Fri
27 Jul
2018

Barents­burg gave us much more of a fri­end­ly wel­co­me than we had feared last night: not only had the wea­ther cle­ared up, but a polar fox came to the har­bour during break­fast to say hel­lo!

The mor­ning walk through the Rus­si­an sett­le­ment brought not just the visu­al con­trasts that one is safe to expect here, but also a wealth of know­ledge regar­ding 20th cen­tu­ry histo­ry and poli­tics of Spits­ber­gen.

The after­noon star­ted with a lot of wind and some gre­at sai­ling across Isfjord, befo­re we found a place in Bore­buk­ta shel­te­red enough to explo­re a bit of morai­ne and tun­dra land­scape. In the evening, we brought out some che­ers on this gre­at trip which was about to come to an end soon.

Thu
26 Jul
2018

We were curious about the expe­ri­ence of the trek­king group who had spent the night with Alex in a camp some­whe­re in a hid­den val­ley in Nathorst Land. They came back in the late mor­ning after a rather wet and win­dy night and a solid hike in For­kast­nings­da­len, hap­py about the expe­ri­ence and also hap­py to get back on board and warm up again with some hot cho­co­la­te!

Fors­bla­dod­den

Fors­bla­dod­den

Mean­while, the „nor­mal” peo­p­le had ven­tu­red across Fors­bla­dod­den and into lower rea­ches of For­kast­nings­da­len, mee­ting some very fri­end­ly reinde­er and explo­ring the land­scape which was so rich in struc­tu­re on big­ger and smal­ler sca­les.

Fors­bla­dod­den

Fors­bla­dod­den

In the after­noon, we set sail, hea­ding north towards Isfjord. At some stage we made up to 8-9 knots, but later the wind fell away, some­thing that can not be said about the swell so we were rather hap­py to enter Isfjord in the late after­noon. Once along­side in Barents­burg, most of us went to explo­re the pro­ducts of the bre­wery in the sty­lish new bar.

Barents­burg

Wed
25 Jul
2018

The swell last night on the way up to Bell­sund had not exact­ly made the night bet­ter, and most of us were quite hap­py to get into shel­te­red waters again in Bell­sund in the very ear­ly mor­ning hours.

Tom­tod­den

We gave the day a rela­xed start and made a litt­le walk along the coast in Recher­chefjord, whe­re a Rus­si­an expe­di­ti­on had built a sta­ti­on in 1764, almost a litt­le vil­la­ge of 16 hou­ses. None is stan­ding any­mo­re, of cour­se. Rolf told the sto­ries of this adven­ture and others such as the French Recher­che-Expe­di­ti­on, who­se bra­ve sci­en­tists clim­bed Obser­va­to­rief­jel­let many times for their work, the crui­se ship Mon­te Cer­van­tes which mana­ged to reach Recher­chefjord after being dama­ged by ice in 1928 (she sank in ear­ly 1930 clo­se to Ushua­ia), the tou­ristic hopes of Kon­sul Gjæ­ver, who had left a croo­ked hut here, and 8 Eng­lish wha­lers who had been left here by acci­dent in 1630. They were found in the fol­lo­wing year in good shape. Lots of sto­ries for such a litt­le fjord! The oldest bits of histo­ry were actual­ly geo­lo­gi­cal traces of an ice age more than 600 mil­li­on years ago, which have now come to the sur­face again just to be pushed around again by a gla­cier!

Snat­cher­pyn­ten

Snat­cher­pyn­ten

In the after­noon, we drop­ped a litt­le group of bra­ve hikers off, who ven­tu­red on a crossing from Van Mijenfjord to Van Keu­len­fjord. We hoped to see them again tomor­row in good shape and set off to Akseløya to explo­re this sple­ndid bit of sce­n­ery and geo­lo­gy as the last one of today’s adven­tures.

Snat­cher­pyn­ten

Akseløya

Wed
25 Jul
2018

The swell last night on the way up to Bell­sund had not exact­ly made the
night bet­ter, and most of us were quite hap­py to get into shel­te­red
waters again in Bell­sund in the very ear­ly mor­ning hours.

