Sun
11 Jun
2023

One last excur­si­on into the arc­tic tun­dra, in the wide coas­tal plains of For­lands­und. Enough snow to get the snow shoes out and enough snow-free land to go for a hike, wha­te­ver you wan­ted. Wide views, arc­tic silence. Love­ly grey phalar­opes at the beach.

Hea­ving anchor and sai­ling away from the anchor site was real­ly sai­ling at its best. No engi­ne invol­ved. Like in the old days. Back then, a stan­dard pro­ce­du­re to to the lack of alter­na­ti­ves; nowa­days a rare expe­ri­ence. More and more sails went up until we made 8 knots and more, down For­lands­und and a few miles into Isfjord whe­re the wind final­ly left us. A beau­tiful expe­ri­ence!

In the evening we went along­side in Lon­gye­ar­by­en. We were not the only ones, Mean­der was alre­a­dy the­re, Rem­brandt van Rijn fol­lo­wed soon … almost a fami­ly mee­ting. Plus seve­ral big­ger ships at the main pier and at anchor. Spi­rits were high, we could cele­bra­te beau­tiful days that we had enjoy­ed tog­e­ther. The wea­ther was obvious­ly a major fac­tor, but also thanks to all the peo­p­le who made their con­tri­bu­ti­on of one or the other kind, working whe­re­ver on the ship and on land, and tho­se who joi­n­ed us with good spi­rits and deep inte­rest in and love for Spitsbergen’s arc­tic natu­re. Thank you so very much, and see you again soon!

Gal­lery: For­lands­und – Lon­gye­ar­by­en 07th june 2023

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

Tue
6 Jun
2023

What a day! One of Spitsbergen’s most beau­tiful fjords under a com­ple­te­ly blue sky. From the litt­le hike up to Ossi­an Sars­fjel­let, with pan­o­r­amic views and a bird cliff, to the count­less ice­bergs and the fast ice edge (not very solid any­mo­re) in inner Kongsfjord. Ama­zing views of Krone­breen and the famous moun­ta­ins Tre Kro­ner.

Oh yes, and a polar bear, enjoy­ing a lazy sum­mer day on a snow field near the beach. In a distance to Ny-Åle­sund of just about 3 km …

Gal­lery – Kongsfjord – 06th june 2023

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

Mon
5 Jun
2023

The wea­ther situa­ti­on is incre­di­ble, most­ly suns­hi­ne sin­ce the first day in Bell­sund. Also here in Engelskbuk­ta, in nor­t­hern For­lands­und. While we had an arc­tic sum­mer fee­ling yes­ter­day fur­ther south in Hyt­te­vi­ka, here it looks and feels more like arc­tic win­ter, with snow – wet and hea­vy, though – all the way down to sea level. A good oppor­tu­ni­ty to get the snow­s­hoes out and go for a litt­le hike to and on Com­fort­less­breen.

Later, we went along­side in Ny-Åle­sund, the nor­t­hern­most out­post of civi­li­sa­ti­on in Spits­ber­gen.

Gal­lery – Engelskbuk­ta – Ny-Åle­sund – 05th June 2023

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

Fri
2 Jun
2023

The days were ful­ly packed, not the sligh­test chan­ce to wri­te some­thing for the blog any ear­lier. So a short sum­ma­ry will have to be enough now, the pho­tos speak for them­sel­ves. We were so lucky with the wea­ther, a lot of sun, litt­le wind (and the wind we had was good for sai­ling). A num­ber of landings and expe­ri­en­ces that would have been good enough for a week, but we had it in less than three days. We spent a second day in Bell­sund and then con­tin­ued down south to Horn­sund, were we had a day packed with landings and ship and Zodiac crui­ses all over the place. Hyt­te­vi­ka was then the place were we took off again to the north.

Gal­lery – Bell­sund 02nd June 2023

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

Gal­lery – Horn­sund 03rd June 2023

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

Gal­lery – Hyt­te­vi­ka 04th June 2023

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

Thu
1 Jun
2023

The start of the sea­son „Spits­ber­gen under sail“ 2023. And what a start! During the first night we made some miles to the south and woke up in Bell­sund to blue ski­es and bright sun glit­te­ring on the snow. But the­re was enough snow-free tun­dra in the low­lands to allow for a good walk. What a beau­tiful mor­ning!

The after­noon con­tin­ued beau­tiful­ly. Some­what sur­pri­sing, we found a big herd of wal­ru­ses, and then we fol­lo­wed the ice edge in Van Mijenfjord for a while.

Gal­lery – Bell­sund – 01st June 2023

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