Spitsbergen with SV Antigua, 10-23 September 2023

Ice­berg at Negri­b­reen.

The pas­sa­ge around Sør­kapp couldn’t have been smoot­her. Our first stop on Spitsbergen’s east coast was Ham­berg­buk­ta, one of tho­se places whe­re the con­se­quen­ces of cli­ma­te chan­ge are dra­ma­tic alre­a­dy now. The gla­ciers are retrea­ting hea­vi­ly and they might well give way to a navigab­le pas­sa­ge bet­ween Horn­sund and Ham­berg­buk­ta in a few years from now. The­re are just a few kilo­me­t­res of gla­cier ice left. Still, it is an impres­si­ve place.

Still being lucky with the wea­ther, we mana­ged to land at Bol­tod­den later the same day, with the dino­saur foot­prints and so much more.

The next day had seve­ral high­lights. Negri­b­reen is a huge gla­cier – and ano­ther one that is suf­fe­ring hea­vi­ly from cli­ma­te chan­ge. In fact, its eas­tern sec­tion has lite­ral­ly dis­ap­peared. Its dimen­si­ons are, howe­ver, still mind­blo­wing.

Anti­gua ancho­red in “Noor­der­licht­buk­ta” (inof­fi­ci­al name) in Heley­sund.

And then it was Straums­land in Heley­sund. Beau­tiful place with beau­tiful hiking oppor­tu­ni­ties, given the­re is no polar bear han­ging around.

Pho­to gal­lery 2 – sou­the­ast Spits­ber­gen: Ham­berg­buk­ta, Bol­tod­den, Negri­b­reen, Straums­land

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

To page/photo gal­lery:  → From Lon­gye­ar­by­en to Horn­sund  → Sou­the­ast Spits­ber­gen  → Hin­lo­pen Strait  → From Lief­defjord to Lon­gye­ar­by­en

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