Tom­tod­den

We gave the day a rela­xed start and made a litt­le walk along the coast
in Recher­chefjord, whe­re a Rus­si­an expe­di­ti­on had built a sta­ti­on in
1764, almost a litt­le vil­la­ge of 16 hou­ses. None is stan­ding any­mo­re, of
cour­se. Rolf told the sto­ries of this adven­ture and others such as the
French Recher­che-Expe­di­ti­on, who­se bra­ve sci­en­tists clim­bed
Obser­va­to­rief­jel­let many times for their work, the crui­se ship Mon­te
Cer­van­tes which mana­ged to reach Recher­chefjord after being dama­ged by
ice in 1928 (she sank in ear­ly 1930 clo­se to Ushua­ia), the tou­ristic
hopes of Kon­sul Gjæ­ver, who had left a croo­ked hut here, and 8 Eng­lish
wha­lers who had been left here by acci­dent in 1630. They were found in
the fol­lo­wing year in good shape. Lots of sto­ries for such a litt­le
fjord! The oldest bits of histo­ry were actual­ly geo­lo­gi­cal traces of an
ice age more than 600 mil­li­on years ago, which have now come to the
sur­face again just to be pushed around again by a gla­cier!

Snat­cher­pyn­ten

Snat­cher­pyn­ten

In the after­noon, we drop­ped a litt­le group of bra­ve hikers off, who
ven­tu­red on a crossing from Van Mijenfjord to Van Keu­len­fjord. We hoped
to see them again tomor­row in good shape and set off to Akseløya to
explo­re this sple­ndid bit of sce­n­ery and geo­lo­gy as the last one of
today’s adven­tures.

Snat­cher­pyn­ten

Akseløya

Tue
24 Jul
2018

The wind that blew through Horn­sund last night was quite impres­si­ve and our first ancho­ra­ge in Gås­ham­na was not real­ly shel­te­red. Both anchors were on the ground but drag­ging as the wind picked even fur­ther up, so we had to repo­si­ti­on in the midd­le of the night, a rather lively affair with litt­le sleep.

At least it was calm in the mor­ning, so we could go ashore in Adria­buk­ta wit­hout pro­blems. Soon, howe­ver, the wind picked up again, this time from the wrong direc­tion, so we made sure we got back to the ship befo­re we might end up in trou­ble. It was rai­ny and fog­gy any­way.

Deep in inner­most Horn­sund, it was nice and clear, so we could enjoy some gre­at views of the gla­ciers and moun­ta­ins the­re.

An impres­si­ve coll­ec­tion of ice­bergs pro­vi­ded the final high­light of the day, which had been grey and wet, but still beau­tiful, in its very own way.

Mon
23 Jul
2018

Today is the day to return to the west coast. It should be the per­fect wea­ther win­dow, accor­ding to the fore­cast. Initi­al­ly, the wind let a bit to be desi­red and we had to rely on the engi­ne rather than the sails. At least it was per­fect­ly calm. Near the south cape, the wind star­ted to pick up, and one sail after the other went up until we made 10 knots under can­vas – no engi­ne! Gre­at! Calm enough to do pre­sen­ta­ti­ons about polar bears, Spitsbergen’s flo­ra and to show some his­to­ri­cal pain­tings.

Sun
22 Jul
2018

An over­night pas­sa­ge brought us to Free­man­sund, whe­re we spent the mor­ning on Edgeøya in a wide tun­dra land­scape with well-deve­lo­ped phe­no­me­na such as ice wed­ges and anci­ent beach rid­ges. The spe­ci­es diver­si­ty of the tun­dra is as impres­si­ve as the amount of drift­wood on the coast, and unfort­u­na­te­ly also the amount of pla­s­tic trash on the beach. At least, the­re was signi­fi­cant­ly less of the lat­ter left after our visit than the­re had been befo­re.

Aane­set

We spent an extre­me­ly plea­sant after­noon tog­e­ther with seve­ral thousand kit­ti­wa­kes and a fami­ly of polar foxes.

Bue­delf­jel­let

Sat
21 Jul
2018

In the mor­ning, we have got Alkef­jel­let next to us. An extre­me­ly impres­si­ve place, whe­re arc­tic life is con­cen­tra­ted on a sca­le that is hard to under­stand or even just to belie­ve.

