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Home → May, 2022

Monthly Archives: May 2022 − Travelblog


Prins Karls For­land – Fug­le­hu­ken – 31st May 2022

31st May was still to con­ti­nue. We still had time and the wea­ther was so good that we didn’t want to miss the oppor­tu­ni­ty to have a look at Fug­le­hu­ken, the nor­t­hern tip of Prins Karls For­land. It is one of tho­se places that are so expo­sed to the open sea that you don’t get here often at all It is real­ly a mat­ter of having a very good day. The most beau­tiful places are often not the easie­st one to get to.

220531e Fuglehuken 019

But today was the right day. Guil­l­emots and kit­ti­wa­kes are bree­ding in lar­ge num­bers on the steep cliffs high abo­ve the tun­dra, pro­vi­ding suf­fi­ci­ent fer­ti­li­sa­ti­on to the accor­din­gly rich tun­dra. The­re are even thick lay­ers of peat under a sur­face of mos­ses and lichens in some places. And part of the tun­dra is alre­a­dy snow-free, making the reinde­er hap­py that are gra­zing here in num­bers.

Being able to visit a place like Fug­le­hu­ken is real­ly a pri­vi­le­ge! I am more than hap­py to dedi­ca­te a blog ent­ry to this very enjoya­ble event.

For­lands­und – 31st May 2022

We had left yesterday’s den­se fog behind us. Bright suns­hi­ne in Horn­bæk­buk­ta – what a start into the voya­ge! Ama­zing views over the bay, moun­ta­ins and gla­cier.

Inde­ed, For­lands­und is in its best mood today, with an almost mir­ror-like water sur­face and a beau­tiful sky abo­ve the jag­ged, snow-cover­ed moun­ta­ins and the famous gla­ciers of Prins Karls For­land.

Gal­lery – For­lands­und – 31st May 2022

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

Later we drop­ped the anchor in Engelskbuk­ta for a litt­le late after­noon walk. Just a few kilo­me­t­res fur­ther north than Horn­bæk­buk­ta, but a cou­ple of weeks back in the sea­so­nal deve­lo­p­ment. A lot of wet snow, a lot of water. Real­ly in the midd­le of the snow melt.

Lon­gye­ar­by­en & Advent­fjord – 30 May 2022

Pre­pa­ra­ti­ons for a sai­ling ship voya­ge in the Arc­tic will never real­ly be just rou­ti­ne. Next to all the pack­ing, try­ing not to for­get any­thing, car­ry­ing stuff around, tra­vel­ling etc the­re is always some­thing that doesn’t work and that needs to be repai­red or repla­ced. This time, it was the satel­li­te com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on sys­tem. It seems to have been suc­cessful. If the­re are no updates in the arc­tic tra­vel blog here the next days, then it wasn’t …

Gal­lery – Lon­gye­ar­by­en & Advent­fjord – 30 May 2022

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

But now we are moving. We board­ed good old SV Anti­gua this after­noon in glo­rious suns­hi­ne and sai­led out into Isfjord and straight into a thick cloud 🙂 so now the world around us is grey and small. Very atmo­sphe­ric, and it feels a bit adven­tur­ous. Hope it doesn’t stay too long, though …

Isfjord

Again, the snow-cover­ed arc­tic land­scape was glit­te­ring in the sun around us as we awo­ke to ano­ther day in Isfjord. Stun­ning beau­ty ever­y­whe­re around us.

Ymerbukta

Ymer­buk­ta.

Reinde­er are roa­ming in lar­ge num­bers over the snow-cover­ed tun­dra. They are loo­king for­ward for the snow to dis­ap­pear soon.

Reindeer, Erdmannodden

Reinde­er at Erd­man­nod­den.

In the after­noon, a strong visu­al con­trast and a bit of regio­nal histo­ry fol­lo­wed in shape of the aban­do­ned Rus­si­an sett­le­ment in Coles­buk­ta, which belon­ged to the coal mine of Gru­mant­by­en. (Click here for some back­ground infor­ma­ti­on about Rus­si­an coal mining in Spits­ber­gen.)

Colesbukta

Coles­buk­ta.

Pho­to gal­lery Isfjord

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

Bell­sund-Isfjord

We star­ted the day in Van Mijenfjord, again with bril­li­ant suns­hi­ne. Lar­ge parts of the fjord are still fro­zen solid, and we spent quite some time mar­vel­ling at the ice edge.

Meander, Eiskante, Van Mijenfjord

SV Mean­der at the ice edge in Van Mijenfjord.

The after­noon brought a love­ly pas­sa­ge under sail up north to Isfjord, whe­re we were gree­ted by a polar bear soon after rea­ching the ancho­ring posi­ti­on.

Polar bear, Ymerbukta

Polar bear in Ymer­buk­ta.

Pho­to gal­lery Bell­sund-Isfjord

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

Bell­sund

Oh yes, first came the crossing from Bear Island. Well, we could have done with a bit of wind from ano­ther direc­tion – any other direc­tion – than from straight ahead. But we made it up here in the end, and that’s what counts.

Drift ice, Barents Sea

Drift ice in the Barents Sea, north of Bear Island.

Beau­ty all around us as soon as we ente­red Bell­sund. A first landing in the win­ter land­scape near Mid­ter­hu­ken. With polar bear (peaceful and beau­tiful).

Polar bear, Bellsund

Polar bear in Bell­sund.

The fjords are still lar­ge­ly fro­zen, it is still win­ter more than any­thing else. The shore­li­ne is blo­cked by ice in many places. Beau­tiful to see, and beau­tiful play­grounds for small boat crui­ses.

Meander, Bellsund

Mean­der near Akseløya.

Pho­to gal­lery Bell­sund

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

02nd May 2022 – Bear Island

Bear Island! It took us a while to get here, con­side­ring the con­stant nor­t­hern winds that we have had in quite a while now.

But on Sun­day evening we could see the island from a distance of more than 40 nau­ti­cal miles!

Barentssee

During the night we found out that lar­ge parts of the island are actual­ly sur­roun­ded by ice, which is a pret­ty rare event the­se days. The bay of Sør­ham­na whe­re we ori­gi­nal­ly inten­ded to anchor was blo­cked by ice, so this was not an opti­on and we ended up ancho­ring at the oppo­si­te and of Bear Island, near the nor­thwes­tern cor­ner.

Kapp Duner

The­re, we were able to get out with the ding­hy. It was the only place around the who­le island whe­re the rather dif­fi­cult com­bi­na­ti­on of swell, wind and ice allo­wed small boat ope­ra­ti­ons at all. It tur­ned out to be a litt­le crui­se that included a short landing on a beach – for sure not the lon­gest excur­si­on ever on this island, but wit­hout any doubt sweet, with the impres­si­ve rocky coast­li­ne part­ly cover­ed in ice, glit­te­ring in the sun! Stun­ning!

Kapp Duner

Later we con­tin­ued towards Spits­ber­gen, but the drift ice is fur­ther west than expec­ted and it keeps for­cing extra miles on us.

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