Sun
16 Sep
2018

The wea­ther stays on our side, the sun is shi­ning through the thin clouds and, even more important, the sea is almost flat like a mir­ror as we set cour­se for Mof­fen in the ear­ly mor­ning. Not too much later we are shore. Mof­fen! This litt­le island just abo­ve 80 degrees north, hard­ly more than an exten­ded gra­vel bank, it exerts a fasci­na­ti­on that is hard to descri­ve with a few words. A litt­le, lonely island in the polar sea, this almost bizar­re land­scape of series of old beach rid­ges which add up to one ano­ther to form a gra­vel ring around a lagoon, the charme of a for­bidden island, it all comes tog­e­ther. Mof­fen is inde­ed a for­bidden island, becau­se you are not allo­wed to approach clo­ser than 300 met­res from mid May to mid Sep­tem­ber. Today it is 16 Sep­tem­ber, so you need not just the wea­ther but also the calen­der on your side to get real­ly clo­se to the island.

Mof­fen is loca­ted exact­ly on 80° North.

And then the­re are the wal­rus­ses! The­re are more than 100 in 3 groups on the sou­thern tip of the island, and more in the water. We have an ama­zing expe­ri­ence with them. It is hard to tell who is more curious, again and again the­re are wal­rus­ses swim­ming towards us, curious­ly che­cking the unu­su­al visi­tors out.

Who’s wat­ching who? Curious wal­ru­ses on Mof­fen.

The­re is also pla­s­tic on Mof­fen, sad­ly, as almost ever­y­whe­re. We take quite a lot of it with us.

Many of us have read Chris­tia­ne Ritter’s book „A woman in the polar night“, for some us it was a poe­tic door-ope­ner to the Arc­tic many years ago. We do have the chan­ce to visit the hut near Gråhu­ken whe­re the famous win­tering took place. An almost emo­tio­nal expe­ri­ence for some of us, and cer­tain­ly inte­res­t­ing for ever­y­bo­dy.

Chris­tia­ne Rit­ter win­tered in the Rit­ter hut in 1943/35. The hut was built in 1928 by the legen­da­ry Nor­we­gi­an trap­per Hil­mar Nøis.

Final­ly we drop anchor in the bay of Mus­ham­na – the lagoon its­elf is fro­zen, so we stay out­side as we are not sure if pro­vi­si­ons would last for a win­ter. We spend the evening around a fire on the beach, wat­ching how the colours in the land­scape chan­ge.

Sat
15 Sep
2018

The­re must have been hundreds of Rus­si­an cros­ses in Spits­ber­gen cen­tu­ries ago, built by the Pomors near their hun­ting sta­ti­ons. Nowa­days the­re are only two of them left and still stan­ding, both on litt­le islands in Murch­ison­fjord. One of them is our desti­na­ti­on for the mor­ning.

Rus­si­an cross, Nord­re Russeøya/ Murch­ison­fjord

Snow is lying on the ground and the­re is the smell of win­ter in the air, a fee­ling even enhan­ced by the yel­lo­wish light of the low sun. We take stun­ning arc­tic win­ter impres­si­ons and some lar­ge fishing nets back on board after the landing.

In Sorg­fjord, the clouds have dis­ap­peared almost com­ple­te­ly, the sun is low on the blue sky. The snow-cover­ed land is shi­ning in colours some­whe­re bet­ween white, blue and red.

Cro­zier­pyn­ten on the Eas­tern side of Sorg­fjord

Fri
14 Sep
2018

A reason­ab­ly calm night under sail brings uns far east to Nord­aus­t­land, as far as Murch­ison­fjord. A thin lay­er of fresh snow is a clear sign of the sum­mer fight­ing a lost batt­le in the­se lati­tu­des, the ther­mo­met­re does hard­ly climb abo­ve zero any­mo­re. A snow show­er was redu­cing the visi­bi­li­ty almost to zero as soon as we went ashore.

Snaddvi­ka, Murch­ison­fjord

We lan­ded in the inner­most cor­ner of Murch­ison­fjord. White snow was cove­ring red rocks, gree­tings from ear­ly chap­ters of Earth histo­ry. Wide-open views over hills and val­leys, fjords and islands, with the ice cap in the back­ground.

