Autumn storms in Vesterålen

As soon as we hit the ocean again after leaving Tromsø the evening before the storm hit us and he had a bit of a rough trip down the coast, which is why we had to use the more sheltered harbour at Myre and take a bus to Nyksund. An old fishing town turned artist centre. We got literally blown away by the experience!

After that we still had more sailing on our program on our way to Lofoten. Through the Raudfjord and a visit to Trollfjord, one of the most scenic little fjords we could visit with the Fram. The super small passage is impressive by itself, but the highlight was when the Polarlys, the regular coastal Hurtigruten ship came in as well and we met at the end of the fjord! There have probably never before been 2 Hurtigrutenships at the same time in Trollfjorden before!

Tromsø - Back to civilisation

We arrived to Tromsø just after lunch. Back to civilisatuion!

Some of the passengers had a walk through town with a local guide and also visited some of the museums on the way.

 City tour local guide takes the guests to the polar museum during the tour, located in one of the oldest buildings in town. which is a lot of history of polar explorers, hunters and fishers.

We had a nice long stay in town and left when the Tromsø was already lit up for the night.

Bjørnøya

27.09.2015

The highlight of the day is bjørnøya, but unfortunately we cannot go on land because of the bad weather the island is famous for.

However we are lucky the weather is not as bad to also prevent us from our awesome plan B: Polar Cirkle Cruising for everyone! 

So out we go in the little boats and take a little round along the huge birdcliffs which still have quite a few birds even this late in the year. Fulmars, Kittiwakes, Glaucous gulls are still plenty, while the skuas and guillemots (common guillemot, Bruennichs guillemot and little Auk) have already left for their wintering quarters. Earlier in the year the whole area is protected as a bird sanctuary, but since breeding season is over, visiting is allowed again. Because of all the guano the birdcliffs are actually the only green parts of the otherwise quite barren island.

And as a little reminder of the dangers of the seas, we aslo visit a shipwreck from the 80s, an old Russian Vessel on one of the cliffs!

Back to the Fram for lunch with cod caught an hour before being served! 

Waffles for tea!

Glacier day!

26.09.2015

We watched the little visited Hornsund, which actually is a fjord for breakfast and were again extremely lucky with the weather. We even saw Horntind a spectacularly beautiful mountain, which at 1431m is the highest in the area, but usually is invisible being covered in clouds all the time, but not today!

The landing site in Austre Burgerbukta is allows a lot of roaming around on a big former middle moraine between two glaciers, which have retreated and form a frame around the landing site. We found polar bear tracks and quite a few carcasses of arctic fox, reindeer and seal, but still no real live bears.

The Polar cirkle boat cruisers went out looking for bears in surrounding areas that are known for polar bears, but instead we found beutiful iceformations and icebergs starting to freeze together with newly forming sea ice in Vestre Burgerbukta. And the watersurface was smooth as a mirror. Quite a few species of birds are still enjoying the beautiful autumn here, before moving south: Fulmar, Glaucous gull, Kittiwake, Black Guillemot were still around.

Continuing the search for a polar bear we went a bit further into Hornsund, when we stopped looking for bears because we found a big group of beautiful white wales, also called Belugas. On the way back to the Fram we even got to watch two big male Svalbard reindeer, so we had a perfect wildlife watching day.

After the landing Fram took us exploring deeper into the Hornsund all the way to Brepollen, one of the fasest retreating glaciers in the last cenetury, but even now after it was split up into multiple glacierfronts it is still an impressive sight.

After that we sailed back out of the Hornsund and then set course south towards Bjørnøya.