LOG BOOK. Svalbard, 27 July 31 July, 2012

Transcription

1 LOG BOOK Svalbard, 27 July 31 July, 2012

2 - 2 - Map of Svalbard with landing locations. In the log book you will find numbers on the sections. Those numbers refer to the locations on this map.

3 27 JULY ISFJORDEN LONGYEARBYEN N, E Longyearbyen is a Norwegian settlement and the capital of Svalbard. It s named after the American John Munroe Longyear who started the first coal production in Longyear valley in In 1916 the Norwegian state owned company Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani AS bought the mine. Today Longyearbyen is a modern town with a relatively good range of facilities, taking the location into consideration. The population amounts to app people. Today mining, science and tourism comprises three major business fields JULY MAGDALENEFJORDEN 79 30' N, ' E At 17:00 we embarked the MS Nordstjernen and the Spitsbergen Adventure Cruise started. The ship sailed out of Adventfjorden and westwards, towards Barentsburg, passing the former coal-mining settlement Grumant and its adjacent harbour facility Coles Bay. 4 BARENTSBURG N, E Barentsburg is the only Russian settlement which is still inhabited. Previously there was activity also in Grumant (until the early sixties) and Pyramiden (1998). Barentsburg is a mining settlement on the eastern side of Grønfjorden. The first house in Barentsburg was built in 1912 by a Norwegian company and then sold to a Dutch company; the N.V. Nederlandsche Spitsbergen Compagnie (NESPICO). In 1932 it was sold to the Russians from the Dutch in Barentsburg is run by Trust Arcticugol, a company owned by the Russian state, and the settlement is still today a company town. It is a family community of 350 inhabitants with about thirty children. We had a guided tour around the city with two local guides and were entertained by an enchanting folklore show in the culture house. During the night the MS Nordstjernen sailed out of Isfjorden and passed the island of Prins Karls Forland on our way north to many anticipated adventures. Magdalenefjorden is in the Northwest Spitsbergen National Park which covers a land area of km² and includes out to four nautical miles from the coast. The National Park was established in This is one of the most well-known and most frequented fiords in Svalbard and also one of the few places where large cruise ships are able to anchor. It is a small fiord surrounded by cathedral like mountains and glaciers that fall into the sea. This is what met Willem Barentsz when he discovered Svalbard in 1596 and hence he gave the name Spitsbergen (Peaky Mountains) to the new discovered land. Entering the fiord, a long beach reaches out on the south side. The outer part of the beach is a small hill serving as a funeral site. This is Gravneset where British, Dutch and German whalers from NW Spitsbergen came to bury their dead in the 17 th and 18 th century. Stone-gatherings and wooden-coffins remain from the graves and there are about 130 of them. The graves are relatively simple, but archaeological excavations have revealed that the funeral ceremonies were conducted with great care. Down on the beach are remains from two blubberovens where whale blubber was boiled. The ruins have deteriorated, but they clearly exhibit both the characteristic stove stones and the equally characteristic cement which is an almost fossilised mixture of blubber and sand. Towards the end of the beach lies a small cabin where Sysselmannen has two field inspectors accommodated. We woke up to perfect weather, some sunshine and no wind. After having enjoyed breakfast we landed on the peninsula Gravneset in the tender boats. The peninsula boasts one of Svalbard s sand beaches, complete with clear blue glacier water and pointed mountains all around. On the beach we split into language groups and walked for a short while inland, seeing Little Auks soaring in the skies above us as they went to and from their nests on the mountain which towered above us. On the other side of the peninsula we enjoyed a nice panorama. Well back on the ship we could enjoy the last view of this scenic fiord as we headed north. After lunch, as we navigated in Smeerenburgfjorden we spotted a Polar Bear in the Kennedy Bay.

