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.
