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

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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

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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

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Gal­lery – Horn­sund 03rd June 2023

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Gal­lery – Hyt­te­vi­ka 04th June 2023

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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

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Fri
5 May
2023

A gre­at final day of a gre­at voya­ge, regard­less of the wea­ther, which was as it often is in the­se lati­tu­des: grey and win­dy, with occa­sio­nal rain- and snow show­ers. We spent the mor­ning in Nusfjord, one of the most famous litt­le old vil­la­ges in Lofo­ten. For good reason. It is a beau­tiful place.

In the after­noon, we got the one thing that we had been miss­ing so far on this trip: real sai­ling. The main engi­ne was off for the com­ple­te open water crossing from Lofo­ten to the main­land coast. We made 7-8 knots under sail (and, most­ly, sun). Beau­tiful! So we rea­ched Bodø easi­ly on Tues­day evening, and ever­y­bo­dy went his or her way on Wed­nes­day.

It had been gre­at, it had been fun! And I thank ever­y­bo­dy who was invol­ved. Safe jour­ney, home or else­whe­re! And for Mario and his good peo­p­le on SV Mean­der, safe sai­ling and fair winds en rou­te up to Spits­ber­gen! See you again soon 🙂

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Sun
30 Apr
2023

Clas­sic nor­t­hern Lofo­ten – coming through the beau­tiful Raft­sund, Troll­fjord was today’s first desti­na­ti­on. Of cour­se, it is one of Lofoten’s num­ber one tou­rist traps the­se days. But still, it is a magi­cal pie­ce of land­scape!

Later, we went south into Ves­t­fjord – not enti­re­ly free of wind and waves – and to the love­ly litt­le island and har­bour of Skro­va. The moun­tain Skro­vaf­jel­let (Høgs­kro­va) has one of the best views you can ima­gi­ne, a 360 degree pan­ora­ma of moun­ta­ins, islands and sea.

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Sat
29 Apr
2023

Ande­nes – the metro­po­lis of the Ves­terå­len islands. Pul­sa­ting life on the edge of the oce­an.

Well, almost. A walk through Ande­nes on a rai­ny Satur­day mor­ning may not be the grea­test adre­na­lin kick of your life. It is a calm place, on a day like this.

But of cour­se, the­re are things to see and to do. Final­ly, I made it into the love­ly litt­le Polar­mu­se­um, with relics of Spits­ber­gen legends such as Hil­mar Nøis. Gre­at!

Also the rest of the day remain­ed grey and wet, so we deci­ded to make some miles and get south towards Lofo­ten.

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Thu
27 Apr
2023

Finn­kro­ken has been an important place for trade and traf­fic for thou­sands of years. Today, it is taken care of with love by enthu­si­asts for local histo­ry, and a visit the­re feels a litt­le bit like a trip in a time cap­su­le. Jo Mar­tin and his peo­p­le are ama­zing, they tell their sto­ries with so much enthu­si­asm.

Later, we visi­ted the modern cent­re of the who­le area: Trom­sø. In all its urban sple­ndour.

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Thu
27 Apr
2023

Last night we arri­ved at Ham­nes on the island of Utøya and went along­side the­re for the night and this mor­ning. Ham­nes is an old tra­ding place, still used as such, with parts being nice­ly refur­bis­hed as kind of a muse­um. Addi­tio­nal­ly, the island has beau­tiful hiking oppor­tu­ni­ties. Becau­se of the snow, this is not neces­s­a­ri­ly the best time of year for hiking, but still, it is gre­at to be out the­re, work a bit in the snow and enjoy stun­ning views. The colours have shifted from yesterday’s bright sun­ny blue to all pos­si­ble and impos­si­ble shades of grey, which is by no means less attrac­ti­ve or impres­si­ve.

We spent the after­noon roun­ding the impres­si­ve Lyn­gen Alps. Later we set sails, but the spor­ti­ve aspect dis­ap­peared a bit in the back­ground becau­se of a sud­den lack of wind … but at the same time, the sun came out again and we enjoy­ed life on deck 🙂

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Tue
25 Apr
2023

The litt­le har­bour of Berg­s­fjord is beau­tiful­ly loca­ted with snow-cover­ed moun­ta­ins ever­y­whe­re around. Very impres­si­ve and very scenic, espe­ci­al­ly on a day like this – still, the wea­ther couldn’t be bet­ter, the snow is glit­te­ring in bright sun­light.

After a few hours sai­ling we rea­ched Segl­vi­ka on the east side of Kvæn­an­gen. An ener­ge­tic frac­tion of the group clim­bed up over snow-cover­ed rocky hills to reach a litt­le moun­tain top, which yiel­ded a real­ly stun­ning view over the sea and moun­ta­ins, all in glo­rious suns­hi­ne.

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Tue
25 Apr
2023

From Alta to Bodø is the rou­te for the who­le trip. The first day took us from Alta to Berg­s­fjord, a small place in Finn­mark, north Nor­way.

You can hard­ly ima­gi­ne more beau­tiful wea­ther than today as we star­ted with SV Mean­der in Alta in north Nor­way. Sun and com­ple­te absence of wind made being out­side a very enjoya­ble, almost sum­mer-like expe­ri­ence, in spi­te of snow and tem­pe­ra­tures clo­se to zero. We enjoy­ed stun­ning win­ter land­scape with snow-cover­ed moun­ta­ins all around us as we crui­sed out of Alta­fjord until we arri­ved at a small har­bour in Berg­s­fjord.

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