Gee, this was another good cruise! I’ve added Zodiac-driving to my credit list, on board the Polar Star we the guides also take care of the Zodiac-driving on landings so I had to learn. Can’t say I was eager to do so in the beginning but the short lesson I had in Ny-Ålesund convinced me it wasn’t that terrible after all. Then the time came when I took my first boat-load of passengers. We had some waves and a snow-storm blowing, and the driving wasn’t exactly as easy as it had been on the flat-as-a-pancake surface of Kongsfjorden the day before (actually, we were making a first-ever (for us guides, that is) landing on Chermside Island, at 80°30´N). So, these passengers got to experience a rather weird and long Zodiac drive (there should have been someone filming this debut of mine!) that however was quite harmless; except for some cold hands and dripping noses, everyone got away in good health. Physical, that is. This Italian couple who was sitting in the stern (uh, am even learning seaman’s language, port and starboard and all that!) got absolutely hysterical when the boat approached the ship, they started jumping up and covering their heads in their arms and god knows what. Sometimes I can make no sense of tourists. Whatsoever.

The best thing, however, was to get around Spitzbergen Island for the first time. For me, that is. Now I’ve set my foot on islands I didn’t know existed and visited places that earlier seemed like a whole world away. And in a sense they still do. You don’t really get to know a place by dropping by for 2-3 hours. At least I don’t feel I do. The best landing we made was, in my opinion, the one at Barents Island; it was a calm day with low clouds and some drizzling rain every now and then. Jørn and I took a small group on a “less demanding” walk; while the other 70 guests walked to a small lake approx. 2 km from the shore (and were attacked by killer mosquitoes just arrived from man-eating in Ekmanfjorden) we took our ten guests for a 300 m stroll to a small pond where we saw a long-tailed duck and some barnacle geese, a million flowers and no mosquitoes. Then we had our guests sit down and listen to the silence, and these wonderful people actually managed to stay silent for 10 minutes. I have to quote Barry Lopez here:

“…quiteted, I sensed here the outlines of the oldest mysteries: the nature and extent of space, the fall of light from the heavens, the pooling of time in the present, as if it were water.”

It was Sigmund, another guide, who taught me to let people listen to silence. We were in fantastic weather up in Raudfjorden in the summer of 2000. It was late evening, we had the midnight sun high in the sky and about 30 people strolling behind us. On top of a small hill with view to imposing calving glaciers and steep mountains Sigmund asked us all to sit down, he had something he wanted us to hear. It would take a while, so we should just make ourselves comfortable. So we did, and waited for him to speak. He didn’t. And still he didn’t. And one after the other, our guests realized what it was all about. It was so good. It was the best experience I had that summer.

Anyway. I’ve copied for you the log of the cruise, the one our tourists get from us as a souvenir when they go home. That means you can read, day by day, what life on these cruise boats is like. It’s Helga and Merete who have written the log, and it’s excellent!

So, here it begins:

SPITSBERGEN EXPEDITION CRUISE
20th-26th July 2002
Aboard the POLAR STAR

Saturday, July 20

WELCOME aboard! We hope you have had a good night’s sleep – to some of us a very short one. Today is the first day of a lifetime experience, which we are very happy to share with you. We left the dock in Longyearbyen at 2:00 a.m. and during the night we steamed north towards Ny-Ålesund. The Polar Star drafts approximately 6.8 m so the route had to be on the outside of the Prins Karls Forland. In this dry area, we had the exclusive experience of rain. And to those of us nervous for rough sea, we had a pleasant and calm nigth.

After breakfast the second welcome ceremony was held with presentation of the guides and the captain. All of us participated in the mandatory emergency drill. With low cloud layers we were aiming for Kongsfjorden, King’s Bay. Here we had our first landing in Ny-Ålesund, a very special settlement and our last contact with civilization for a while - where almost everything is “the northernmost in the world”!

Ny-Ålesund is situated on the southern shore of one of the many beautiful fjords at Svalbard. At the head of the bay the mighty Kongsbreen, King’s Glacier, flows down between the mountains. The former coalmine community, which has been turned into the most technologically advanced research center in the High Arctic, was certainly worth a visit. It has also been the starting point for North Pole expeditions: e.g. Amundsen and Nobile. Walking in the settlement we saw some nesting birds, especially the Artic tern, nesting on the road, not paying much attention to people passing. This year they are only 13 couples nesting, compared to a few years ago when they were 300. The Arctic tern is one of the migratory birds which travel the longest distance between summer and winter residences. Some of them even go as long as to the Antarctic. Another beautiful sight were the Barnacle geese walking with their chicks.

Before dinner we had a lecture by professor Yngvar Gjessing. Yngvar Gjessing is a professor in geo-physics at UNIS (University of Svalbard) and has stayed at Svalbard for 6 years. In addition he has been 7 seasons in Antarctica. The title of his lecture today was “Antarctica & the Arctic – a comparison”, and based on a slideshow.