4 RAUDFJORDEN HAMILTONBUKTA 79 40' N, ' E Raudfjorden (the Red Fiord) is a 20 km long and 5 km wide fiord on the north coast of Spitsbergen. On the western side of the fiord there is a small bay called Hamiltonbukta. The bay has its name from Hugo Vilhelm Hamilton, a Swedish naval officer who was captain on an expedition vessel of the Swedish-Russian Arc-of-Meridian Expedition to Spitsbergen in Several glaciers debouch into the small bay which is surrounded by steep mountains. On the mountain cliffs there are different birds nesting; the Brunnich s Guillemot, the Little Auk and the Kittiwakes. Underneath the breeding area the Polar Fox is often spotted, looking for eggs and chicks. The predators the Glaucus Gull and the Arctic Skua are frequent visitors to such areas. All these birds are coming to the Svalbard archipelago with one goal only: to breed. Svalbard is a very well suited breeding place for them as the Arctic Ocean is a very productive ocean and hence they find food in abundance for their chicks. After lunch we enjoyed a tender boat cruise in this pearl of a bay. Coming closer one really understand how hectic activity is in these mountain sides. 38. Moffen MOFFEN N, E The island of Moffen is a peculiar ring-shaped atoll of about 4,5 km² and consists of sand and gravel. It is -3- situated just above the eightieth parallel and lies just two to three meters above sea level. In the middle there is a fresh water lake. In whale hunter times one could navigate inside to find shelter from the sea when the weather was rough. Because of land upheaval this is not possible today. Moffen is a National Park, originally protected as a bird sanctuary, and there is a three hundred meter limit for ships, hence there is no possibility to do a landing. In addition to the nesting birds this is a popular haul-out place for walruses. The walruses are social animals and enjoy hauling out together in groups and enjoy the sun. They are cinnamon coloured when in the water but turn lighter when in the sun as the blood flushes to the surface to keep them cool. On land these creatures are almost comically clumsy but in the water, their true element, they turn into swift and strong swimmers. The shallow waters around Moffen offer them their favourite prey: clams and mussels. Moffen is also one of the few places were the Sabine s gull is regularly spotted. The name Moffen is originally Dutch and has its origin from the whale hunting period as a nick name for the Germans who worked onboard the Dutch vessels. Just before we arrived at Moffen we all gathered on deck and celebrated our crossing of the eightieth parallel with a glass of sparkling wine. Interesting to think that between the North Pole and us on the ship there was probably nobody else! As well as walruses on land, there was also some swimming in the water. 29 JULY WOODFJORDEN WORSLEYHAMNA N, E The next morning we woke up in the fiord Woodfjorden. Woodfjorden is a 65 kilometers long and 10 kilometers wide fiord running in a north south direction. Liefdefjorden and Bockfjorden are branches on the western side. The name derives from the Dutch name Hout Bay, Dutch for Wood Bay. On various sandy spits extending far into the fiord, drift wood is found, hence the name. At the entrance of Woodfjorden there is Reinsdyrflya (the plain of reindeer), and on the southern side of the plain there is a small bay called Worsleyhamna (the bay of Worsley). The bay is named after Commander Frank Arthur Worsley, a New Zealand born British naval officer who led a British expedition to Spitsbergen and Frans Josef Land in In the small bay there is a lonely cabin called Villa Oxford. The cabin was a satellite station built by one of the most famous Norwegian overwintering trappers Hilmar Nøis in Nøis spent 38 years in Svalbard as an overwintering trapper. The satellite stations were commonly a day s walk from the main station and functioned as a simple shelter when the trappers controlled their different traps.

5 From the beach where we landed and towards the cabin the tundra was covered with flowers such as Moss Campion, Cinque Foil, Svalbard Poppy, Purple Saxifrage, Tufted Saxifrage, Spider Saxifrage and Dryas Octopetala and other flowers. On the small island scattered around in the area there are many Eider Ducks and Geese breeding, seeking protection from the foxes that cannot swim to the islands. On the other hand; the Polar Bear can LIEFDEFJORDEN MONACOBREEN 79 20`N, E During lunch we headed into Liefdefjorden (Dutch for the Fjord of Love). The fiord is spectacular with many smaller islands scattered along the coastline and the mountains rising on both sides. At the head of the fiord Monacobreen debouches into the fiord. The Monaco glacier is about thirty-eight kilometres long and about seven kilometres broad. The glacier is named after Albert Honorè Charles (Albert I), prince of Monaco, who financed several scientific expeditions to this area. Our next activity was a tender boat cruise in the bay in front of the glacier. As there had been recent and current calving activity the bay was filled with drifting ice and some rather big and blue icebergs floated around. During dinner we cruised out of Liefdefjorden and towards Woodfjorden before we started to navigate westwards and later southwards towards Kongsfjorden JULY KONGSFJORDEN NY ÅLESUND N, E Ny Ålesund is the world s northernmost community. The English whale hunter Jonas Poole discovered the first pieces of coal on the riverbank on the South side of Kongsfjorden in Another three hundred years were to pass before commercial exploitation on the coal deposits started. Ny Ålesund was a coal mining settlement between Due to the downwards direction of the coal layer the conditions for coal mining were difficult and there were many accidents due to the development of methane gas in the mines. Late at night on November 5, 1962 there was a big explosion in the Esther Mine and 21 miners lost their life. A committee made an investigation and they concluded that the Norwegian State should have been more concerned about the safety in Ny Ålesund. Since Kings Bay was a state enterprise the public blamed the government. In August 1963, Prime Minister Gerhardsen and his government resigned as a result of this tragedy. More than 70 people totally have lost their lives in the mines in Ny Ålesund After the coal mining ended there were different attempts to try to find new activity. Research activity started in 1964 and during the 1990 s research increased from 4,100 man-days in 1990 to 10,031 in Every year scientists from at least fifteen nations run more than 120 research projects. The previous mining company is to day running Ny Ålesund as a scientific research platform and about ten different nations are running year open research stations here. The research is mainly on the atmosphere and ozone layer but also geological, biological and glacial research is carried out here. The settlement has an airport and twice a week there are departures to and from Longyearbyen. There are about 25 people living here the year round, running the facility. Ny Ålesund was the focal point for the world s attention several times during the 1920 s. In 1925 Roald Amundsen attempted to reach the North Pole from Ny Ålesund with the seaplanes N24 and N25. In 1926 Amundsen returned to Ny Ålesund, accompanied by the American Lincoln Ellsworth and the Italian Umberto Nobile, to set out on a joint expedition with the airship 'Norge'. Nobile flew the airship flew from Roma to Ny Ålesund and then over the North Pole and landed in Teller, Alaska. In 1928 Umberto Nobile was back with the airship 'Italia'. On the way back from the North Pole, the airship crashed on the pack ice northeast of Nordaustlandet, the second largest island of the Svalbard archipelago, and the biggest rescue operation in the Arctic until today took place. More than 1700 people from 7 nations participated. In Ny Ålesund today there are a small shop, a self serviced post-office, an information centre and a small museum. All of these are of course the northernmost of its kind.

