JAN MAYEN

 Last night after a fog bank it cleared with wonderful sunlight and pieces of ice showed at sea.  Soon we discovered that we were passing at the edge of the ice pack.  The ice edge is always with much bird life due to the large quantity of sea plankton life and small fish that birds love to eat.

The afternoon was a bit foggy on the early part and when approached to the island of Jan Mayen we were received with soft rain but then surprise did clear nicely.  Historically the first documented discovery of this island was about on the early 1600 by Dutch and English whalers.  The island was declared part of Norway by early 1930, and after the second war a meteorological and a coastal radio station was set up. The radio station is on a constant watch for possible distress signals in the area and over the years has been of great importance. More recently they build a new radio navigation system

On our landing we had the opportunity to visit the weather station, heard a little bit about geology, some of the local breeding birds and look a bit around the general landscape.

A Calm Day at Sea

The second day on board is a time to get used to many new things for those who are first time travelers on Fram – be it safety drills, finding a cabin or lecture rooms, or adjusting to the ship’s motions. Fortunately this voyage has started with calm seas, so it was easy to find one’s sea legs, and as we sailed along the west coast of Iceland into the night the sea got even more and more quiet. Many stayed up late to follow the stark cliffs on starboard side, but eventually we had a few hours of dark night. We will not see such darkness again on this trip!

There are quite a few veterans onboard, as usual, but very few who have been near the island of Jan Mayen. So we follow closely the weather forecast – what will be the sea state tomorrow afternoon when we get there? In the meantime we prepare ourselves: We have found the right size of our rental boots, and have listened to lectures on how to behave in the Arctic, on climate, geology and the polar bear and of course on the island itself.

Departing from Iceland

In Reykjavik the pier is located in the old part of town were modern and complex architecture meets the nice and simple old buildings and were old and new art forms meet.  On this part of town are located several touristic shops ranging from souvenirs to an assorted number of restaurants, coffee shop, book shops, cloth stores  etc.,   places were some got more than one souvenir.  Upon departure we could see

The day was grey with a small drizzle of rain dropping softly on our path.  Along the way on view were many puffins, gulls, Fulmars and even some spotted a few Minky whales   Our next  destination is Jan Mayen on which  we look forward to see.

Iceland

It was so calm this morning that we could barely feel the motion of the ship. The wind was less than 5 knots and variable. The ocean swell was almost imperceptible. We are grateful to have had such a calm crossing. The Denmark Strait is well known for its ferocious storms. As we approached the coast of Iceland the weather began to change. Grey clouds moved in and by 11:00 it was completely overcast, however the wind stayed down and we had glass-like conditions all of the way to Grundarfjördur.

During the morning we were kept busy attending lectures and briefings on our plans for the day.

 We arrived in the small but beautiful Grundafjördur harbour at 14:00. While we had lost our clear skies the weather was still excellent for the two optional excursions we had planned. Quite a few people chose to explore the pretty fishing town on their own. One large group of people were going on a bus tour which would include the Snaefellsnae park. The glacier Snaefellsjokul is right in the centre of the park. Snaefellsjokul was made famous by Jules Verne as he wrote that it was here that you could find the entrance to the centre of the earth in his famous novel, Journey to the Centre of the Earth.

A second large group of people chose to go on a boat tour of Breidafjördur. The tour was truly amazing as we had excellent views of many seabirds including: Puffins, Kittiwakes, Fulmars, Black Guillemots and three magnificent Sea Eagles. We cruised in a veritable labyrinth of small volcanic islands.

 By 19:45 everyone was back on board and at 20:00 we cast off our lines in Grundafjördur harbour and set a course for Reykjavik.

During the evening our ship’s photographer presented a slideshow with images from our entire voyage. It was amazing to review all of the places we have been. Our arrival in Kangerlussuaq Greenland seems like so long ago.

Now it’s time to begin preparations for disembarking Fram in Reykjavik and starting our journey home.

On the Way to Island

We are at the middle of Denmark Strait but if we look outside it looks more as we are somewhere at Caribbean Sea. No wind, no waves, no fog and no rain. It is really unbelievable weather, as for that region of the Atlantic Ocean.

Day at sea is usually the day when lecture program is at the full speed. Many of use the opportunity to learn more about what we have seen and what we might see at Island. It is also time to relax and enjoy the beautiful weather on the outside decks.

