Sun
16 Jul
2023

Back on the west coast! It is good to have the south cape behind us; it is always a bit of a mile­stone and a poten­ti­al obs­ta­cle, at least for a sai­ling boat whe­re wea­ther is a major fac­tor espe­ci­al­ly for long open water pas­sa­ges.

With the eas­ter­ly wind still pre­vai­ling, we drop­ped the anchor just off the west coast south of Horn­sund – a coast well of the trod­den path, for good reason: it is a very expo­sed coast with a lot of nasty shal­lows, so stay­ing away from this coast is usual­ly the best thing to do. But on this day this coast was our fri­end, giving us shel­ter from the wind and offe­ring us gre­at hiking oppor­tu­ni­ties in exci­ting are­as.

Later, after a win­dy pas­sa­ge west of Horn­sund, we spent a love­ly evening in gol­den evening light in Hyt­te­vi­ka with arc­tic foxes and thou­sands of litt­le auks.

Pho­to gal­lery – the sou­thern west coast, 14. July 2023

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Sun
16 Jul
2023

Now the thing was to make miles and use the rela­tively good wea­ther win­dow for the long pas­sa­ge around the south cape. Espe­ci­al­ly on a smal­ler, rela­tively slow boat, it is good to be men­tal­ly pre­pared for a day at sea wit­hout any landings on this day. And if it works out to make a landing – all the bet­ter. We got our chan­ce in Ham­berg­buk­ta. That is the bay on the east coast of Spits­ber­gen exact­ly oppo­si­te Horn­sund, whe­re the gla­ciers are mel­ting like cra­zy so the­re may be a pas­sa­ge bet­ween Ham­berg­buk­ta and Horn­sund in some years from now. A fast and sca­ry deve­lo­p­ment due to cli­ma­te chan­ge, which is pro­gres­sing and get­ting fas­ter and more inten­se.

Nevert­hel­ess, we enjoy­ed the mor­ning, with wea­ther con­di­ti­ons that can ade­qua­te­ly be descri­bed as arc­tic. Ter­rain, time and con­di­ti­ons did not per­mit lon­ger hikes, but some fasci­na­ting clo­se-up views of a gla­cier and its sur­roun­dings land­scape.

Then it was time to pro­ceed to and around Sør­kapp, some­thing that took the rest of the day and a good part of the fol­lo­wing night and went with mode­ra­te move­ment of the ship and the use of both engi­ne and sails.

Gal­lery – Ham­berg­buk­ta & Sør­kapp, 13th July 2023

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Sat
15 Jul
2023

A day in Free­man­sund. A rather grey day, but that was not too bad. It does not real­ly mat­ter when you have seve­ral thousand kit­ty­wa­kes and seve­ral arc­tic foxes around you.

Or when you hike across the lush tun­dra in a wide val­ley. Admi­ring old wha­le­bo­nes and struc­tures such as ice wed­ges and wat­ching reinde­ers doing what they do.

In the evening, we set cour­se towards the south. It was get­ting time to get around the south cape.

Gal­lery – Free­man­sund: Barent­søya, 12. Juli 2023

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Thu
13 Jul
2023

Also this day didn’t work out quite as plan­ned. Thick fog all over the place, it just didn’t make sen­se to crui­se towards Brås­vell­breen. We rather made use of the time to make some mile the way we have to sail any­way, to the south. At some stage, we just have to make the­se miles.

I wouldn’t have pla­ced a bet on it, but actual­ly, we still found the oppor­tu­ni­ty to make not only one landing on this day, but two. Not the lon­gest hikes ever, but two inte­res­t­ing landings in place whe­re you cer­tain­ly get to every day. Obvious­ly, you don’t go for long hikes on an island like Kie­per­tøya when the­re is fog in the area and you know the next polar bear isn’t too far away. You rather stay clo­se to the boats that you keep rea­dy on the beach, rea­dy for take-off at any time as nee­ded. And enjoy the beau­ty of a litt­le pen­in­su­la and lagoon on a litt­le, remo­te, wild arc­tic island. The­re is a dra­ma­tic sto­ry con­nec­ted this place (click here for more pic­tures and info about Kie­per­tøya).

