Now we are curious about the near future. We have good hopes for less wind, wal­rus­ses, a visit to the gre­at ice cap of Nord­aus­t­land and drift ice. Enough to be inte­res­t­ing, but not too much, so we may suc­cessful­ly sail into Storfjord, the most important step to turn this trip into a cir­cum­na­vi­ga­ti­on of the main island of Spits­ber­gen.

Pho­to Alkef­jel­let – 29th Juli 2015

Tue
28 Jul
2015

It is as if someone had pushed a but­ton in the wea­ther sys­tem of the far north some days ago. After the calm weeks that we had until mid July, we have now got the second peri­od with strong winds in Spits­ber­gen. The first one wasn’t much of a bother to us, as we had spent some very enjoya­ble days in the shel­ter of inner Kongsfjord, as the rea­der may remem­ber. Right now, we have heard that a full-grown storm is raging around Sør­kapp (the south cape), and sai­ling boats wait in Lon­gye­ar­by­en for the wind to calm down befo­re they lea­ve.

Last night, the anchor was drag­ging in Murch­ison­fjord, Arc­ti­ca II was vigo­rous­ly pul­ling on the chain in the gusts. It was kind of ok until the mor­ning, but it was clear that this was no place to spend more time than neces­sa­ry. A bay that pro­vi­des shel­ter not only from the sea but also from the wind, that would be good now.

Pho­to Hin­lo­pen – 28th July 2015

Addi­tio­nal­ly, we have got the infor­ma­ti­on that the­re is move­ment in the ice off the eas­tern tip of Spits­ber­gen. So far, the pas­sa­ge from sou­thern Hin­lo­pen to Heley­sund had been blo­cked by den­se drift ice, but now it seems to be open. This pas­sa­ge is not very long, but curr­ent­ly the cru­cial bit with regards to a poten­ti­al cir­cum­na­vi­ga­ti­on of Spits­ber­gen. Now we are half-way through the voya­ge, time-wise. If we want to sail around Spits­ber­gen, then we have to keep an eye on time.

Pho­to Faks­eva­gen – 28th July 2015

Enough reasons altog­e­ther to lea­ve Murch­ison­fjord and set cour­se sou­thwards in Hin­lo­pen Strait, even if that invol­ves rough sea for a cou­ple of hours. But not for too long. It was nice to walk on solid tun­dra ground later in Lom­fjord.

Mon
27 Jul
2015

Inner Murch­ison­fjord is teasing with its wide-open land­scapes, bar­ren but then so rich in detail, and the vici­ni­ty of the inland ice. So we went out, equip­ped with ther­mos bot­t­les and sand­wi­ches, fol­lo­wing litt­le val­leys inland. A moon land­scape, but so colourful, may­be rather a Mars land­scape? Pre­cam­bri­an colours turn some of the hills deep­ly red. Thanks to the stroma­to­li­thes, who initi­al­ly pro­du­ced all that free oxy­gen.

Pho­to Trioda­len – 27th July 2015 – 1/2

Even the rivers seem to hide from the harsh cli­ma­te some­ti­mes, as they build some beau­tiful snow bridges and tun­nels. Good views of the inland ice, Ves­t­fon­na. Only the begin­ning des­truc­tion of a hiking boot keeps us from wal­king the last bit to the ice. But to app­re­cia­te the great­ness of a moun­tain (or ice cap), you have to keep a distance any­way.

Pho­to Trioda­len – 27th July 2015 – 2/2

And seven hours of fresh air don’t lea­ve much to be desi­red. The­re is ple­nty of fresh air today, the air seems to be in a rush. We hide in a small side bay with the boat, try­ing to get a litt­le bit out of the wind. The ropes are ban­ging against the mast, making a lost of noi­se, and the anchor is audi­bly working to keep Arc­ti­ca II in posi­ti­on. Hop­eful­ly the wind goes down a bit.

Pho­to Far­gefjel­let – 27th July 2015 – 1/2

Sun
26 Jul
2015

In inner Mos­sel­buk­ta, the land­scape does not real­ly know if it wants to be land or sea. A num­ber of bea­ches sepa­ra­te smal­ler and lar­ger lagoons, pen­in­su­las reach out into the bay, a num­ber of litt­le rivers is run­ning across the tun­dra. It is nice to hike in this diver­se and varied envi­ron­ment. Remains of an old hut show whe­re Rus­si­an hun­ters used to live cen­tu­ries ago, two gra­ves show that not all of them made it back home.

