A historic landing on Hopen

Today we woke up to a quite foggy weather. We had to put our course a little further away from the ice edge to be able keep the speed up. We had a relaxing start of the day with lectures, but before the lecturers were able to finish, we heard the announcement ringing on the speakers that a polar bear with a fresh kill had been observed close to the ship. Everyone of course ran out on the deck and it was magnificent to see a polar bear in its true element, dragging a fresh seal carcass across the ice floes.

Later in the day, the fog picked up again. But we did not think too much about the weather after the expedition leader announced that we would attempt a landing at Hopen! This place is rarely visited by tourists, and it was the first time for Fram, all passengers and everyone in the expedition time to visit this island. People were euphoric about this historical landing, and two of the meteorologists and a very friendly local Alaskan husky came out to greet us. They were quite happy to get visitors, and we were quite happy to meet local people who could answer all our questions. There is only four people living and working on Hopen, they stay there for six months at the time, and they do not see people very often.

In the evening some of the crew impressed us with their hidden talents at their fruit and ice carving show in the panorama lounge