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Home → September, 2021

Monthly Archives: September 2021 − News & Stories


Isfjord – 20/21 Sep­tem­ber 2021

Lucki­ly, we had the hea­vy seas and swell of the open west coast now behind us, but wind and rain fol­lo­wed us into Isfjord. After a good look at Barents­burg in day­light, we had a very grey and wet after­noon in Bore­buk­ta.

The next day was much bet­ter, and the clouds around Gips­huks­let­ta added some love­ly effects to the moun­ta­ins.

Bil­lefjord loo­ked pret­ty fog­gy, so we opted for Tem­pel­fjord ins­tead whe­re we had clear visi­bi­li­ty and fine views of the stun­ning sce­n­ery to round the day and hence the trip off.

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

So now this year’s sea­son “Spits­ber­gen under sail” of our litt­le com­pa­ny Geo­gra­phi­schen Rei­se­ge­sell­schaft is now histo­ry. The sum­mer was shorter than we had ori­gi­nal­ly been hoping for, but we were among­st the few hap­py peo­p­le who got to sail up here this year at all!

A big thanks to ever­y­bo­dy who con­tri­bu­ted to a gre­at third and final sai­ling voya­ge for us this arc­tic sum­mer: Cap­tain Mario and his crew, Fran­ka and Ire­ne and all of you on board who made this voya­ge and the who­le sum­mer so enjoya­ble!

For­lands­und – 19th Sep­tem­ber 2021

The pas­sa­ge from Kongsfjord to Isfjord was, well, a moving expe­ri­ence. It does not hap­pen every day that we start a pas­sa­ge and return becau­se we just can’t advan­ce against wind and waves.

A day later it was much bet­ter. Still some quite hea­vy well in outer Isfjord, but soon we were along­side in Barents­burg. And not much later in the bar, enjoy­ing a beer.

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

Kongsfjord – 18th Sep­tem­ber 2021

Last night we went along­side in Ny-Åle­sund, Spitsbergen’s nor­t­hern­most sett­le­ment. Loo­king at the wea­ther fore­cast, we thought: now or never, some­thing that tur­ned out to be quite true. In the mor­ning, we went out to have a look at the place.

The wind picked up con­sider­a­b­ly towards the after­noon, and it beca­me quite clear that we wouldn’t make any fur­ther landings today any­mo­re, so we went for a ship crui­se in Kross­fjord. Any visit out­side on deck pro­vi­ded us with any volu­me of very fresh air that you could desi­re in no time.

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

Kross­fjord – 17th Sep­tem­ber 2021

The night was less rough than expec­ted and we arri­ved just on time in Kross­fjord to enjoy the sce­n­ery and wild­life in Sig­ne­ham­na with some walks and good hikes.

Then we went on and con­tin­ued into the nor­the­as­tern branch of Kross­fjord. Stun­ning sce­n­ery with jag­ged moun­ta­ins and many gla­ciers, which are now rapidly shrin­king but still beau­tiful. A polar bear was res­t­ing on one of the slo­pes, far away.

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

We went ashore to visit Lloyd’s Hotel, which has been the­re for about a cen­tu­ry, show­ing that crui­se tou­rism in the Arc­tic is not a very recent inven­ti­on.

Raud­fjord – 16th Sep­tem­ber 2021

Wea­ther-wise we are now back to the Arc­tic as we know it – over­cast, cold wind, some rain­drops. Fresh and clear. Good.

We made use of the oppor­tu­ni­ty to go for a hike in inner Raud­fjord, to enjoy the beau­tiful sce­n­ery and stretch our legs a litt­le bit.

Later, we went out again to visit the gla­ciers in Hamil­ton­buk­ta. Now we have set cour­se for the west coast.

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

Cherm­si­deøya – 15th Sep­tem­ber 2021

And yet ano­ther beau­tiful day in the far north, with blue sky and sun. Almost sca­ry! (Edi­tor: this is not going to last through the who­le trip).

We enjoy­ed the fine wea­ther and the grand pan­o­r­amic view from Cherm­si­deøya.

Later we crossed north of Hin­lo­pen to the west under sail, which was a mari­ti­me expe­ri­ence with some cha­rac­ter for dedi­ca­ted land peo­p­le.

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

Nord­aus­t­land – 14th Sep­tem­ber 2021

And again an arc­tic dream day, with blue sky, sun and a very calm sea. The wea­ther remain­ed on our side (this may well chan­ge later during this trip). The wide, gla­cier-cover­ed land­scapes of Nord­aus­t­land ever­y­whe­re around us.

