Thu
16 Nov
2023

The magic of the ear­ly polar night in Spits­ber­gen. A day in Advent­da­len, not far from Lon­gye­ar­by­en. Some impres­si­ons of a day on 78 degrees north in mid Novem­ber from noon with some twi­light to real dark­ness which comes in the ear­ly after­noon.

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

Wed
15 Nov
2023

The last two days of this trip. A mor­ning in Sørk­jo­sen, a scenic (if wha­le-free) after­noon in Rei­safjord en rou­te to the love­ly litt­le place Ham­nes on Uløya. The­re we could enjoy a mor­ning with some walks in bril­li­ant wea­ther: light frost, clear sky and the beau­tiful light of the low win­ter sun.

Then we finis­hed a very suc­cessful trip in the far north of Nor­way with the last miles to Trom­sø.

And this is the end of my sea­son 2023 on sai­ling ships in the north. Anti­gua and Mean­der, I will see you next year in Spits­ber­gen! I am loo­king for­ward to you!

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

Sat
11 Nov
2023

As men­tio­ned abo­ve, we had saved the orcas for today 🙂 serious­ly – obvious­ly you can’t plan it like that, but some­ti­mes rea­li­ty is even bet­ter than you could dream it.

The wea­ther: pret­ty wild. Show­ers of snow and hail, dra­ma­tic light, strong and gus­ty wind. The who­le packa­ge and back again. And in the midd­le of all that, orcas ever­y­whe­re around us. Wild stuff.

It was good later to walk a bit in the silence of Sørk­jo­sen.

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

Fri
10 Nov
2023

Today the sun was smi­ling – at least for tho­se almost 5 hours that it bothers to come up abo­ve the hori­zon. And it is get­ting less and less every day. But the twi­light hours are long and beau­tiful both in the mor­ning and in the after­noon.

Our quest for wha­les in Kvæn­an­gen was suc­cessful also today, except that we still lea­ve the orcas for tomor­row. But the who­le rest of it … hump­back wha­les, finn wha­les, they were all the­re!

And so was the nor­t­hern light in the evening. A Zodiac tour to the litt­le har­bour and pub on Spil­dra roun­ded the day off.

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

Thu
9 Nov
2023

Kvæn­an­gen – that’s the place now for tho­se who dream about nor­t­hern lights and wha­les.

The best days are often tho­se that begin with low expec­ta­ti­ons. Clouds and wind. Litt­le chan­ces for a good wha­le­wat­ching expe­ri­ence and no chan­ce for nor­t­hern lights, one would think.

See what we then got … the pic­tures below will tell the sto­ry 🙂

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

Tue
7 Nov
2023

Here we go again – the last trip up north under sail this year for me. Lea­ving Trom­sø today with good old SV Anti­gua, sai­ling to the north, hoping for nor­t­hern lights and wha­les.

The first step takes us to the island of Reinøya with the litt­le love­ly place Finn­kro­ken, whe­re we spend the first evening, night and mor­ning. And now we are hea­ding nor­the­ast, to the Kvæn­an­gen area, very curious what the next days will bring!

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

Sat
23 Sep
2023

Dan­s­køya offe­red the oppor­tu­ni­ty for a good walk. It was not the lon­gest one in the world, but the deep snow still deman­ded a good bit of ener­gy. Smee­ren­burg­fjord show­ed off with its ama­zing sce­n­ery, and Sep­tem­ber show­ed off with its ama­zing light.

The sai­ling wind that we had been hoping for in the after­noon did not show off. It did not exist at all. So it was motor all the way to Kross­fjord, were we made a litt­le evening visit to the old wea­ther sta­ti­on that was ope­ra­ted from 1912 to 1914.

Pho­to gal­lery – Dan­s­køya & Ebelt­oft­ham­na

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

Fri
22 Sep
2023

On to the wes­tern north coast it was time to do some miles. A mor­ning in Lief­defjord. Sce­n­ery: gre­at. Wea­ther and light: gre­at. Stun­ning.

Of cour­se we could easi­ly have spent the who­le day the­re, or two or three … but we were deter­mi­ned to have a look at the legen­da­ry island of Mof­fen. Rather, to go ashore the­re, to be more pre­cise. And so we did in the evening. Also here: stun­ning!

Pho­to gal­lery: Lief­defjord & Mof­fen – 19th Sep­tem­ber 2023

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

Mon
18 Sep
2023

A day on the second-lar­gest island of Sval­bard. Win­ter seems to have the place under con­trol, ever­y­thing is cover­ed by snow, lakes and lagoons are fro­zen here in inner Murch­ison­fjord (pho­tos here). Again we were lucky and had the wea­ther on our side, with kind of gol­den, hea­vy ear­ly win­ter light over the land­scape.

Nord­aus­t­land – Murch­ison­fjord – Snaddvi­ka & Kinn­vi­ka

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In Kinn­vi­ka, we had to let a snow show­er pass through befo­re we went and explo­red the old sta­ti­on and its sur­roun­dings.