Kinn­vi­ka, Murch­ison­fjord

We move over to Kinn­vi­ka for the after­noon landing. The Sep­tem­ber sun is cas­ting warm light over the cold land­scape and the old Swe­dish rese­arch seta­ti­on. The light is get­ting more and more inten­si­ve, with colours like from an dream.

We spend the night at anchor in Kinn­vi­ka, nice and calm.

The Swe­dish rese­arch sta­ti­on Kinn­vi­ka was last in ope­ra­ti­on in 2007/2008.

Thu
13 Sep
2018

A love­ly bit of sai­ling takes us up to Smee­ren­burg­fjord during the night. Smee­ren­burg gives us a fri­end­ly wel­co­me with fine landing con­di­ti­ons. Wal­rus­ses, Dutch 17th cen­tu­ry wha­ling, polar foxes and the beau­tiful sce­n­ery make the mor­ning.

Wal­rus­ses, Smee­ren­burg

As we con­ti­nue fur­ther east­wards, we see the first polar bear of the trip. Quite distant, but well visi­ble for ever­y­bo­dy.

The first polar bear of our trip!

In Hamil­ton­buk­ta, we enjoy the tim­e­l­ess beau­ty and silence of the Arc­tic for a while, sur­roun­ded by stun­ning moun­ta­ins and gla­ciers. So, ano­ther good day in the Arc­tic! We are curious what tomor­row may bring, as we set cour­se to the nor­the­ast.

Smee­ren­burg

Hamil­ton­buk­ta

Wed
12 Sep
2018

We start in rather tra­di­tio­nal man­ner in Ny-Åle­sund in Kongsfjor­den. Our first and last visit to a sett­le­ment. Spits­ber­gen gives us a warm – well, chil­ly, but sun­ny and beau­tiful – wel­co­me. A fresh bree­ze is coming towards us as we go along­side. We dedi­ca­te the mor­ning to the litt­le sett­le­ment with its histo­ry, coal mining and north pole expe­di­ti­ons, and the pre­sent: sci­ence.

The mast from which Amund­sen and Nobi­le laun­ched their air­ships.

The lar­ge gla­cier Krone­breen is temp­ting us in the after­noon. We can’t resist – well, why should we even try – and enjoy the stun­ning land­scape.

The migh­ty gla­cier Krone­breen

Later, we set sails again. It is pure plea­su­re to move sil­ent­ly out of Kongsfjor­den and into the sun­set.

Text: Rolf Stan­ge

Tue
11 Sep
2018

It was high time to take off again, to get water under the keel and wind around the masts! We got a good bit of both as we went on board SV Anti­gua today. The­re was a fair bree­ze blo­wing out of Advent­da­len, the sun was shi­ning from a blue sky. Late after­noon, we left the small pier in Lon­gye­ar­by­en, and up went the sails!

Up went the sails! This time towards the west and north coast of Spits­ber­gen.

From Advent­da­len into the Isfjord.

It was a beau­tiful bit of real sai­ling out of Advent­fjord and through most of Isfjord. Many peo­p­le on board have been on Spits­ber­gen a num­ber of times befo­re, so it should real­ly be a very inte­res­t­ing trip!

Gre­at guests and atmo­sphe­re on board!

The first evening made clear what Sep­tem­ber in Spits­ber­gen is all about: warm light from the low sun, stun­ning sce­n­ery and even a Blue wha­le which waved with its flu­ke.

A Blue wha­le, the big­gest ani­mal on earth…

We pas­sed the wide pla­teau of Fuglef­jel­la, Gru­mant­by­en, Coles­buk­ta. Moun­ta­ins and gla­ciers on the other side in the north, Alkef­jel­let under the bright sun ahead of us. Ama­zing beau­ty whe­re­ver you loo­ked!