After dinner we cruised into the Magdalenafjord, one of the most beautiful and visited fjords at Svalbard. On our way in we had a lecture on the front deck about William Barentz discovery of Spitsbergen in 1596. We also heard about the whalers in 17th and
18th century and their rough life were many lost their lives and some are buried at Gravneset in the Magdalenafjord. Cruising in front of the Waggonway-glacier we could admire the beautiful colours of the ice, especially the strong Turkish little iceberg. Kittywakes and a seal were resting peacefully on the floating ice.



Sunday, July 21

We woke up to a refreshing morning with some wind and plus 2 degrees Celsius. After breakfast Jørn gave us information about today’s happenings.
The first event was a lecture by Yngvar. He talked about “Glaciers as climate indicator”. We heard how the temperature affects the increase or decrease in glaciers, both in Norway and other countries in Europe. He also told us that if all the ice on earth melted, the sea level would rise by 80 meters. For those easy questions Yngvar could answer he offered drinks in the bar. That gave the courage to four drinks.

When we looked out of the windows, we could see the edge of the pack-ice in a distance. Everyone went on front deck where we enjoyed the ship cracking its way though the ice. Puffins did several “low passes” and Brünnich’s guillemots dived rapidly when the ship came too close. Because of the clear sea we could follow their movement down in the water. On the horizon we saw some huge ice bergs.

After lunch we had information about zodiac operations and landings. Followed by our first landing to the southern point of Chermsideøya. In a windy wet afternoon we had our first experience in the zodiac. The distance between the ship and the beach was 1,5 nautical miles. This coastal landscape outside the island of Nordaustlandet is generally much more barren than on Spitsbergen, as this region is much less rich in fauna and flora. Even though we saw some Saxifraga and one Svalbard poppy and granite-rocks with very big crystals. And one of the groups saw a seal by the beach.
The cultural remains with rocks letter formations gave us hints about the history of the area. In 1898 Jäderin was here with the reconnaissance expedition before the “Arch of Meredian Expedition” in 1899-1900. In addition we could read following: 1928 Krassin, USSR, Red Bear. Krassin was an icebreaker that rescued the crew of Umberto Nobile, the Italian airship expedition that failed to reach the North Pole. Blåsel 1937 is still a mystery.
In the end of our landing it started snowing and that made the return back to the ship a little bit cold.
By the way this was the first landing at Chermsideøya this year!

Before dinner we headed north towards the Sjuøyene. Halfway we were stopped by the pack-ice. The captain stopped the engine, and we could enjoy the peacefulness while we were spotting for animals.

In the evening we were invited to the front deck to celebrate 80o32“N 20o19”E. The northern most point of this journey, and also the furthest north the Polar Star has visited this summer! In the light rain, surrounded by pack-ice, we toasted in Linie Aquavit – the strong Norwegian national drink that has passed the Equator by ship.



Monday, July 22

Through the night we left the pack-ice and sailed in a southerly direction into the Hinlopenstredet. In the early morning we stopped at the birdcliff Alkefjellet, where 150 000 couples of Brünnich’s Guillemots were nesting. The sky was full of birds flying around in different heights all around us. It is amazing that they are able to find their way back in the chaos to their partner waiting for them with the egg. The cliff was also home for kittiwakes and the hungry Glaucous gull. The bedrock that formed the bird cliff was a dark intrusion of dolerite looking like towers in the limestone surrounding it.

Just before lunch we planned a landing in Augustabukta, but reaching the area we saw The King of the Arctic walking on the beach, so that place was occupied by the locals. Instead we got all seven zodiacs on the water and went for a zodiac-cruise in the bay and in front of the glacier Vegafonna. Not far from land we had the very exiting experience of meeting 4-5 walrus playing around in the water in front of us. You never know when they want to try their enormous ivory teeth in rubber-boats, so we had to keep the engines running. On our way back we stopped and had a look at the polar bear that had been swimming over to the other beach on the other side of the glacier.
Augustabukta is named after Marie Louise Augusta Catharine (1811-90). She was married to Friedrich William I, German Emperor 1871-88.

In the afternoon we cruised into Bjørnsundet where we had a stop in the ice - there were two seals having their afternoon rest. A little bit further on someone else also were resting - a polar bear mother with her two teenage children. One of them playing around and coming pretty close to our ship. But he lost interest in us and went to hunt for seals instead. In the bay on the port side of the ship some of us saw another polar bear resting. This day gave us a total of five bears.

After pushing through the bay we sailed over to the eastern side of the Hinlopenstredet again. This time we cruised with Polar Star in front of the largest glacier on Svalbard, Austfonna. The unbroken glacier front is 130 km long and the total of glacier front is 200 km. The meltwater followed small rivers on the surface and ended in the sea as waterfalls. Some places the meltwater came out from big tunnel systems. Huge icebergs were visible on the impressive colourful horizon.

Tuesday, July 23 (Polar bear-morning)

“Good morning, all passengers on Polar Star - by the way, there is a Polarbear outside!” our Expeditionleader Jørn announced half past seven in the morning. A young, curious Polarbear was laying on the ice in Freemansundet, and for 1 hour we could watch him walking around.

