The anchor was on the bottom in Mushamna, we were about to finish a cosy evening and call it a day as a small seal was seen near the beach entangled in a piece of fishing net, fighting for its life. All this plastic in the sea and on the shore or elsewhere in the environment is so disgusting! What is so difficult about putting old fishing gear or whatever it is in a container in the harbour or wherever? Why do endless quantities of it constantly end up in the sea, causing immense damage to the environment and slow and painful deaths to countless animals?
In this case, at least, we could help. It was a small seal, probably a young Ringed seal, which I could easily grab in the shallow water and lift up on the beach, so Pål could cut the net with a sharp knife. The net had already started to cut into the skin around the neck, so the poor beast must have been close to suffocating and it was really high time! Of course it was under shock and it needed some moments until it started to calm down again and to breath freely, but then it swam away, making a very healthy and lively impression on us, so we are sure it is in good shape again! Probably it was just our imagination, but when it actually dived through under our boat, we had the impression it did so to say thank you and goodbye. A wonderful moment that made us really happy! I don’t want to think of all the animals which suffer a similar fate without anyone around who could help, but sometimes you are lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time and able to do th! e right thing. Please, everybody, be responsible with plastic!
It is supposed to be quite windy today out there off the coast, so we are happy to be safely at anchor in this lovely and well-sheltered bay in Liefdefjord. The clouds are hanging low and there is little to see of the beautiful landscape, so we take the morning more or less off and have some time to talk about polar bears in some detail.
It is clearing up a little bit in the afternoon, and soon we are out and about again. The clouds have lifted just enough to give us some greyish but fine views of Erikbreen, Hornbækpollen and Liefdefjord. During the highest bits of our walk, we are diving into the clouds. Very atmospheric, but it is quite good to know the area pretty well now.
After a visit to Hilmar Nøis’ old hut Texas Bar, we steam on to Mushamna. Tomorrow is also supposed to be windy at sea, so that should be a good place to anchor.
It took a bit longer than expected to leave in the morning because the day began just as yesterday finished: with a family of polar bears. Possibly the same ones that we saw last night, but 2 families are supposed in the area, so we don’t know for sure, they may be different ones. Today’s polar bears were interested in a depot of garbage and fuel which supposedly belongs to the Sysselmannen. They went their way after a while.
We did the same and continued towards Raudfjord, which turned out to be so foggy that we left again soon and set course to the east. The visibility cleared up as we entered Woodfjorden, so we went to one of the small islands for a lovely tundra walk. Nature has so much to offer, often on a small scale. If you just want big animals and spectacular, big scenery, then you may not find much here, but if you have a sense for all the small things, the structures, the colours, the lichens and the rocks, the birds and the tundra, then you can spend a lot of time here.
The northwest of Spitsbergen does not exactly encourage hiking with its rocky and steep terrain and the glacier-covered inland. But there are some opportunities, and we grabbed one to venture into this world of ice and steep rocks.
This altogether had made the day already more than complete, but Pål’s sharp eyes discoved a polar bear family on a steep, rock shore and they gave us about half an hour of unforgettable observations! Lovely to see the 3 animals, all of them healthy and in good shape!
Now it was time for a good hike, so we took off for a couple of hours in Krossfjorden, having at look at the remains of a German weather station from the dark years of the Second World War and then hiking up to some hills and ridges which provided some great views over the wide coastal plain that stretches from here to the west coast, called Diesetsletta.
And who would have thought that we were able to explore this coastal plain from the other side just a few hours later? The coast of Diesetsletta is very exposed and it is definitely not on the list of commonly used landing sites, but today it was so calm that we just had to use the opportunity! A beautiful rocky coast with some small, hidden beaches, a wide-open tundra land with lakes and rivers and mountains with interesting colours and structures further inland.
After a couple of calm hours the anchor went to the bottom in beautiful surroundings in Magdalenefjord, where Pål took care of today’s catch of fish.
We fill the diesel tanks up once again in Ny-Ålesund to be ready for
whatever may come and of course we take the opportunity to have a walk
around. Additionally, I need to buy some socks, and this is where you
get the best ones in the world!
Later, we wanted to visit a bird cliff, but that was already occuppied.
Not too bad either. We can’t complain about the polar bear density,
these are numbers 2 and 3 for us, and it’s just the 3rd day in the trip!
The wind had started to blow up here in Kongsfjorden, so we moved up to
Krossfjorden for a calm night at anchor. Not without visiting the mighty
Lilliehöökbreen on the way!
Still the same day. Suddenly it cleared completely up, blue sky, bright sun, calm seas! What a panorama, what a view! As if it had not been enough like this, we were welcomed in Kongsfjorden by a large pod of Belugas. It must have been far more than 100, they were just everywhere!
We still had time to make a little detour to a coastal cave on Blomstrand. The conditions could not have been better, so we just made use of the opportunity. It was the first time that I managed to take a photo of that cave that I was happy with. Good stuff! Thanks to a little rock ledge in the cave that I could step on, my 11-24 mm wide-angle lense and a flashlight. Yeah!
Not much later we went alongside in Ny-Ålesund. What a golden evening! Bright sunshine, no wind whatsoever. Of course we walked around, took photos or just enjoyed. A goodnight-beer in the midnight sun rounded a great day off, much to our delight.
In Forlandsund, we made a first landing to get some first impressions of the arctic nature close-up. A little walk on Prins Karls Forland to get some tundra under our rubber boots. A bit grey, but still a lot to see. Later, we found some walrus on a narrow spit of land further north in Forlandsund.