Later we even mana­ged to make a rare landing at Kapp Zie­hen, the nor­the­ast cor­ner of Barent­søya. Also defi­ni­te­ly not an ever­y­day place. And it looks and is dif­fe­rent from Barent­søya and Edgeøya else­whe­re. It is more polar desert like, more clo­se­ly rela­ted to the bar­ren land of sou­thern Nord­aus­t­land, for exam­p­le in Vibe­buk­ta. That is no coin­ci­dence, that has to do with the geo­lo­gy.

Gal­lery – Kie­per­tøya & Kapp Zie­hen, 12th July 2023

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

Wed
12 Jul
2023

What a day! Just ama­zing!

Actual­ly, not­hing went accor­ding to plan.

Things star­ted with a good hike on Idun­nes­et, a litt­le pen­in­su­la in Wahl­enberg­fjord, framed by huge gla­ciers of the ice cap Ves­t­fon­na. A stun­ning pan­ora­ma. Actual­ly, we had a dif­fe­rent idea for the mor­ning, that’s just what hap­pen­ed. Wea­ther, as so often in the­se lati­tu­des.

Later, we hea­ded for Pal­an­der­buk­ta, but we never got the­re. Two polar bears – a mother with her second year cub – lite­ral­ly crossed our way, real­ly kind of approa­ching us and actively blo­cking our cour­se … ama­zing! Obvious­ly, the two had a gre­at time tog­e­ther in the water.

The result were a group of stun­ned, hap­py peo­p­le and some ama­zing pic­tures. Excel­lent mate­ri­al for the new Spits­ber­gen-calen­der 2024 that we will have rea­dy soon or a high-qua­li­ty print framed in Spits­ber­gen-drift­wood 😊

Gal­lery – In Wahl­enberg­fjord, 10th July 2023

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

Tue
11 Jul
2023

It was almost good not to see the blue sky in the mor­ning. It was pret­ty grey, with low clouds. Of cour­se, who would mind sun and blue ski­es, but we had had so much of that the last cou­ple of days, and this is still the high arc­tic, with a bad repu­ta­ti­on for unp­lea­sant wea­ther, wind and fog … today we got a bit of that.

Not enough, howe­ver, to keep us from get­ting out and making a good hike in the polar desert land­scape of nor­thwes­tern Nord­aus­t­land. A see­mingly emp­ty land­scape, but very rich with all sorts of inte­res­t­ing details on a clo­ser look.

In the after­noon, the fog real­ly sett­led down on Hin­lo­pen Strait, so we set sails and made some miles to the south. Later, we rea­ched Alkef­jel­let, this ama­zing colo­ny of Brünich’s guil­l­emots. Ano­ther beau­tiful day, even wit­hout get­ting sun­b­urnt.

Gal­lery – Nor­t­hern Hin­lo­pen, 09th July 2023

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Mon
10 Jul
2023

We gave it an ear­ly start to reach the ice edge north of Hin­lo­pen during the mor­ning. The wea­ther was fan­ta­stic (again …). And so was this day in the ice. Just amau­zing! What can I say … well, have a look at the pic­tures 🙂

Gal­lery – Mean­der in the ice, 08th July 2023

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

Mon
10 Jul
2023

It is always love­ly when the ship is at anchor during the night. Very quiet. That was the case that night in Ves­le Raud­fjord, on the north coast of Spits­ber­gen.

After yesterday’s hikes, it was good to start the day with a beach walk. Rela­xed, but full with inte­res­t­ing impres­si­ons.

Later, we had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to stretch legs again and get some stun­ning views over Reins­dyr­flya. A won­derful, wide-open land­scape … by the way, this area was part of the hun­ting grounds of Stock­holm Sven, a Swe­dish (well, obvious­ly) trap­per who was a neigh­bour of Chris­tia­ne Rit­ter who men­tio­ned him in her book. Now, the­re is a books about Stock­holm Sven available: “The Memoirs of Stock­holm Sven”. I have alre­a­dy got it and I am loo­king for­ward to rea­ding it.