After a delayed breakfast we made a landing on the 4th biggest islands of Svalbard, Barentsøya. Named after the Dutch navigator Willem Barents, who was a leader of the three Dutch expeditions to the Arctic in the late 1500. We went by zodiacs to a bay called Sundbukta on the southwest end of Barentsøya. The sea was calm and we had fairly good weather with +10 degrees celcius. We were divided into one flora and bird group and one walking group. On the way to Andedammen, the duck lake, we saw many colourful flowers as e.g. Svalbard poppy, Mountain Avens and different sorts of saxifraga. We could also study 8 ooo years old whalebones, droppings from reindeer and suddenly someone discovered footprints of a polarbear.
This was the right place to enjoy the silence of the Arctic.

Quoting Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez:
Lying flat on your back … on rolling tundra without animals, without human
trace, you can feel the silence stretching all the way to Asia.

The next goal for the day was the 3rd biggest island of Svalbard, Edgeøya. The island is named after Thomas Edge (d. 1624), English merchant and whaler. We steamed for 3 hours to reach Diskobukta, the Disco Bay. The name “Probably the English Duckes Cove became Dusko in Dutch mouths… Scoresby (1820) is the first to misspell it Disco”. A trappers cabin met us at the beach, Villa Disco. Whalebones and walrusbones were spread all over the terrain. In a canyon the Kittiwakes were nesting on the shelves and the Glaucous gull, which is 4 times greater, sat with hungry eyes waiting for a delicate snack. The Svalbard poppy and Scurvy grass covered the mountainside and made the landscape look rich. On the way into the canyon we saw two reindeers resting, and two frightless Arctic foxes were drifting around looking for food.

The Discobukta had extremely shallow water, and we had to walk with the zodiacs along the beach to find a more suitable way out. Finally we made it, and Chris could announce that a late dinner was ready to be served ! Bon appétit!

Wednesday, July 24

During the night we rounded Sørkapp, the Cape South, and that was our southern most position ... Before entering the Hornsund, Yngvar gave us his lecture: “Drift-ice”. After lunch we cruised in front of the big glaciersystem of Storbreen and Hornbreen. The Hornsund is an interesting area from a geological point of view. In the east we have the sedimentary rocks from Tertiary “just” 60 million years old, and moving west the rocks get older and older, ending with an age of 1200 millions years at the entrance to the fjord. The magnificent mountain of Hornsundtind with its 1431 meters above sea level is an astonishing natural monument.

The afternoon landing was at Gåshamna, a wide bay on the southern side of Hornsund with steep colourful mountains around. It was a beautiful afternoon with no wind and sunny weather. Before we started walking we got a demonstration of how to use a foxtrap. The area had many beautiful green and purple Compass-roses – Mountain campions. 2-3 Arctic scuas were watching the area, and we could also feel the attacks from the Arctic terns.
There were also the remains of an observatory from the Russian reconnaissance expedition “Arc of Meredian Expedition” in 1899-1900. It is exiting to know that this is the same expedition we saw remains of at Chermsideøya earlier at this cruise! We also had a look inside the “five star” trapper-hut. It was interesting to see how well it was equipped with saucepans. Maybe the trapper was expecting a lot of guests?!

Flat sea and a beautiful coloured sky – a perfect evening for an unbelievable zodiac-cruise. A polar bear eating his freshly caught seal in front of the heavily crevassed Torellbreen, whose front rises about 50 meters from the sea surface. BANG - a tremendous calving that made the sea go up and down for a long time. A seal in the water and a bearded seal resting on one of the many turkish-blue icebergs.

Afterwards we visited the bar and had drinks served with glacier ice. Herdís and Anja and their zodiac “crew” picked up this ice from the sea in front of Torellbreen.

Thursday, July 25

The morning landing in Barentsburg was an interesting experience to see a piece of Russia in Norway! Our two guides Anna and Tamara gave us a nice idea of the life in Barentsburg. They helped us to visit the chapel and told us afterwards that we had been the best group till now! Some even visited the pig farm and the greenhouses.

During the afternoon we settled our accounts with Chris and Angela. Our last landing was in Skansbukta below Skansen, the Fortress. There was no doubt why it got its name. In 1911-1912 a Swedish company prospected the area and found gypsum, but it was not until 1918 that the Norwegian company Dalen Portland started the open mine. The first summer they did not build any houses except one cantina, the workers lived in tents. The ship “Sirius” with 200 tons of gypsum taken out her, never reached Norway. In the 1930’s the mine was reactivated and the railway was build. The houses are gone but the fundament is still there. Maybe the materials have been used for other buildings e.g. the cabin for the Hunters and Fish association in Longyearbyen. The boat is not stranded but left on shore, most likely it have been just to take gypsum to the bigger ship. Since they left the boat they probably planned to come back.
We finally found a flower with a smell: the nice blue Jacob’s Ladder. It is very seldom to find it on Svalbard but below the Skansen bird cliff we saw a lot. The other flowers there are much bigger than those we have found before most likely due to good conditions with both light and nutrition.
This was the only place where the bossy guides let you be a bit on your own just to have the possibility to feel some of the nature at Svalbard…

This last evening on board we were invited to Captains cocktail in the lounge and had a Captains barbeque on the aft deck.