Pho­to Mos­sel­buk­ta – 26th Juli 2015 – 1/3

We found remains of woo­den ship wrecks near the shore. May­be from the cata­stro­phic win­ter in 1872-73, when the famous Swe­dish explo­rer Adolf Erik Nor­dens­ki­öld win­tered in Mos­sel­buk­ta? His ship was also forced to win­ter, as an ear­ly win­ter storm pushed ice into the bay. The ship made it well through the win­ter, but other ones that were also trap­ped were cra­s­hed and lost. The win­ter storms can be bru­tal here, as the immense amounts of drift­wood make clear. The­re are also immense amounts of pla­s­tic rub­bish, con­stant­ly coming in over long distances with sea curr­ents, unfort­u­na­te­ly. Mos­sel­buk­ta is defi­ni­te­ly on the list for a clean-up.

But away from the pla­s­tic, the­re is so much beau­ty on the­se coasts. Oyster­leaf is flowe­ring, pro­tec­ted by some lar­ge drift­wood logs.

Pho­to Mos­sel­buk­ta – 26th Juli 2015 – 2/3

Later in the day: fish soup with fresh, local­ly caught arc­tic char, the crossing of 80 degrees, roun­ding Ver­le­gen­hu­ken and crossing nor­t­hern Hin­lo­pen Strait towards Nord­aus­t­land, some­thing that does invol­ve some rock and roll as the­re is a bit of wind against us.

Pho­to Mos­sel­buk­ta – 26th Juli 2015 – 3/3

Later, Murch­ison­fjord brought shel­ter from wind and waves and a love­ly late evening walk in the polar desert of Nord­aus­t­land in the most beau­tiful evening light.

Pho­to Kval­ross­hal­voya – 26. Juli 2015

Sat
25 Jul
2015

While con­ti­nuing fur­ther nor­thwest, we dis­co­ver­ed ano­ther fema­le polar bear which was wal­king over some small islands in Fuglefjord. This is good polar bear coun­try at the time being, always some­thing going on.
 
 

Foto Fug­le­hol­ma­ne – 25. Juli 2015

Loo­king for remains of 17th cen­tu­ry wha­ling sta­ti­ons that are less well known and not as fre­quent­ly visi­ted as Smee­ren­burg, I quick­ly che­cked two small, but pro­mi­sing islands. Howe­ver, they tur­ned out to be less pro­duc­ti­ve, from a wha­ling histo­ry point of view, than I had been hoping for. So we rea­li­zed plan A, which meant Ind­re Nor­skøya. Still quite unknown, which is good. This trip is „advan­ced Spits­ber­gen“, so we have to find some places which not ever­y­bo­dy has alre­a­dy been to.

Foto Ind­re Nor­skoya – 25. Juli 2015

Which does not mean that visi­ting well-known places is not an opti­on. Of cour­se, we have got some Chris­tia­ne Rit­ter fans on board, so we made a litt­le detour to Gråhu­ken. The oppor­tu­ni­ty is good, given the very calm sea that we have got here today, and a late after­noon walk is a very wel­co­me oppor­tu­ni­ty to break up the long trip to the east. Espe­ci­al­ly as we con­tin­ued the walk to the nor­t­hern­most tip of Andrée Land, Gråhuk­pyn­ten, whe­re the coas­tal flat is ending in lagoons and nice­ly struc­tu­red rocky out­crops. And as we rea­ched the shore, skip­per Pål had alre­a­dy caught seve­ral fresh, nice arc­tic char J (simi­lar to sal­mon).

Fri
24 Jul
2015

Now it was get­ting time to move nor­thwards. The wind was not com­ple­te­ly gone, but it had cal­med down con­sider­a­b­ly, com­pared to two days ago, when we had tur­ned into Kross­fjord rather than going out. But the­re was still some sea and wind going, so some stay­ed out­side, others insi­de, all enjoy­ed the views of the coast, slept a bit, read, and ever­y­bo­dy was loo­king for­ward to shel­te­red waters, which were to come in just a few hours.

Pho­to – Nor­thwards – 24th July 2015 – 1/3

We pas­sed the slight­ly smal­ler sis­ter ship Arc­ti­ca I and exch­an­ged some goods, an inte­res­t­ing ope­ra­ti­on at open, modera­te­ly rough sea. With a rope and water­pro­of bags, we got some rea­ding mate­ri­al for our skip­per and black tea, while pea­nut but­ter went the oppo­si­te way.

The pas­sa­ge south of Dan­s­køya brought the first polar bear sight­ing of the trip. A litt­le fami­ly, mother with cub of the year, about seven months old.

Pho­to – Nor­thwards – 24th July 2015 – 2/3

Now the anchor is down on the bot­tom in Vir­go­ham­na, and it is calm around the ship and on board. The arc­tic aero­nauts Andrée and Well­man add some his­to­ri­cal fla­vour to the day, in theo­ry in here and out­side.