Sun
17 Sep
2023

The polar bear sight­ing yes­ter­day on Wahl­ber­gøya was so good that we had ano­ther look this mor­ning, try­ing to make it even bet­ter. And it work­ed per­fect­ly well, it could not have been bet­ter.

Mean­while, win­ter has arri­ved. Snow is ever­y­whe­re, on the ground and in the air. The­re was actual­ly so much snow in the air that we had to pick a good moment for a walk on Smit­tøya to have the mini­mum visi­bi­li­ty that we real­ly need to be able to see what is going on around us.

Gal­lery – Hin­lo­pen Strait – Wahl­ber­gøya – Smit­tøya & Alkef­jel­let – 17. Sep­tem­ber 2023

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The­re was not much going on any­mo­re at Alkef­jel­let (more Pho­tos here), at least in terms of Brünich’s guil­l­emots. They have all left. But the rocks are stun­ning also wit­hout the guil­l­emots, and the gulls are still the­re and they put on quite a show for us.

Sat
16 Sep
2023

Von Otterøya is cover­ed with fresh snow all the way down to the shore­li­ne, hence the arc­tic land appears in a total­ly dif­fe­rent light. Dif­fe­rent walks and hikes take us up the hills and along the shore­li­nes. A distant polar bear makes us return a bit ear­lier. No dra­ma whatsoe­ver, but bet­ter safe than sor­ry.

Later, we find ano­ther polar bear wal­king around on Wahl­ber­gøya. A beau­tiful sight­ing 🙂

Gal­lery – Hin­lo­pen Strait: Von Otterøya & Wahl­ber­gøya – 16 Sep­tem­ber 2023

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Fri
15 Sep
2023

It was quite late last night when we rea­ched Kie­per­tøya and drop­ped the anchor the­re. And belie­ve it or not, but the­re was no fog, no polar bear. Not­hing that could keep us from going ashore and having a good look around on the island. And the­re is so much of inte­rest. And a bunch of bags pla­s­tic less on the beach now. And a sad sto­ry. More about that on the Kie­per­tøya pano page.

Later we sai­led (lite­ral­ly, at least to begin with) to Brås­vell­breen. More than 8000 squa­re kilo­me­t­res of ice ter­mi­na­ting in a see­mingly end­less cal­ving front.

Gal­lery – Kie­per­tøya & Brås­vell­breen – 15 Sep­tem­ber 2023

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Thu
14 Sep
2023

Negri­b­reen is among­st the lar­gest gla­ciers of the main island of Spits­ber­gen. Ear­lier I would have said the lar­gest gla­cier of the main island, but I am not so sure any­mo­re.

End­less amounts of ice in all shapes and colours, some ice­bergs with other­world­ly beau­tiful blue colours. A gla­cier front kilo­me­t­res long. A mons­trous cal­ving … extre­me­ly impres­si­ve, extre­me­ly beau­tiful.

The chan­ges that are appa­rent here are less beau­tiful. The eas­tern part, which used to be a stun­ning and very much ali­ve gla­cier front just a cou­ple of years ago, has part­ly dis­ap­peared, and the part that is still the­re is now redu­ced to a huge tabu­lar pie­ce of ice that is dead now, wit­hout a con­nec­tion to the acti­ve part of the gla­cier. It will just dis­ap­pear within a few years. In other words, the eas­tern part of Negri­b­reen has seen an almost com­ple­te col­lap­se, and the once so huge gla­cier is, well, still huge, but in com­pa­ri­son to its past, a mere shadow of its pre­vious size.

Gal­lery – Storfjord: Negri­b­reen & Straums­land – 14 Sep­tem­ber 2023

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Later, we went to Heley­sund and Straums­land. A beau­tiful part of Spits­ber­gen, with tun­dra, lakes, wet­lands, basalt land­scapes, Spits­ber­gen reinde­er, arc­tic foxes and beau­tiful views of Heley­sund, Küken­thaløya and Barent­søya.

Wed
13 Sep
2023

After a very rela­xed roun­ding of the south cape we went to one of the places whe­re the con­se­quen­ces of cli­ma­te chan­ge are most dra­ma­tic: Ham­berg­buk­ta with the gla­cier Ham­berg­breen. Situa­ted on Spitsbergen’s east coast oppo­si­te Horn­sund, it is now just a few kilo­me­t­res of gla­cier ice left bet­ween the­se two fjords. It won’t take fore­ver until the­re is a chan­nel bet­ween them, tur­ning Sør­kapp Land into a huge Sør­kapp island.

But it will still take some time. Curr­ent­ly, Ham­berg­breen is still a huge and very impres­si­ve gla­cier.

Gal­lery – Storfjord – Ham­berg­breen & Bol­tod­den – 13 Sep­tem­ber 2023

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Later we mana­ged a landing at Bol­tod­den, with the famous dino­saur foot­prints. An ama­zing place. It is always gre­at when a landing the­re is pos­si­ble.