Alkef­jel­let

After an excur­si­on in a polar desert fos­sil para­di­se, we have yet ano­ther mira­cle of arc­tic natu­re in front of the ship: the ice cliff of Brås­vell­breen, a part of the huge ice cap of Aus­t­fon­na. A touch of icy infi­ni­ty.

Alkef­jel­let

Bras­vell­breen

Fri
20 Jul
2018

We have rea­ched the beau­tiful Hin­lo­pen Strait! Last night we pas­sed the long ice cliffs of Aus­t­fon­na and Brås­vell­breen, unfort­u­na­te­ly hid­den in the fog, but the­re were a lot of ice­bergs.

Ard­ne­set

We paid a visit to a wal­rus colo­ny. The num­ber of ani­mals pre­sent was not actual­ly impres­si­ve, but to our sur­pri­se, it did not mat­ter too much; the two wal­rus­ses were rela­xed and some of their fri­ends came along for a visit. They had a good time and so did we.

Ard­ne­set

In the after­noon, a small team of bra­ve expe­di­tio­ners was rea­dy to start an over­night hike with tents and ever­y­thing across Sca­nia­hal­vøya, aiming at a calm camp some­whe­re in a wide val­ley bet­ween the ice caps. Unfort­u­na­te­ly, a yel­low dot far away in the tun­dra tur­ned out to be a slee­ping polar bear, so we had to can­cel this adven­ture and the hikers joi­n­ed the various after­noon walks in Augus­t­abuk­ta. We explo­red the wide coas­tal plain which had a sur­pri­sin­gly rich diver­si­ty of flowers in same places and a lot of fos­sils in others. A litt­le herd of reinde­er tur­ned out to be pret­ty curious. Later, the wind cal­med down and the sun came out and we had beau­tiful evening light on the wide gla­ciers and ice caps near­by befo­re we moved into some fog banks.

Augusabuk­ta

Thu
19 Jul
2018

We ven­tu­red out to the remo­test parts of Spits­ber­gen, the island of Kvi­tøya in the nor­the­ast of the Sval­bard archi­pe­la­go, not far from Rus­si­an Franz Josef Land. This is whe­re Salo­mon August Andrée, Knut Fræn­kel and Nils Strind­berg rea­ched land for the first time again after a bal­loon flight of 3 days and more than 2 months of mar­ching across the drif­ting ice. They star­ted to get rea­dy for the win­ter, but died all after a short time for reasons which we will never real­ly find out for sure.

And­ree­ne­set

It needs a lot of luck to get to this place. Even today, Kvi­tøya is often sur­roun­ded by ice, and when this is not the case, then the surf is often going high on the expo­sed coast. And when this is not the case, then the­re are often some polar bears han­ging around. The way from the shore to the place whe­re Andrée, Fræn­kel and Strind­berg had their final camp is short, but not easy to walk.

Today, we are lucky! It is a bit fog­gy, which fits the atmo­sphe­re of this deso­la­te place per­fect­ly well.

Wed
18 Jul
2018

A beau­tiful day in a beau­tiful area at the end of the world, in a litt­le bay in the remo­te nor­the­ast of the remo­te Nord­aus­t­land. See­mingly emp­ty polar desert, full of colours and struc­tures.

Relikt­buk­ta

Alber­ti­ni­buk­ta

After some hours of sai­ling in unknown waters near rocky islands, we reach a bay with a huge gla­cier and many ice­bergs. Wal­rus­ses are in the water every here and the­re, and then we dis­co­ver three polar bears who are crossing the fjord. A mother and two first-year cubs. They swim bet­ween the ice­bergs befo­re they climb up the steep slo­pe.

Alber­ti­ni­buk­ta

Tue
17 Jul
2018

The wea­ther is real­ly on our side! The first thing is a pret­ty rare landing on Wal­denøya, a small and remo­te island, in a mir­ror-like sea today. Defi­ni­te­ly a place that does not see a lot of visi­tors! Wal­ter Well­man was stran­ded here for a cou­ple of weeks with his expe­di­ti­on in 1894. We sit on the rocks and enjoy the sun and the undis­tur­bed view to the north pole.

