Fri
17 Sep
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.

Thu
16 Sep
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.

Wed
15 Sep
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.

Tue
14 Sep
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.

Mon
13 Sep
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“).

Sun
12 Sep
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.

Sat
11 Sep
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.

Fri
10 Sep
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.

Thu
9 Sep
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!
 

Wed
8 Sep
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.

Sun
5 Sep
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.

Fri
3 Sep
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.

Thu
2 Sep
2021

Exact­ly today was our chan­ce for a dash fur­ther east, into nor­t­hern Hin­lo­pen Strait.

Some days just turn out bet­ter than you could have plan­ned them or even wis­hed for. Wha­les befo­re break­fast! Two Blue wha­les, and one of them was even show­ing the flu­ke seve­ral times! A polar bear during the mor­ning, and later the migh­ty cliffs of Alkef­jel­let. Not too many Brunich’s guil­l­emots left at this time of year, the­re are more Kit­ty­wa­kes than guil­l­emots. Still a lot of life, and even wit­hout birds, it would be an impres­si­ve place, after all.

Later we got our chan­ce to get an impres­si­on of the polar desert land­scape of Nord­aus­t­land, and we finis­hed the day by cele­bra­ting the crossing of the 80th par­al­lel (the third out of four in this trip, to be pre­cise).

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

Wed
1 Sep
2021

31st August / 01st Sep­tem­ber 2021 − A love­ly, even part­ly sun­ny mor­ning in nor­thwest Spits­ber­gen. We land with ease at Smee­ren­burg, which is gre­at, not only becau­se of the remains of the famous wha­ling sta­ti­on, a group of wal­ru­ses and the grand sce­n­ery, but also becau­se we have Ben with us, who was invol­ved in the excava­tions about 40 years ago! Later we got to see some of his ori­gi­nal pho­tos.

We made yet ano­ther short stop in the nor­thwest and then grab­bed the oppor­tu­ni­ty to get fur­ther east and into Wood­fjord, whe­re we had a rather grey 01 Sep­tem­ber.

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

Mon
30 Aug
2021

After a cou­ple of days in Lon­gye­ar­by­en – too short, as always – we are now on the move again. This time, we have set sail on SV Anti­gua. Final­ly! It has been far too long sin­ce the last time. We are out now for 11 days with an inter­na­tio­nal group.

Actual­ly, I thought to slow down a bit with the blog but I can’t help but send a small handfull of pic­tures after a day as beau­tiful as this first full one out here! From the first steps ashore in Sig­ne­ham­na it was not far to our first polar bear, some­thing we didn’t real­ly expect in Kross­fjord, but well, you can meet them any­whe­re and at any time, as simp­le as that.

Lil­lie­höök­breen is a dra­ma­ti­cal­ly sad view now in 2021. Sin­ce 1906, it has lost some­thing near 50 % of its ice volu­me! A dra­stic exam­p­le of the chan­ges that are now hap­pe­ning in the Arc­tic. Nevert­hel­ess, still a stun­nin­gly beau­tiful place. We have to ack­now­ledge one aspect while we may still enjoy the other.

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