Pho­to – Nor­thwards – 24th July 2015 – 3/3

The polar fox that did obvious­ly not care about pro­tec­ting cul­tu­ral heri­ta­ge, wal­king straight across the remain from Wellman’s acti­vi­ties, was defi­ni­te­ly a high­light.

Thu
23 Jul
2015

All good things are three­fold (I am sure that doesn’t trans­la­te, but that is what the Ger­man ori­gi­nal says), so we spent a third day in Kongsfjord. Well, it wasn’t quite like that. In Kross­fjord, it was so win­dy that we quick­ly deci­ded to return to Kongsfjord, whe­re it is curr­ent­ly cal­mer. So we went to Ny Lon­don on Blom­strand­hal­vøya to have a look at the old marb­le mine with the huts, steam drill, quar­ry and loa­ding cra­ne. Nice to see how natu­re is taking her ter­rain back again slow­ly. Flowers are gro­wing through holes in the old ste­al machi­nery, like the the Dro­o­ping saxif­ra­ge.

Pho­to – Kongsfjord III – 23rd July 2015 – 1/3

Later we also went for the hike to the top of Blom­strand. Fine views of the famous Kongsfjord pan­ora­ma, and a very acti­ve gla­cier cave in Blom­strand­breen. Con­stant­ly fal­ling ice and thun­der pro­vi­ded excel­lent enter­tain­ment while we had a rest on the peak.

Pho­to – Kongsfjord III – 23rd July 2015 – 2/3

Com­ple­te silence now on the boat, it is calm out­side, ice­bergs drif­ting ever­y­whe­re. Tomor­row, the wind should also calm down at sea, so we can con­ti­nue nor­thwards.

Pho­to – Kongsfjord III – 23rd July 2015 – 3/3

Wed
22 Jul
2015

Ossi­an Sars­fjel­let has got more to offer than a bird cliff and flowers. On the eas­tern side, it has some impres­si­ve gla­ciers in the direct neigh­bour­hood, and as it is not far to that side, we went for a hike acros Ossi­an Sars­fjel­let, over tun­dra and rocky washout plains, stop­ping whe­re we saw some reinde­er, and then up a morain ridge, behind which we rea­ched a gre­at pan­ora­ma plat­form in shape of a gla­cier-polished marb­le sur­face.

Pho­to Ossi­an Sars­fjel­let – 22nd Juli 2015 – 1/2

Count­less small folds and faults, with very clear gla­cial stria­ti­on, this alo­ne would be a remar­kab­le site and cer­tain­ly under pro­tec­tion any­whe­re near civi­liza­ti­on. But then the­re was the view over the gla­cier-framed bay Rød­vi­ka with ice cliffs forming lar­ge parts of the shore and wide ice fields in back coun­try.

Pho­to Ossi­an Sars­fjel­let – 22nd Juli 2015 – 2/2

After a litt­le, sun­ny crui­se along ice­bergs and gla­ciers in inner­most Kongsfjord, we deci­ded to have a look at the outer coast as we want to get fur­ther north at some stage. But as it tur­ned out, the­re was a strong bree­ze blo­wing at open sea, tur­ning many waves white, so we deci­ded to chan­ge cour­se and spend a day in Kross­fjord, which should be shel­te­red.

Pho­to Kongsfjord – 22nd Juli 2015

Tue
21 Jul
2015

What a day. Long, full and beau­tiful. And as it is time to finish it, this blog ent­ry won’t be ter­ri­bly long.

The sce­ne for the day is not unknown. Kongsfjord is a clas­sic, espe­ci­al­ly Ny Åle­sund will be known to many, if not all, rea­ders. It is, howe­ver, less com­mon to lea­ve the town with a hike into the fjord, rather than a walk to the har­bour. The coas­tal tun­dra plains near Ny Åle­sund are very invi­ting for some good walks.

Pho­to Kongsfjord – 21st Juli 2015

The gla­ciers in Kongsfjord must have been very acti­ve recent­ly. It has been quite warm the last days, the arc­tic sum­mer is at its peak. The­re is a lot of gla­cier ice drif­ting in the water.

Pho­to Ossi­an Sars­fjel­let – 21st Juli 2015 – 1/2

The arc­tic flowers are in their busie­st sea­son. The vege­ta­ti­on is strong and ple­ntyful here in inner Kongsfjord, with flowers in many colours.

Pho­to Ossi­an Sars­fjel­let – 21st Juli 2015 – 2/2

Also the sea­birds are in their peak brea­ding sea­son. Brünich’s guil­l­emots and kit­ti­wa­kes are taking care of their chicks. The­re is an immense level of acti­vi­ty in the steep bree­ding cliffs.

Now we are calm­ly ancho­red, enjoy­ing the evening with its beau­tiful light that is get­ting warm again, as late July isn’t far any­mo­re.