Just all tho­se polar bears which had been roa­ming on this litt­le island, they had all left! 🙁

But we found some wal­ru­ses on Phippsøya, whe­re we also made a short landing, on one of Spitsbergen’s nor­t­hern­most islands.

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

Wood­fjord – 13th Sep­tem­ber 2021

And yet ano­ther pic­tu­re-book kind of day. The snow-cover­ed land­scape near Mus­ham­na in Wood­fjord was glit­te­ring in the sun. Time is fly­ing alt­hough you want it to stand still on a day like this.

In the after­noon, we mana­ged a landing on the expo­sed shore of Gråhu­ken with ease and visi­ted the famous hut whe­re Chris­tia­ne Rit­ter win­tered back then („A woman in the polar night“).

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Raud­fjord & Wood­fjord – 12th Sep­tem­ber 2021

A pic­tu­re-book level kind of day. Wea­ther, light, sce­n­ery – just stun­ning. We did some walks and hikes in Raud­fjord, aiming at lower and hig­her ele­va­tions, respec­tively.

Then we finis­hed the day in Wood­fjord, in a beau­tiful and very arc­tic way.

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

Nor­thwest Spits­ber­gen – 11th Sep­tem­ber 2021

Fol­lo­wing the wind and the nose – that’s what brought us to Smee­ren­burg­breen in the mor­ning, the only place in the area with clear visi­bi­li­ty.

Smee­ren­burg tur­ned out to be a bit chal­len­ging, the usu­al landing area being occu­p­ied by wal­ru­ses. Fur­ther west, it is shal­low and rocky. But not impos­si­ble to find a spot that works.

Snow in the land­scape, snow in the air. Wel­co­me to the Arc­tic. Light and wea­ther were chan­ging by the minu­te from clear views to dark grey walls.

Also later in Sal­ly­ham­na quick­ly chan­ging light con­di­ti­ons, with snow down to sea level. How dif­fe­rent com­pared to the sun­ny west coast yes­ter­day!

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

For­lands­und – 10th Sep­tem­ber 2021

We spent the first day in For­lands­und. How often do you get the oppor­tu­ni­ty to visit a working trap­per sta­ti­on? And the wea­ther couldn’t have been bet­ter!

Fur­ther north, three polar bears were roa­ming over the tun­dra. The first ones for us on this trip, on the first full day!

Later, we made use of the good wea­ther and made a landing on Her­man­senøya. Beau­tiful colours, struc­tures and sce­n­ery ever­y­whe­re around.

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

Isfjord – 09th Sep­tem­ber 2021

Here we go – the first Spits­ber­gen voya­ge of the „Geo­gra­phi­sche Rei­se­ge­sell­schaft“ with SV Anti­gua in two years! And we left Lon­gye­ar­by­en big style, under sail. That’s how we like it!
 

Spitzbergen unter Segeln

Isfjord – 06/07 Sep­tem­ber 2021

After a bum­py ride down For­lands­und and into Isfjord, the wind blew us into Grønfjord and to Barents­burg, which was not bad after all.

We roun­ded the trip off with a day in Bil­lefjord, with a good walk on Gips­huks­let­ta and an ama­zing after­noon at Nor­dens­ki­öld­breen. What a fan­ta­stic day!

Here you can see why:

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

Kongsfjord – 04th/05th Sep­tem­ber 2021

Kongsfjord – 04th/05th Sep­tem­ber 2021 − It was time to get back to the west coast, as the­re was quite a bit of wind and wea­ther on the way. But first we could enjoy a good day in Kongsfjord, from Blom­strand­hal­vøya with its beau­ties both abo­ve and under ground, the migh­ty gla­ciers and one of the love­ly islands of Lové­nøya­ne.

Ny-Åle­sund was to fol­low next mor­ning. In the after­noon we were hap­py just to stay along­side the pier while some pret­ty strong winds were whist­ling in the rig­ging.

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

Raud­fjord – 03rd Sep­tem­ber 2021

A won­derful day on Spitsbergen’s north coast, with class 1 wea­ther, calm and lar­ge­ly sun­ny 🙂 we star­ted with a love­ly litt­le walk in Ves­le Raud­fjord and later came a lot of ice, sce­n­ery, wea­ther and wild­life in Raud­fjord (not Ves­le).

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

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