Sat
12 Aug
2023

During the night we stea­m­ed to the nor­the­ast. At some stage we just have to do some miles. Big thanks to all who hel­ped to keep the ship on cour­se during the night­ly shifts!

In the late mor­ning, we star­ted the day’s adven­tures at Kapp Rubin, a rocky head­land on the north coast of Nord­aus­t­land. Loo­king for the traces of a tra­gic win­tering in 1908-09 (we found some, inclu­ding a gra­ve and some small bits and pie­ces) and of Theo­dor Lerner’s expe­di­ti­on in 1913 (we didn’t find any). Ler­ner lost his ship and had to spend some time at Kapp Rubin, wai­ting for help.

Later, we explo­red Ekstrem­fjord. Stran­ge name, the­re is no expl­ana­ti­on for it. Pro­ba­b­ly after a ship. Any­way, the name is appro­pria­te, for exam­p­le regar­ding the extre­me amounts of pla­s­tic lit­ter on the shores (a good bit less when we left) and extre­me­ly rocky. And extre­me­ly beau­tiful views over an extre­me­ly bar­ren, beau­tiful land­scape.

Pho­to gal­lery – Nor­dens­ki­öld­buk­ta: From Kapp Rubin to Ekstrem­fjord

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

Thu
10 Aug
2023

What a day! Within 24 hours, we had spent a night plus some qua­li­ty time in Ny-Åle­sund and then went as far as Vir­go­ham­na, but not wit­hout a love­ly landing at Die­sets­let­ta on the open west coast, as we had the best of con­di­ti­ons, so we just had to jump at that rare oppor­tu­ni­ty 🙂 we roun­ded the day off in Vir­go­ham­na, explo­ring the traces of the expe­di­ti­ons of Andrée and Well­man.

Pho­to gal­lery – Ny-Åle­sund – Die­sets­let­ta – Vir­go­ham­na

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

Wed
9 Aug
2023

It is won­derful to wake up on a small boat at anchor in a silent bay, with beau­tiful land­scape in the sun all around. Of cour­se that is just asking for a good hike. And so we did. Sple­ndid! Won­derful views over cen­tral parts of Prins Karls For­land.

After our first, “fai­led” 😉 attempt yes­ter­day to see wal­ru­ses in Poo­le­pyn­ten, we made a new attempt today fur­ther north at Sar­stan­gen. Today, we were not dis­ap­poin­ted! (And of cour­se, we were not dis­ap­poin­ted yes­ter­day eit­her … just kid­ding …).

Pho­to gal­lery – Prins Karls For­land & Sar­stan­gen

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

Tue
8 Aug
2023

A silent night at anchor is one of the best things I know 🙂 and it is even bet­ter when the sun is out next mor­ning.

The green tun­dra around Alk­hor­net is a perl of arc­tic natu­re. Many reinde­er, polar foxes and migh­ty ice wed­ges. And a very busy birdcliff pro­vi­ding the appro­pria­te noi­se.

Pho­to gal­lery – Trygg­ham­na & Alk­hor­net

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

Then we con­tin­ued into For­lands­und, with a lot of sun and a bit of wind. The idea was to visit some wal­ru­ses the­re, but that didn’t quite work out as plan­ned. The place was alre­a­dy quite busy …

Pho­to gal­lery – For­lands­und

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

Mon
7 Aug
2023

Yes­ter­day we star­ted in Lon­gye­ar­by­en with Arc­ti­ca II. And now we have just about 30 hours behind us, but it feels alre­a­dy like 3 days.

After a look at the wea­ther fore­cast my expec­ta­ti­ons regar­ding this first had been slight­ly limi­t­ed, but as it tur­ned out it was a good decis­i­on to stay in Bil­lefjord. After a visit to the migh­ty Nor­dens­ki­öld­breen – still an impres­si­ve gla­cier, despi­te of its dra­ma­tic retre­at – we found our first polar bear just after the first break­fast on board. And what a beau­tiful sight­ing it was!

The first hike took us up a morai­ne and then along a river whe­re we found coal from the Car­bo­ni­fe­rous (near 300 mil­li­on years old). Much older than the stuff in Lon­gye­ar­by­en, Barents­burg and so on. We finis­hed the hike in the old coal pro­s­pec­ting “sett­le­ment” (well, four huts) Bruce­by­en.

Sai­ling out of Bil­lefjor­den took quite some time. Too many wha­les 🙂

We finis­hed this first day – as far as acti­vi­ties out­side were con­cer­ned – at Svenske­hu­set. An ama­zing place with some rather dra­ma­tic histo­ry.

Gal­lery – In Bil­lefjord

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