PLA08-24, trip log, Around Spitsbergen - In the realm of polar bear & ice

Today is the day, and it is finally time for us to embark upon our Arctic adventure! In the late afternoon, we arrived at our ship, M/V Plancius, our new home for the next ten days. She rocked gently against the pier as we climbed the gangway onto the decks. The day was suitably Arctic, cloudy with a chilly wind – but we were warm and comfortable aboard. We all checked in and were escorted to our respective cabins. After that, we could explore the ship, wander the decks, and get familiar with our new home.

Once we were all aboard, we were invited to the lounge to take part in a mandatory briefing and an abandon ship drill. During the drill we cast off and were on our way out of the harbor.

Whilst the crew made sure we left the harbor soundly, our expedition leader, Christophe, invited us back to the lounge for the Captain’s Cocktails, where we met our captain Ernesto Barria, and the expedition team. We celebrated our expedition with some bubbles and canapes before we all enjoyed our first dinner onboard!

We all filed down to the restaurant for a delicious buffet and an opportunity to meet some of our fellow travelers. Our day was not done yet! After dinner, we located the boot room and collected our rubber boots. We were another step closer to being able to start our off-ship activities.

The rest of the evening was spent enjoying our first evening cruise and the never-ending daylight before returning to our cabins to prepare for tomorrow’s adventure!

Today, we were awakened by a very gentle “good morning” from our expedition leader, Christophe. We had entered Kongsfjorden, the “King’s Fjord,” and first saw the majestic glaciers surrounding us. At the end of this 30km long fjord, we found ourselves in front of the towering front of Kronebreen, the “Crown Glacier,” our first stop for a zodiac cruise. But before starting our adventures outside, we had to attend our mandatory briefings. After breakfast, we headed to the lounge, where Christophe first talked about our Zodiac procedures and how to wear the life vest. He then proceeded with the polar bear safety briefing to make our landings as safe as possible for us and the polar bears. Eventually, we watched the AECO briefing, which gave us an overview of the dos and don’ts here in Svalbard.

Finally, we were ready to head out and board our Zodiacs. The sky cleared up, and we even got some sunshine while we were cruising through the brash ice, listening to the popping and crackling of the air bubbles released from within the ice. Our expedition guides took us all along the glacier front, where we observed several bird species and beautiful blue bergy bits.

It was then time to get back onboard Plancius for a delicious lunch prepared by our top chef, Khabir, and to reposition the ship to Ny-Ålesund, the international research station. We had to switch the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi settings off on all of our devices to not interfere with the research carried out on plate tectonics.

We were lucky enough to get a spot by the pier, so right after another – and finally our last – mandatory briefing, we were free to roam the northernmost permanent settlement in the world! We had enough time to explore the small but interesting town with its quaint souvenir shop and the interesting museum.

We then joined Paolo and Esther on a tour that took us back in time. They told us the story of the great explorer Roald Amundsen whose bust commemorates his visits to Ny-Ǻlesund in 1925 and 1926 when he set out to reach the North Pole. The first attempt was with two sea planes and even though this attempt failed, and the six men barely made it back alive, it only took a few months until Amundsen initiated the next attempt. This time they were going by airship. The Italian built and American financed airship “NORGE” departed from Ny-Ǻlesund on May 11, 1926, and overflew the North Pole in the early morning on May 12th. They landed in Taller, Alaska, on May 14th.

Full of admiration for these heroic Arctic explorers, we wandered back to the ship where we had some time to relax before our first recap. Paolo gave us a quick overview of the history of Svalbard and Christophe took the time to explain some maritime concepts and units to us.

It was then time for dinner, and after that we got to relax in the lounge with a drink to share impressions of our first day.

As we woke up to our expedition leader’s voice at 7:15 a.m., we had the impression that we had teleported to a completely different world than we had experienced yesterday. The main cause for this delusion was the weather—a heavy, dark mist enveloped the whole landscape, and rain drizzled continuously. This is how we were welcomed to Liefdefjorden, the beginning of which hosted a huge, complex glacier—Monacobreen. The plan for the morning was to cruise with Zodiacs along its mighty ice front.

After breakfast, we embarked on the Zodiacs and headed towards the glacier. It is a true monster; with an area of 400 km2, a length of 40 km, countless tributary glaciers merging into a single ice tongue, and an ice cliff width of ca. 5 km, it is one of the largest glaciers of its kind in Svalbard! Its name is related to Prince Albert I of Monaco, who initiated numerous research expeditions to Spitsbergen in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As we cruised towards the ice cliff, we sought the holy grail of the birding community, the ivory gull, and spotted it within the first 30 minutes of our cruise! This white gull is a rare sight as its favorite habitat is pack ice covering the Arctic Ocean, and its global population is estimated not to exceed 14 thousand pairs.

As the glacier roared from time to time, reminding us it’s a living being, we observed numerous marine birds typically observed in this region of the world—kittiwakes, glaucous gulls, and common guillemots. Monaco Glacier and the neighboring Seliger Glacier showed us some spectacular calving, causing huge fountains of water to splash for tens of meters. Even though the weather was suboptimal, we were happy to experience Svalbard’s different face and another close encounter with living ice.

We headed back to M/V Plancius for well-deserved hot teas and coffees and went straight for lunch. In the meantime, the ship repositioned some miles to the north, closer to our afternoon destination. This time we landed next to an original trapper cabin. The rumor has it that the trapper who built it was a huge fan of wild west movies, which would explain its name – Texas Bar. Inside you could find a considerable number of liquor bottles, apparently a must during longer stays at this place.

