Thu
16 Aug
2018

Sør­kapp tur­ned out to be a pie­ce of cake this time 🙂 hard­ly any sea worth men­tio­ning. We still went up the west coast a good cou­ple of miles last night, to place us a bit fur­ther north, so we can make it up to Isfjord wit­hout trou­bles when the time comes. Soon. As it remain­ed calm, we drop­ped the anchor late night or, rather, ear­ly mor­ning near Isøya­ne off Tor­ellbrea­ne. Ama­zing sce­n­ery!

Isoya­ne

All the way back sin­ce I star­ted thin­king, I wan­ted to go to Isøya­ne, and today was the day. A litt­le walk on an island less than one kilo­met­re in dia­me­ter, wit­hout any real ele­va­tions, was exact­ly the right thing for us today. The near-shore waters are very shal­low and rocky, making landing a bit chal­len­ing, but we found the one and only right spot. What can I say – a won­derful litt­le island! This green, lush tun­dra gives you an idea of the count­less gene­ra­ti­ons of Com­mon eider ducks, geese, Arc­tic terns, various sku­as and other fea­the­red crea­tures have fer­ti­li­sed the tun­dra here year after year. The fresh green was a plea­su­re for the eye, after so many days in the polar desert and gla­cier envi­ron­ments fur­ther east and north! The coas­tal land­scape was stun­ning, with its many litt­le bays and exten­si­ve mari­ne plat­forms cut by wave action into solid rock.

Isoya­ne

Kapp Bor­then is not far from Isøya­ne. Ano­ther place from which you will usual­ly keep a good distance. Only on a real­ly good day, when the wea­ther is fine and sta­ble and the sea is calm, it is a place whe­re you may land. The­re is a wide plain bet­ween the coast and the moun­ta­ins, so flat that you could almost land an aero­pla­ne here. And this is exact­ly what the crew of a Ger­man figh­ter pla­ne did in Sep­tem­ber 1942 after their pla­ne had been dama­ged during an attack on a con­voi.

Kapp-Bor­then

We are now crui­sing north towards Isfjord. Calm seas and sun­ny at times. Soon our track will be a cir­cle.

Kapp-Bor­then