Late afternoon we had Farewell Capitan’s Cocktail. Yes, our trip is getting in to the end. Just two more nights on board and we have to fly home. Right after that we had an auction of Hurtigruten flag which waved on MV Fram mast during our whole voyage, followed by auction of navigation chart of Greenland with our route marked on it. The chart was also beautifully decorated by one of our staff member, Greenlandic artist – Miki. All together we collected 1000 US dollars. The money will be donated to “Association for Greenlandic Children” to help the Greenlandic youth get better education.

It Feels Like We Are On Holidays!

Prince Christian Sound
Photo © Anke Timmerberg

Phew.  A day at sea.  It feels like we are on holidays.  Oh wait.  We are on holidays.  The first eight days of this voyage have been intense.  We have been very busy every day.  We have seen a lot of fantastic scenery, whales, icebergs by the thousands, glaciers, muskox, we have visited Greenlanders in their homes and gone on long hikes.  We have gone on small boat excursions, some of us went on a helicopter tour, some of us went whale watching, we’ve attended many lectures and have enjoyed fabulous food.  

Prince Christian Sound
Photo © Anke Timmerberg

After all of that, a day at sea seems like a vacation from the vacation.  It is a chance to kick back and watch the ocean roll by. On Fram there are numerous picture windows and lots of places to sit quietly and enjoy the scenery.  But a day at sea still has lots going on.  For example, this morning at approximately 06:00 we entered Prince Christian Sound.  Without doubt it is one of the more dramatically beautiful spots on earth.

Chef Johan Ludwig
Photo © Anke Timmerberg

We had dried fish fish and fish oil sampling with our chef Johan Ludwig this morning on deck seven.  What do you expect?  We’re on a Norwegian ship with a Norwegian chef!  

We had lectures and documentary films scheduled throughout the afternoon and the evening at 22:00 was the always entertaining crew show.  Another busy day. True.  But the pace of life on sea days is relaxed.  There is time for napping.  Time for a sauna or stint in the gym. And there is time to do nothing.

Our Repeat Travellers,
Photo © Anke Timmerberg

We have noted that on this trip there are many repeat guests travelling with us. Some people on board have sailed with us three, even four times.  For us it is wonderful to see so many familiar friendly faces.  It makes us feel good that you appreciate what we try to do for you and that you come back again and again and again.  We are obviously doing something right.  But don’t worry.  We will never rest on our laurels.  We are constantly trying to improve and we are constantly striving to discover new experiences and opportunities which we can present to you.  To all of the repeat travellers on board we extend a huge thank-you for coming to see us again.

Everyone!
Photo © Anke Timmerberg

To everyone with us for the first time.  Talk to the repeaters!  We hope that we will see you again (and again).

But wait a second.  This is starting to sound like a farewell blog posting.  Not at all!  We still have two whole days before Reykjavik!

Hvalsey and Qaqortoq

In the morning we visited the best preserved Norse (Vikings) ruins in all of Greenland – Hvalsey farmstead. According to Sturlubók Landnámu, one of the Old Icelandic Norse (Viking) texts, the farm was established by Thorkell Farsek – Erik the Red’s cousin, in around 985 A.D. The last confirmed Norse (Viking) event in Greenland – a wedding in 1408, also took place at that farm. Even after more than 1000 years the church ruins are still in quite good shape. It was fairly easy to picture how busy live must have been on the farm around 600 years ago, while walking between the ruins with the sheep from the nearby farmhouse running around.

 

Shortly before noon we heaved the anchor and during the lunch we sailed to Qaqortoq – south Greenland most populous town. Everybody enjoyed either visiting the museum, walking around the fountain at the old town square or strolling through the town in search for “Stone and Man” sculptures. Some visited the Great Greenland Tannery or made a 11 km nature walk around the Great Lake.

Narsaq & Qassiarsuk

Photo © Anke Timmerberg

We’re in South Greenland now.  You can see many differences between here and the Disko Bay area that we frequented for the past several weeks.  The terrain is more mountainous.  The vegetation a little taller, a little more lush.  This morning we landed in Narsaq.  It is one of the larger communities in Greenland with a population of ~ 1600.  There is agriculture here with sheep farming just outside of town and even locally grown potatoes.  I watched with amazement as a farmer mowed and bailed hay.  Real hay in Greenland.  The wildflowers are different too.  Common Harebells grow in abundance as does Buttercup, Yarrow and Ladie’s Mantle to mention just a few.

