Thu
28 Jul
2022

The last days of this voya­ge were just going so quick­ly, full of beau­ty and exci­te­ment as they were. I just didn’t mana­ge to wri­te any blog ent­ries during this time, so here is the update inclu­ding a slight­ly more exten­si­ve pho­to gal­lery, as I am able to use pro­per inter­net again. This chap­ter of the voya­ge star­ted in a slight­ly Raud­fjord and then took us to the magni­fi­cent St. Jons­fjord and the tun­dra on the west coast. It brought us the luck of a polar bear sight­ing (the only one other than the bears that we saw in the distance from Ny-Åle­sund) as well as the beau­ty of doing some miles under sails again in Isfjord befo­re we roun­ded the who­le thing off in Coles­buk­ta.

Gal­lery – From Raud­fjord to Isfjord – 24th to 26th july 2022

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

Sat
23 Jul
2022

We cover­ed some good distance to the west – we must not for­get that we will need to get back to Lon­gye­ar­by­en at some stage. The ear­ly mor­ning saw us all the way down in inner­most Wood­fjord. Sce­n­ery of stun­ning beau­ty all around us, with ama­zing colours. And ama­zing amounts of pla­s­tic gar­ba­ge on the coast. A good bit less when we left, at least.

Bock­fjord has Spitsbergen’s only vol­ca­no, or vol­ca­nic ruin, that is. And a gre­at varie­ty of flowers, inclu­ding some pret­ty rare ones.

Gal­lery – Wood­fjord & Bock­fjord – 23rd July 2022

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Fri
22 Jul
2022

Gre­at that we made it as far as this – not­hing we could take for gran­ted con­side­ring the time we had left at this stage. But we made it into Hin­lo­pen and could enjoy a litt­le hike to and even onto the inland ice of nor­thwes­tern Spits­ber­gen as well as tent­hou­sands of Brünich’s guil­l­emots at Alkef­jel­let. And later, even a Blue wha­le! What a day!

Gal­lery – Hin­lo­pen – 22nd July 2022

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

Thu
21 Jul
2022

Murch­ison­fjord – So we made it to nor­t­hern Hin­lo­pen Strait, to Nord­aus­t­land. The bar­ren, most­ly ice-cover­ed second lar­gest island of Sval­bard. A very strong scenic con­trast to all that we had seen so far on this trip. Go to the Panos Murch­ison­fjord.
 

Gal­lery – Murch­ison­fjord – 21st July 2022

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

Wed
20 Jul
2022

And again, we are lucky with wind and waves. In the sen­se that both of them are absent, making it pos­si­ble to visit the famous hut at Gråhu­ken (Chris­tia­ne Rit­ter: A woman in the polar night).

After small water­falls fal­ling over red rocks, sur­roun­ded by an ama­zing car­pet of tun­dra and flowers, we roun­ded the day off at Mona­co­b­reen. Which, by the way, has recent­ly advan­ced by seve­ral hundred meters. Almost hard to belie­ve, but such things still hap­pen occa­sio­nal­ly, even in times of glo­bal warm­ing.

Gal­lery – Wood­fjord – 20th July 2022

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Tue
19 Jul
2022

A rare beau­tiful day on the nor­thwest cor­ner of Spits­ber­gen, whe­re it usual­ly tends to be grey, win­dy and cold. Not­hing of that sort today. Ins­tead, stun­ning views over Dan­s­køya and later, more stun­ning views, wal­ru­ses and wha­ling histo­ry at Smee­ren­burg.
 

Mon
18 Jul
2022

We were blown out of Kongsfjord, but the sails made it easi­ly pos­si­ble to turn it into a situa­ti­on of gre­at fun.

Ano­ther kind of gre­at fun came later in the after­noon when we were unex­pec­ted­ly able to make one of tho­se rare landings on the expo­sed outer coast. Fan­ta­stic wea­ther, stun­ning sce­n­ery … what else could you ask for?

And even more of it in the evening in Mag­da­le­nefjord. Wea­ther, sce­n­ery, cal­ving acti­vi­ty at the gla­cier … all at a maxi­mum!

