Tue
16 Aug
2022

It was about time to get back to Hin­lo­pen Strait. After a morning walk on Chermsi­deøya, we pas­sed Bren­ne­v­insfjord and Lady Fran­klin­fjord and ent­e­red Fran­klin­sund. Most­ly known as a dan­ge­rous water­way, it can actual­ly have its plea­sant sides at least if you mana­ge to find a sui­ta­ble land site that works even when it is win­dy as it was by then.

Gal­le­ry – Chermsi­deøya-Fran­klin­sund – 16th August 2022

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

Mon
15 Aug
2022

Orvin Land … ever heard of that? The end of the world, the eas­tern part of Nord­aus­t­land (North East Land). Whe­re the land disap­pears under the ice.

The Swe­dish Ymer-Expe­di­ti­on built a hut on Glen­hal­vøya in 1980, so sci­en­tists could spend some time the­re. In 2001, Hein­rich Eggen­fell­ner, owner and skip­per of our ship Arc­ti­ca II, was the­re with Ste­fa­no Poli, foun­der of the North Pole Expe­di­ti­on Muse­um in Lon­gye­ar­by­en. They went the­re by Zodiac, ama­zin­gly. In 2015, the Sys­sel­man­nen was the­re for an inspec­tion. And now we were the­re. A lone­so­me place.

You may have heard of Alpi­niøya. Sjef van Don­gen and Gen­na­ro Sora left a depot with some equip­ment the­re during their search for Nobi­le in 1928. We didn’t find any of it. Nevertheless, a stun­ning place.

As if this hadn’t been enough, we spent the evening at the huge gla­cier Schwei­gaar­d­breen in Alber­ti­ni­buk­ta. A breath­ta­king place!

Gal­le­ry – Orvin Land: Glen­hal­vøya. Alpi­niøya, Alber­ti­ni­buk­ta – 15th August 2022

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

Sun
14 Aug
2022

This „right place, right time“ thing still app­lies to us here on the north side of Nord­aus­t­land. Stun­ning wea­ther in Duve­fjord. Which has qui­te a cou­p­le of side bays, and we went and had a look at some of them, hiking from one over to the next one. Ama­zing land­s­capes, seen by very few peop­le, and waters that are rare­ly visi­ted by ships.

Gal­le­ry – Duve­fjord – 14th August 2022

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

Sat
13 Aug
2022

Gal­le­ry – Rijpfjord-Duve­fjord – 13th August 2022

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

Fri
12 Aug
2022

After a bit of a grey day yes­ter­day – we could watch a polar bear on a small island disap­pearing in the fog – it clea­red up today. The wea­ther was on our side again, and it was to remain so for several days. We were (and still are) clear­ly in the right area on the right time. Good stuff!

That is also the simp­le rea­son why the­re was just no time for blog wri­ting. I need to catch up a bit now.

We spent that Fri­day (12th August) on the north side of Nord­aus­t­land, in Nor­dens­kiöld­buk­ta and in Rijpfjord. Stun­nin­gly beau­ti­ful sce­ne­ry, bar­ren, of a high arc­tic, strong cha­rac­ter, not seen by many peo­p­les’ eyes. The­re are inde­ed pla­ces whe­re you can think that you might inde­ed be the first per­son the­re. Of cour­se that is impos­si­ble to tell for sure, and qui­te likely at least some geo­lo­gists have been the­re, they have been all over the place. But still, just the fact that the thought as such isn’t com­ple­te­ly non­sen­se is ama­zing, in the year 2022.

I lea­ve it up to the pic­tures to tell the rest of the sto­ry of this day.

Gal­le­ry – Nord­aus­t­land – 12th August 2022

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

Thu
11 Aug
2022

A wea­ther fore­cast that was qui­te bad espe­cial­ly for the nor­thwes­tern part of Spits­ber­gen made us move away from that area quick­ly, and a long night of sai­ling (moto­ring, actual­ly) took us to Sjuøya­ne, the nort­hern­most islands of Sval­bard. We pas­sed by Wal­denøya in wind and fog, but reached Phipp­søya not much later and could make a lan­ding the­re.
 

Wed
10 Aug
2022

Nord­vesth­jør­nest av Spits­ber­gen er et vel­dig vak­kert og variert områ­de, med man­ge spen­nen­de steder som man kan besø­ke. Været var litt grått men ellers fullt på vår side, og der­med ble det en vel­dig opp­le­vel­ses­rik dag. Vi begy­n­te med en flott fot­tur på Dans­køya og så besøk­te vi noen hval­ros­ser på Ams­ter­damøya, ved siden av gam­le spek­kov­ner fra hval­fangst­tiden i Smee­ren­burg. Så til­ba­ke til Dans­køya. Det var en del stein­kob­be der på fjæ­restei­ne­ne, og ikke langt der­fra lig­ger fort­satt kul­tur­min­ner fra Andrée og Well­man sine nord­pol­fer­der i Virgo­ham­na. På turen vide­re nordover gjor­de vi en avs­tik­ker inn i den utro­lig vak­re Fuglefjor­den. For en flott dag!

Gal­le­ry – Nor­thwest Spits­ber­gen – 10th August 2022

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

Tue
9 Aug
2022

Engelskbuk­ta gave us beau­ti­ful sce­nic views des­pi­te the low clouds.

Later, we reached Ny-Åle­sund.

A lot could be writ­ten about the many beau­ti­ful impres­si­ons of this day, but it is late now …

Gal­le­ry – Engelskbuk­ta, Ny-Åle­sund – 09th August 2022

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

Sun
7 Aug
2022

We are off again, now with Arc­ti­ca II. Good stuff! Actual­ly, it doesn’t take much the­se days to make a start a good one: the trip actual­ly hap­pens, it starts as sche­du­led and with ever­y­bo­dy who is sup­po­sed to be here. That is enough to make us hap­py for now.

After a cou­p­le of hours we had reached Trygg­ham­na and took the oppor­tu­ni­ty for a first walk. To our ama­ze­ment, we find our­sel­ves wal­king in the fos­sil remains of a tro­pi­cal sea. Corals and other fos­sils ever­y­whe­re! But it is more than 300 mil­li­on years ago that they were ali­ve …

Gal­le­ry – Isfjord – 07th August 2022

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