Once again there were plenty of icebergs impeding our progress which meant that we arrived about an hour late.

We had many optional excursions available and despite our slight tardiness arriving in Narsaq, all of the excursions departed (and returned  :^)     ).  We had eighteen different boat excursions to Qooroq Glacier (which ran all day long), a kayaking group, three different hiking groups and an excursion to the Viking ruins.  And that was just the first half of our day!

In the afternoon we visited the beautiful town of Qassiarsuk.  The boat excursions continued into the evening to Qooroq.  In addition, several people opted for a tour to the Erik the Red settlement and we also provided a long hike in the back country behind Qassiarsuk.  

With two different landings and with hiking, kayaking and boat excursions running throughout the day it was very important that the weather cooperate.  As you can see in the photos, it could not have been a better day.

Narsaq
Photo  © Andrew Wenzel

Kayaking Narsaq
Photo  © Tessa van Drie

Kayaking Narsaq 

Photo  © Tessa van Drie

Qassiarsuk
Photo  © Andrew Wenzel

Lief Erikson statue, Qassiarsuk
Photo  © Anke Timmerberg

Ivittuut – rocks & minerals

Today’s landing was scheduled at 14:00 so we started our day with briefings and lectures. We also had some time for ourselves which was nice. In the morning it was a bit foggy but as we approached Ivittuut the weather cleared up very nicely and we started landing according to plan. Ivittuut is a ghost town today but in the past it was quite a busy town built around a cryolite quarry. The mining started in the 1920s and with time the mine became the world’s biggest cryolite source, bringing incredible wealth to Ivittuut. Why was that mineral so expensive? By adding cryolite to aluminium oxide, the melting temperature of aluminium was lowered by half at this reduced production costs immensely. Discovery of synthetic replacement for cryolite in the beginning of 1980s brought an end to the mining. Today only a few buildings and a 80m-deep quarry filled with water resemble splendour of the town. One of the buildings was turned to a museum and had a display of minerals which could be found around the mine. 

 Not only minerals were the highlight. We have seen Musk ox! In 1988, 19 specimens were introduced and by 2012 are about 500 of them.

To All Of The Generous People That Travel With Us, Thank you!!

Hurtigruten's MV Fram donates 78,800 DKK ($12,900) to the
Association of Greenlandic Children

During our Greenland, Spitsbergen and Antarctic expedition cruises we host a charity auction near the end of every voyage.  We have raised many thousands of dollars.  This is not something that we have to do, but something we have chosen to do to “give back” to the places we visit.  In Greenland we donate to the Association of Greenlandic Children and today at noon, on board Fram was the presentation of the funds.  What a marvelous feeling it was to give a cheque of 78,000 DKK to two young representatives of the Association.  Imagine that.  78,000 DKK was raised in just five cruises in Greenland.  We would like to shout out a huge thank-you to all of the generous people that travel with us and either bid at our auctions or just donated funds at the close of the auctions. Your generosity is deeply appreciated.

Today was our big day in the capital city of Greenland, Nuuk.  There were opportunities to explore the city with a bus tour or to cruise the coast line of Nuuk Fjord by boat.

Shuttle buses transported people from Fram to Katuaq, the Cultural Centre and the National museum throughout the day.

It seems that we brought the good weather with us as it has been cloudy and rainy here in Nuuk for the past two weeks.  Not so today. We experienced more glorious sunshine and even warmer temperatures - 16˚C!

Now we make our way even further south.  We are on our way to Ivittuut.  

Sisimiut

We started the day with a short briefing about planed activities in Sisimiut. In the plan were three optional excursions: Historical walk to Teleisland, boat trip to Assaqutaq and hike to Palaasip Qaqqa Mountain. We were informed that the Palaasip Qaqqa hike is more a climb than a hike (4-5 hours steady, steep climb up to over 500 m above sea level) and that only very fit people should consider that excursion.

We were also informed that this was “Plan A” and due to thick fog some changes might occur. Indeed, as most of us noticed already during the breakfast, the visibility was not good and some of us were even talking about possible changes. Oh well, that’s expedition so we were prepared for that.