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

Wed
15 Aug
2018

We ancho­red in Isbuk­ta to get at least a few hours of sleep befo­re it would be time to round Sør­kapp (the south cape, Spitsbergen’s litt­le ver­si­on of Cape Hoorn). As the sun was shi­ning and con­di­ti­ons were ide­al in the mor­ning, of cour­se we took the oppor­tu­ni­ty to to out for a hike. A dead Belu­ga washed up on shore made us a bit sus­pi­cious – who knew what might be slee­ping behind a hill, con­side­ring to defend this titbit in for­ward gear if neces­sa­ry? But as it tur­ned out on careful inspec­tion, the­re had not yet been any­thing with big tee­th working on the car­cass, which had obvious­ly been the­re for a while alre­a­dy. A carefull check of the area inclu­ding aeri­al recon­nais­sance indi­ca­ted that the area was safe at the time being. You can never be 100 % cer­tain, but we could cer­tain­ly ven­ture out with good con­sci­ence. Isbuk­ta is stun­nin­gly beau­tiful with its lar­ge gla­ciers and many rug­ged moun­ta­ins, like a smal­ler ver­si­on of Horn­sund. And that under a blue, sun­ny sky from an ele­va­ted posi­ti­on!

Isbuk­ta

It was actual­ly quite win­dy up the­re, so we were a bit curious what roun­ding Sør­kapp would bring. The fore­cast was not bad at all, and we are at our sou­thern­most posi­ti­on now at the time of wri­ting, get­ting up to the west coast of Spits­ber­gen soon. So far it is real­ly quite ok.

Isbuk­ta

Tue
14 Aug
2018

Spitsbergen’s east coast has, for good (or bad) reasons, a repu­ta­ti­on of a cer­tain inac­ces­si­bi­li­ty, if you exclude Sabi­ne Land with Agardhbuk­ta, Dunérbuk­ta and Mohn­buk­ta, which can be rea­ched rela­tively easi­ly from Lon­gye­ar­by­en, espe­ci­al­ly in win­ter. But else­whe­re it is dif­fi­cult. Over land, it would requi­re a long and very deman­ding, expe­di­ti­on-style trip, and from the sea, this rug­ged, unchar­ted coast­li­ne is not exact­ly invi­ting eit­her.

Croll­breen

Some wind had come up in Agardhbuk­ta over night, no thought of any landing here now. Also fur­ther south, it did not real­ly look pro­mi­sing, initi­al­ly. It was not until we had almost rea­ched Ham­berg­buk­ta that we had ide­al con­di­ti­ons to approach one of the many gla­ciers in that area. As it tur­ned out, it had retrea­ted a bit and expo­sed a shore­li­ne com­po­sed of for­mer morai­ne that now forms seve­ral lagoons, whe­re a landing was easi­ly pos­si­ble, at least on a per­fect­ly calm day like this! Com­ple­te­ly young, fresh land, very vir­gin. I was won­de­ring if anyo­ne had ever set foot on this place befo­re, which not too many years ago was still gla­cier-cover­ed? Of cour­se I don’t real­ly know and one should be rather careful befo­re actual­ly clai­ming to be the first one any­whe­re in Spits­ber­gen. But at least the fact that the thought seems pos­si­ble and actual­ly quite reasonable is pret­ty ama­zing and rather attrac­ti­ve!

Croll­breen

The gla­cier must actual­ly have advan­ced a bit again quite recent­ly, as it has pushed up a steep litt­le morai­ne ridge, which had some pie­ces of young drift­wood built in. Some of us got their cram­pons out to ven­ture on a litt­le gla­cier hike, explo­ring crev­as­ses and wha­te­ver else one can find on a gla­cier. Some others went for a silent, litt­le beach walk, going to one lagoon and then to the other and enjoy­ing all the litt­le and big things that you can find in natu­re in a plce like this. Dis­co­ve­ring a new place, some­whe­re wild and remo­te, espe­ci­al­ly on the east coast of Spits­ber­gen, how good can life be? 🙂

Hedge­hog­fjel­let

Later, the sun deligh­ted us with ano­ther beau­tiful, very red near­by-sun­set.

Mon
13 Aug
2018

Agardhbuk­ta on the east coast of Spits­ber­gen, a bit fur­ther south than Lon­gye­ar­by­en, was exact­ly in the right posi­ti­on for us to drop the anchor late night. The atmo­sphe­re was almost melan­cho­lic, the light approa­ching twi­light, the sun prac­ti­cing sun­sets again, if only behind the moun­ta­ins and not behind the hori­zon. But it is deep­ly red around mid­night and reminds us that the sum­mer is not long any­mo­re and dark­ness will be coming.