Wal­denøya

It is sun­ny and calm all the way up to Ros­søya, so we enjoy a Zodiac crui­se around this islet, Svalbard’s very nor­t­hern­most one. Fur­ther north, the­re is just water, liquid and solid, and the north pole. A rare sun­ny day in the­se lati­tu­des!

Ros­søya

An evening excur­si­on to Phippsøya does not yield wal­rus­ses, as we had been hoping for, but a polar bear. Which show­ed up on a pret­ty short noti­ce as we had just gone ashore. Alex, who was scou­ting the ter­rain, had the plea­su­re to dis­co­ver the bear, which had been slee­ping in a ter­rain depres­si­on, at a rather uncom­for­ta­ble distance, but it was not at all inte­res­ted in us and tur­ned its atten­ti­on to a rather rot­ten car­cass of a wal­rus. We went back into the boats and enjoy­ed the views in safe­ty for man and beast. A gre­at day on 80 degrees north!

Phippsøya

Tue
17 Jul
2018

A calm night at anchor, gre­at! Hiking over Blom­strand­hal­vøya is at least as gre­at. The coas­tal sce­n­ery is real­ly varied and inte­res­t­ing, espe­ci­al­ly if you know some of the hid­den places bey­ond Ny Lon­don.

Blom­strand

Then we set cour­se to the north. The wind is a bit less than expec­ted, but enough to fill the can­vas, so we enjoy a silent crossing under sail and a sky the colours of which are chan­ging back and forth bet­ween grey, sil­ver and even blue in places.

Anti­gua

Mon
16 Jul
2018

It is gre­at to be out for a full, long day in Spitsbergen’s beau­tiful natu­re. And the warm springs far inland in Bock­fjord are fasci­na­ting. A gre­at desti­na­ti­on for a long hike! We spend hours get­ting the­re, hiking across tun­dra with ple­nty of flowers and a river plain that looks like kind of a wad­den sea. After an exten­ded rest with some food, we have soon rea­ched the fields with the sin­ter ter­races. Natu­re has inde­ed crea­ted some very impres­si­ve pie­ces of art here! All this comes with a stun­ning back­ground: a migh­ty wall of dark-red moun­ta­ins, some huge morai­nes and rug­ged moun­ta­ins.

Bock­fjord

We enjoy the sce­n­ery, the wea­ther, the hike and life in gene­ral for a full day. It is a tim­e­l­ess place. We are back on board after 9 hours.

Bock­fjord

Of cour­se the­re was also the opti­on for walks within a „nor­mal“ sca­le. The­re are also warm springs clo­se to the shore, and ano­ther walk went to a near­by gla­cier.

The wea­ther fore­cast is pro­mi­sing for the far north, so we set cour­se nor­the­ast in the evening.

Sun
15 Jul
2018

Time is just fly­ing in the sum­mer arc­tic. Not­hing too ama­zing going on in Lon­gye­ar­by­en. Some­bo­dy mana­ged to park a car in a pond next to the road in Advent­da­len. One is tempt­ed to ask: why? I don’t know. Nobo­dy was hurt, at least. Some tou­rists thought that huts in the wil­der­ness are prin­ci­pal­ly open for ever­y­bo­dy. This is not the case. It took the poli­ce to get this mes­sa­ge across in this given case. It also took the poli­ce to con­vin­ce two fema­le tou­rists that you have to lea­ve the boat when the trip was over even if it did not meet your expec­ta­ti­on. Peo­p­le in Lon­gye­ar­by­en don’t know if they should laugh or cry some­ti­mes. In yet ano­ther case, the poli­ce found ver­te­bra of mari­ne mammals in some tourist’s lug­ga­ge at the air­port. Not good. One day, when MSC Merag­li­vi­via was in the har­bour, the num­ber of peo­le in Lon­gye­ar­by­en tri­pled.

Make sure you don’t end up on the wrong ship!

Soon we will take off with SV Anti­gua. Time to check a huge pile of equip­ment, sort stuff, repair some items, replace other ones. So time is fly­ing as usu­al, and sud­den­ly Anti­gua is in the har­bour. An immense pile of equip­ment needs to be car­ri­ed on board and then it is alre­a­dy time for take-off. Wel­co­me on board and here we go! We are steam­ing against a bree­ze out of Isfjord and then turn into For­lands­und. Spits­ber­gen, here we come!