Miraculously, as MV Fram entered the Sisimiut Bay,the fog gradually started to disappear. We were back in “Plan A” but the so called “expedition troll” stayed with us. We could do all planed excursion but … we couldn’t go with Fram alongside to the pier. A cargo ship was on its way to Sisimiut and they had priority to use the pier. Conclusion: we had to stay at anchor and use our Polar Circle Boats to bring us ashore. No problem – it’s fun to have a ride in these speed boats. Especially in this calm, sunny weather.

We stayed in Sisimiut till 15:30 so we had also enough time to visit the town. The old town, museum and local handicraft workshop were really worth a visit.

Before we left, one Inuit came in his kayak close to the Fram and made a incredible show for us. It is unbelievable how great skills these people have in handling a kayak.

So, how was the day? … Let’s the pictures do the talking!


View from Palaasip Qaqqa



Bethel Church from 1775



In the town



Kayak show

Ilulissat Means Icebergs

Today was all about icebergs. All sizes. Small ones, big ones, really big ones. All shapes. Like snow flakes. Every one a different shape. Hm. Curious. They once were snow flakes. Billions and billions of snowflakes over centuries piling up deeper and deeper getting heavier and heavier. Compressing. Turning snow into ice. And then the ice, still getting deeper, spills over the gigantic basin it sits in and slowly, inexhorably makes it’s way down to the sea. The glacier seeks the path of least resistance carving out huge valleys and fjords and dumping the debris en route and into the ocean. And as ice meets sea, the ice begins to break up creating icebergs. The icebergs we saw today came from Sermeq Kujaleq glacier. The most productive glacier in the northern hemisphere. The size of the area that feeds this one glacier is 110,000 ㎢. All of that ice flows down into Kangia Fjord at a rate of 19 metres/day. It then takes 12 to 15 months for the ice to make its way to the mouth of the fjord and into Disko Bay where the bigger bergs get hung up on an undersea moraine embankment. The sight of that huge sea of ice is really impressive.

We started off the morning with all excursions going hither thither and yon. Boat load after boat load of people saw the mouth of Kangia from the sea. Others hiked through town and out to the fjord. Helicopters flitted back and forth from the terminus of the glacier. Many people combined excursions and saw the ice from land and sea and a few people managed all three views.

The weather cooperated completely. We had sunny skies all day long. And believe me, it’s a long day when it’s July north of the Arctic Circle.

The last excursion returned to the ship at approximately 20:00 and shortly after that we lifted the anchor. It’s 23:05 and the sun is still shining brightly as we make our way towards Sisimiut.

On the way to “good harbour”.

After a good, night of sleep (if we can call it night – the Sun is above the horizon 24 hours a day) and breakfast buffet, we started our day activity. The first landing is scheduled at 18:00 but it doesn’t mean that we have nothing to do until that time. Shortly after breakfast we had our first briefing. The AECO (Association of the Arctic Expedition Cruises Operators) presentation explained us how to behave safe, responsible and environmentally-friendly in the Arctic. Then, we had short introduction about today’s and tomorrow’s activities. We have so many additional excursions that we can book! No wonder that later on, there was long line in front of the Expedition Desk. Then, the “educational program” started with lectures in German and English. As always during the Expedition Cruise – we want not only to see the places but also learn about the region where we are sailing to.

At 17:45 Fram anchored in front of our first destination – Qeqertarsuaq on Disko Island. Here we could choose between two optional excursions. “Basalt & Volcano” (4 hours walk) or “Ice Cruising” in our Polar Circle Boat’s with possibility of whale watching. Of course we could also choose “Walk to the Valley of the Wind” (45 min. one way) or just stroll in the town. The place was well known to 18th century whalers and they most probable gave the place its Danish name – Godhavn (“good harbour”). Then, in 1773 a Danish trading post was established here. Till 1950, the town remained the most important northern community. Today Qeqertarsuaq has roughly 1000 inhabitants.

All excursions were a great success! In the Valley of the Wind, even though it is almost the end of the flowering season, we could still enjoy many flowers. It is amazing how colorful the tundra can be!

The long walkers had a chance to see the beautiful lava structures, remains from volcanic activity from about 50 million years ago. It was interesting to learn that Disko Island is the youngest part of Greenland!

“Ice Cruising” turned out to be an exciting whale watching excursion. We spotted a Fin Whale and a Humpback Whale. Two species during two hours – not bad!

But the best part of today started about half an hour after our departure. Three Humpback Whales made a “midnight show” for us. The highlight of the show was Humpback Whale calf breaching!