Agardhbuk­ta

Fond memo­ries are coming to mind here in Agardhbuk­ta. I have been here a cou­ple of times in the past, but always over land, never by boat. This bay is lar­ge­ly unchar­ted and does not have a good repu­ta­ti­on among­st sea­men, they used to call it Foul Bay in the past. My first time here was in 1999, 20 years ago! Unbe­lie­va­ble … a long time. That was a hiking tour with my fri­end Sven. We fol­lo­wed the clas­sic Con­way rou­te, start­ing in Lon­gye­ar­by­en and then fol­lo­wing the lar­ge inland val­leys for 4 long days. Later I was once again in the area on foot and then seve­ral times in the win­ter. That is much fas­ter and cer­tain­ly less exhaus­ting.

Agardhbuk­ta

For us this time, Agardhbuk­ta was main­ly an over­night ancho­ra­ge, even after making use of the depth fin­der as much as pos­si­ble and respon­si­ble, the coast was still pret­ty far away. But when tomor­row beca­me today, we sud­den­ly had a bir­th­day child on board and I thought a litt­le, quiet mid­night walk in the light of the very low mid­night sun might be a nice bir­th­day pre­sent. Which was inde­ed the case. A silent walk in beau­tiful sur­roun­dings, enjoy­ing the love­ly atmo­sphe­re and immer­sing in tre­asu­red memo­ries.

Mon
13 Aug
2018

A dream day in one of the most beau­tiful cor­ners of Spits­ber­gen, in the eas­tern­most part of the main island. The­re is this love­ly bay in Heley­sund whe­re you can anchor per­fect­ly well even if it is blo­wing a bit, like last night.

Straums­land

Today mor­ning it was calm again, and sun­ny. We pre­pared some ther­mos bot­t­les and a bit of food and took off, for a long hike on the tun­dra. Some­ti­mes wet, some­ti­mes dry, some­timey rocky, always rich in details, varied, beau­tiful. Gre­at views of Heley­sund and Straums­land, Storfjord and Barent­søya. Curious reinde­er and a rare Sabine’s gull. A stun­ning coast­li­ne with huge rock colum­ns, below them green, lush tun­dra with well-deve­lo­ped ice wed­ges. Long rests in the sun, enjoy­ing the views. What else could you ask for?

Straums­land

Now we are steam­ing south in Storfjord. The sun is shi­ning, and we have got gre­at views of Barent­søya and Spits­ber­gen.

Straums­land

Straums­land

Sun
12 Aug
2018

We are still in Hin­lo­pen Strait, having spent the night ancho­red clo­se to one of the islands the­re. Rocky, bar­ren polar desert. Not­hing but stones. That’s what it looks like, at least from a distance. On clo­ser inspec­tion, it turns out to be a land­scape sur­pri­sin­gly rich in detail. Of cour­se we had a good look around 🙂

Von-Otteroya

It seems to be sun­ny fur­ther east, so we set cour­se for Brås­vell­breen. That is also one of the­se won­ders of the natu­ral world, a uni­que bit of the Arc­tic. The wind is get­ting fresh as we get clo­ser, and the ice is pret­ty den­se, but Pål is navi­ga­ting us safe­ly towards the huge gla­cier, whe­re the wind is also cal­ming down as we get into even den­ser ice. A polar bear swims curious­ly towards us and cir­cles around the ship at clo­se distance!

Bras­vell­breen

The view of the see­mingly end­less ice cliff of Brås­vell­breen in the sun, with water­falls and many ice­bergs drif­ting near­by, is just stun­ning.

Bras­vell­breen

Sat
11 Aug
2018

After many hours sai­ling we drop­ped the anchor in Murch­ison­fjord in the ear­ly mor­ning hours. We visi­ted the old Swe­dish sta­ti­on of Kinn­vi­ka and went for a long hike in the wide-open polar-desert-like land­scape, rea­ching hills with stun­ning views and fin­ding fos­sils as expec­ted and, to our sur­pri­se, an ice cave.

Kinn­vi­ka

Kinn­vi­ka

Alkef­jel­let, being one of the gre­at won­ders of the arc­tic world, rounds the day off. With a bit of effort and some Zodiac sup­port from Moni­ka, I mana­ged to get a 360 pan­ora­ma of Alkef­jel­let. I am curious how it will turn out 🙂

Alkef­jel­let