Gal­lery – West coast – 18th July 2022

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

Sun
17 Jul
2022

Wind and the pre­sence of other ships made things a bit uncer­tain in Ny-Åle­sund to begin with, but then we could spend a bril­li­ant mor­ning the­re, in Spitsbergen’s nor­t­hern­most sett­le­ment, curr­ent­ly also fre­quent­ly visi­ted by polar bears. We could see at least 3 of them on islands near town.

Later we explo­red inner Kongsfjord. One of the most beau­tiful parts of Spits­ber­gen, if you get the­re on a day like this.

Gal­lery – Kongsfjord – 17th July 2022

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

Sun
17 Jul
2022

Sin­ce last night, we have got not only as many as 19 pas­sen­gers on board, but also a new Cap­tain (Jona­than should have left a week ago – thank you for stay­ing that long!). Ama­zing! Full ahead, nor­thwards!

So we could enjoy the first day out­side Isfjord today 🙂 in For­lands­und. Stun­ning land­scape, stun­ning wea­ther, stun­ning wild­life! Just have a look at the pho­tos.

Gal­lery For­lands­und, 16th July 2022

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Fri
15 Jul
2022

Ever­y­bo­dy was hap­py to see some sun again final­ly, at Sveab­reen.

And ever­y­bo­dy was even more hap­py to wel­co­me some more peo­p­le on board in Lon­gye­ar­by­en. Espe­ci­al­ly tho­se who came on board. They should have come almost a week ago! Well, bet­ter late than never – wel­co­me onboard!

It took some more time until ever­y­thing and ever­y­bo­dy were in place. We made good use of the time with a choice of hikes in the vici­ni­ty of Lon­gye­ar­by­en. Below some impres­si­ons from our excur­si­on into Advent­da­len.

Gal­lery Sveab­reen & Advent­da­len, 14th/15th July 2022

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Thu
14 Jul
2022

Cora­hol­men is a perl of natu­re in Ekm­anfjord. A part of the island is a morai­ne land­scape, kind of what I ima­gi­ne it would look like on Mars. Not that I have been the­re. Just my fan­ta­sy. But any­way, Cora­hol­men is a fasci­na­ting island, even on a grey day like this. Stun­ning atmo­sphe­re!

The same appli­ed to Blo­mes­let­ta later. It was actual­ly so fog­gy that we wai­ted some time befo­re we went out again, streng­the­ned by some good cheese cake. A gre­at walk, gre­at views!

Gal­lery Ekm­anfjord: Cora­hol­men & Blo­mes­let­ta, 13th July 2022

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

Tue
12 Jul
2022

As men­tio­ned befo­re, Isfjor­den has more than enough place for a week or ten days. Today we were in Sas­senfjord (a part of Isfjord, obvious­ly). The wea­ther remain­ed grey, but that didn’t kept us from get­ting out. We went for a love­ly hike in the beau­tiful, lar­ge Gips­da­len, whe­re Wil­liam S. Bruce loo­ked for coal in his days a long time ago, and later we paid a visit to the Brünich’s guil­l­emots at Dia­ba­sod­den.

Gal­lery Gips­da­len & Dia­ba­sod­den, 12th July 2022

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Tue
12 Jul
2022

A slight­ly grey day in nor­t­hern Bil­lefjord, in the beau­tiful Ebba­d­a­len and in Pyra­mi­den. Fasci­na­ting places, beau­tiful sce­n­ery, fri­end­ly reinde­er.

Gal­lery Ebba­d­a­len & Pyra­mi­den, 11th July 2022

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Tue
12 Jul
2022

So Anti­gua is set­ting sail again in Spits­ber­gen in July – our first long trip (18 days!) with good old Anti­gua in 3 years (becau­se of Covid). Ama­zing …

But, alas, not ever­y­bo­dy could make it to Lon­gye­ar­by­en, becau­se of the SAS pilot strike. We still main­tain hope to pick some more peo­p­le up in a cou­ple of days time, but for now, we sail with 10 pas­sen­gers ins­tead of a good 30 …

But in any case, we sai­led! And we set cour­se for Skans­buk­ta, to start with. We will stay in Isfjor­den for a cou­ple of days, making sure that we can pick peo­p­le up at any time. No pro­blem at all, Isfjor­den is more than big enough to spend a week or even more.

Gal­lery Lon­gye­ar­by­en-Skans­buk­ta, 09th/10th July 2022

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