6 Just as we went onto the pier in Ny Ålesund we spotted a pod of Belugas close to land. These small, sociable, shallow water whales come into to the fiords to feed and can stay in the fiords for hours. There used to be an extensive hunt for these animals, where the fiords were closed off by a net and huge pods were taken. Pods of a dozen or so consists normally of either males or females with calves. Beluga is Russian for the white one and they are known as the sea canary because of their varied and musical vocabulary. They indulge in trills, clicks, squeals, bell sounds and whistles, sounds which are heard clearly above the surface. As it was quite a windy day the plan to land in the afternoon in Ny London was abandoned, and instead we set sail towards Lloyd Hotel in Möllerfjorden. As we passed Ebeltofthamna a second Polar Bear was spotted, a more active fellow this time, and we got a good view of it. -3- KROSSFJORDEN LLOYD HOTEL ' N 11 52' E The harbour of Möllerhamna is situated innermost in Krossfjorden. Möllerhamna is the name of the innermost part of the fiord of Möllerfjorden. The area has magnificent scenery that includes glaciers and nunataks. The majestic landscape is the reason why cruise ships have visited the place for nearly 100 years. Innermost in the beautiful fiord of Möllerfjorden, at the headland of Regnardneset which is the eastern of the two arms of Krossfjorden, lays a small bright orange cabin popularly called Lloyds hotel, though hardly resembling anything like a hotel. The cabin was raised by the shipping company Hamburg Amerikalinje/Norddeutscher Lloyd and served as a depot of food and medicine as well as an emergency shelter. Ever since the very start of the cruise ship traffic in Svalbard at the start of the 20th century, the fiord has been frequently visited by tourists, fascinated by the wilderness and the dramatic views of the area. The small cabin of Lloyd hotel originally had a black roofing paper front, which is the traditional building style in Svalbard. The cabin was erected before 1928 and later painted orange. The cabin interior tells the story of a long tradition of cruise ship traffic in the area and landings at the site of the cabin for more than 100 years, which makes the cabin one of the few cultural remains in Svalbard with a pronounced and close affiliation to the history of tourism in the archipelago. Inside the cabin, the walls are decorated with graffiti and signs from ships that have visited the place throughout the years. Several of the signs on the walls are from the interwar years, from a time when Europe was changing dramatically and was on the brink of war. Still, people found time to go for cruise ship holidays up north. Or was this actually the reason to go? The cabin is an interesting reminiscence of this particular European epoch. The cabin is a protected cultural remain with a history from the time of cruise ship tourism in the archipelago. In 2003, the Governor of Svalbard decided to clean the cabin and the surrounding area, as the area was highly marked by all the landings over the years. Numerous cairns were removed, several bonfire sites were cleared and waste and rubbish collected. Pallets and other rubbish piled by and inside the cabin were burned. Food and other refuse from several years were removed. FAREWELL GATHERING In the evening we gathered with the ship s crew and the guides for a farewell gathering. Certificates were handed out for passing the 80ºN latitude, and the true heroes amongst us, and also the youngest, received a certificate proving that they took a swim in the chilling Arctic water! Clean-Up-Svalbard pins were handed out to those who deserved it. During the evening we set sail southwards and reached Longyearbyen the next morning, and that was end of the Svalbard summer adventure for this time. Are you sad to leave Svalbard? Are you curious about what it is like in winter? Grab a copy of our catalogue or visit We hope to see you again for another Arctic adventure. The ship s crew, staff, Spitsbergen Travel and Hurtigruten wish you a safe and pleasant journey back home. Best regards, Cruise guides; Gro, Remi, Simon, Helene, Ingrid and Ingunn.