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.

80 degrees North!

80 degrees North!

We woke up to herd of walrus at the island Moffen at 80 degrees North. Only 1111km separate us from the North Pole at this point!

There we turned south again cruising through the beautiful islands of North-West Spitzbergen on a wonderful autumn afternoon, we even had a few snowflakes on the way to smeerenburg. Another colony of walrus greeted us at this old whaling station and we dropped off the two polar circle boats, which went on cruise on their own looking at Virgohamna, the place where Andrè started his balloon expedition. And we also get our Muck boot rental shop running.

The Fram continued on into Magdalenefjorden, one of the most scenic and famous fjords on all of Svalbard, where we did our first landing of the trip. Gravneset, another ancient place where whalers lived and worked has one of the biggest graveyards on Spitzbergen with more than 100 graves. A nice walk took us from landing site to one of the glacier fronts, while the more adventurous went on a Kayak trip.

First day of the trip

24.09.15

First day of the trip!

Everybody on board!

 After the safety drill

While having a wonderful lunch

we start cruising the icefjord direction North towards Moffen in beautiful weather.

The capatin and crew welcome all the passengers on board the ship with a nice cocktail:

Before we even finished introducing the expedition team, we already have our first wildlife sighting: A big, fat, lazy walrus:

Sea day!

Day 13 22.09.2015

A day in the name of learning.

Finally, on the third attempt we could start the day with bridge visits. All the other days the officers had to focus fully on maneuvering the ship through the ice.

As we were crossing the Barentz Sea, we had a lot of lectures about the wildlife of the Arctic, about the Sirius Dogsled Patrol, about Ice and would eventually watch a documentary.

Inspired by our crew, we had Phillipino dinner buffet and the crew show.

Last but not least we auctioned an Icelandic flag, the ships flag with all officers and expedition team members signature and the sea charts of this journey from the Vikings of Iceland to the Inuit of Greenland and further to the trappers of Svalbard.

A day in the Ice

Day 12 21.09.2015

A day in the ice.

We did not get far during the night and our course had a trend southwards. We got caught in a pack ice belt that stretched from far north to the south from our position and fog prevented us from seeing much wildlife. The bridge was working hard to find a way through it all day while it was a calm day of lectures and relaxing for us.

We learned about Nansens first ice cap crossing, the northern lights, Eriks time in the Sirius Patrol and many more things. It was not a boring day for sure. We could almost imagine how it must have been 400 years ago to travel these waters in wooden boats, heading into unknown areas. Many followed the development of our route on the navigation chart screens, as our movement through the ice was much alike the pattern a housefly would draw on a windowglass.

Lastly we found a way through the belt and could accelerate out into open waters. Svalbard, we are coming!