Crossing 80 degrees roun­ded the day off.

Gal­lery – Ves­le Raud­fjord and Vel­komst­var­den, 07th July 2023

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Sun
9 Jul
2023

The day got an ear­ly start when the crew sigh­ted a polar bear on Ams­ter­damøya at 5 a.m. What a glo­rious sight­ing! In the end, the bear swam towards the ship and pas­sed us in a distance of a few met­res. That is not an ever­y­day thing, not at all.

Later, the day star­ted again 🙂 in Raud­fjord. Again, right place, right time … ama­zing wea­ther! We made some beau­tiful hikes. Tho­se who wan­ted to could ven­ture on a crossing of Bis­ka­yar­hal­vøya.

Gal­lery – Raud­fjord, 06th July 2023

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Sun
9 Jul
2023

Once again, we were in the right place at the right time. Not only becau­se the wea­ther was on our side (again!) in Kongsfjord, but also becau­se we had Ny-Åle­sund to our­sel­ves – regar­ding other ships, that is. Gre­at!

Later, it was Ossi­an Sars­fjel­let. What an after­noon! Some beau­tiful and very rare plants, a bird cliff, stun­ning views … it couldn’t be more beau­tiful!

Gal­lery – Kongsfjord, 05th July 2023

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Sat
8 Jul
2023

The day star­tet with a litt­le hike on a pen­in­su­la with ama­zing views of a huge gla­cier. What a mor­ning!

It was to beco­me even bet­ter. Fur­ther north in For­lands­und we found wal­ru­ses. More than one hundred of them! They were quite slee­py, which could under­stand, con­side­ring the unu­sual­ly warm wea­ther.

A cou­ple of wha­les in the ent­rance to Kongsfjord, inclu­ding seve­ral Fin wha­les and at least one Blue wha­le, roun­ded the day off.

Gal­lery – For­lands­und, 04th July 2023

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Tue
4 Jul
2023

Whoe­ver came up with this name, “Trygg­ham­na”, or “Safe har­bour”, as it ori­gi­nal­ly was in the years of the wha­lers … they must have been kid­ding.

We thought we were well ancho­red and were loo­king for­ward to a good night’s sleep, but the strong gusts that kept fal­ling alter­na­tingly from the gla­cier on one side or the moun­ta­ins on the other side kept us busy, lif­ting the anchor and repo­si­tio­ning seve­ral tiems during the night. Also the mor­ning landing was quick­ly scrap­ped, with the view of wil­li­whirls dancing on the water. Wel­co­me to the Arc­tic.

Time to set sails. More than nine knots as we went out of Isfjord … not bad at all!

Also For­lands­und was quite win­dy to start with, but then we found a good place in Eidem­buk­ta and went hiking across the green tun­dra plain, fol­lo­wing a river and up some morai­ne hills with stun­ning views.

Gal­lery – From Trygg­ham­na to Eidem­buk­ta, 03rd July, 2023

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Sun
2 Jul
2023

We left Lon­gye­ar­by­en on Satur­day with SV Mean­der. It was a bit of a fog­gy start, but within less than one hour of sai­ling we had the first wild­life high­light in shape of a pod of Belugas.

The fog was gone on Sun­day mor­ning and the sun came out, much to our delight and to the delight of some mos­qui­toes that live in Dick­son­fjord. Thank­ful­ly the­re were not too aggres­si­ve.

Wide, green tun­dra and beau­tiful views of the colourful land­scape of Dick­son­fjord. What a start!

In the after­noon, we sai­led to the huge gla­cier in Bore­buk­ta. Stun­ning wea­ther, stun­ning sce­n­ery, and ice, ice, ice …

Gal­lery – Isfjord, 01st-02nd July 2023

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