We were divided into three groups – the leisurely, medium and long hikers, all exploring the area at our own pace. The leisurely group strolled around the landing spot and photographed everything interesting, whereas the remaining groups made longer distances and focused on reaching high points to observe the area from a different perspective. Our expedition team introduced us to everything interesting they could spot – from stones and plants to glaciers and old fox traps. All of us enjoyed the first hike of the expedition, despite the drizzle we will long remember the cloud-shrouded landscape of northwest Spitsbergen.

Our expedition leader, Christophe, woke us up at 7.45 this morning, a little later than in the last days. It was 5 degrees Celsius outside and surrounding us was thick fog. After breakfast, however, it cleared up, and we could actually see the beginning of the pack ice. The Plancius slowly made her way through the first ice floes, and soon, we were in the middle of the pack ice. We were lucky to spot some bearded seals near the ship; we gathered on the outer decks to observe them in their natural habitat on the ice and capture some photos.

Many of us continued scouting for more wildlife on the ice. We were told to look for something yellowish when trying to spot a polar bear. Polar bears are not white but appear almost yellow against the ice. Many different bird species were observed, including northern fulmars, kittiwakes, guillemots, and an ivory gull.

Just before lunch, Jakub, our glaciologist, was about to start his lecture in the lounge about the future of ice when there was an announcement from the bridge that two bowhead whales were seen in the pack ice. We quickly grabbed our cameras and headed out on the decks. They were still far away, but it was possible to see them, especially with binoculars, and identify them as the rare high Arctic whale. Less than 100 live around Svalbard, so we felt privileged to spot them. Jakub’s lecture was postponed until the afternoon as we enjoyed the beauty outside on the decks. After lunch, we continued our search for the polar bear on ice, and eventually, Jakub could give us his fascinating talk about the future of the ice.

Later in the afternoon, we were invited onto the upper outer deck to enjoy some warm apple cider. As usual, we listened to the daily recap from Pierre, who discussed the bowhead whale, and Koen talked about the bearded seal. Christophe gave us an idea about the upcoming day, and we went for a delicious dinner soon afterward. There was another announcement that the team on the bridge had found two hooded seals on an ice floe. We were able to have a perfect view. As the Plancius slowly moved out of the sea ice, the sunlight was beautiful, hitting the clouds and sea.

The highest latitude we reached today was:

81*25.104”N

022* 48,280”E.

After a day in the pack ice, we made our way southwards overnight. This morning's destination was a unique and rarely visited place: Rossøya, the northernmost island in the archipelago of Sjuøyane (Seven Islands). This is also Norway's northernmost point, only 1024 km from the North Pole. It felt strangely mild for being at 80°N. Today's plan was a long Zodiac cruise around Rossøya followed by a 6.5km crossing to Tavleøya and the northern tip of Phippsøya; we cruised the best part of 23km in total. We looked for wildlife and found puffins, black guillemots, common guillemots, and a small colony of little auks. The weather was perfect, with no wind and mild temperature, but a 0.5m swell sometimes made the long ride bumpy. One day, we will look back at a map and realize how remote this location was.

Once back onboard the Plancius, we enjoyed our lunch as we gently cruised to our next destination, Isflakbukta, on the island of Phippsøya. We landed by a trapper's hut, and three hikes were organized: leisurely, medium, and long.

This island's main feature is the raised beaches caused by isostatic rebound, a geological feature only found in certain places. Here, large ice caps once pressed the earth's crust down with their weight, and once removed by melting and retreat, they left the crust to rise slowly again. This lifted the beaches over millenia, and now we can see some areas tenths of meters higher than the water level. The leisure and medium walks explored the lowlands of Isflakletta while the long hikers headed up a low mount at the foot of Høgberget. From this 123m promontory, the views north towards Eidsbukta, West to Horgvika, and back to the landing site were stunning, and those taking the energetic walk were well rewarded. A five-minute silence was taken, and we could hear the wind whispering and the birds' distant calls. We could see a small flock of eider ducks bathing in the sea from above.

On our way back down to the landing site, Cristophe radioed to say he had observed a walrus climbing onto the beach; some of us were lucky enough to witness this spectacular sight. After returning to Plancius, Captain Ernesto Barria took us past a small rocky island west of Parryøya, where dozens of walruses were hauled out. There were females, calves, and juveniles. We gave them plenty of distance, ensuring they were undisturbed, but we could see them clearly, some even approaching closer to look at us. It was a perfect ending to our long day of activities. We then began sailing south for the second half of our journey. Alkefjellet awaits us tomorrow; well, that is, ‘Plan A’ weather permitting. We feel the next few days will be very special with wildlife.

Today was absolutely action packed!

We had been at anchor for much of the night, but in the early morning, the engine was started, and the anchor heaved. We woke up in Hinlopen strait, and our outing this morning was a Zodiac cruise along the bird cliffs of Alkefjellet. The original name of this place was 'Mount Guillemot,' for obvious reasons! About 65.000 breeding pairs of Brünnich's Guillemots use this dolerite intrusion to lay their cone-shaped egg on narrow ledges. Both parents sit for 32 days and feed the chick for three weeks, until the day arrives when it has to jump down from the cliff. The birds have found a natural fortress on these cliffs to help defend against predators. The rocky columns in the northern part of the cliff resemble skyscrapers, making the entire bird colony somewhat of a vivid city where everyone is busy and noisy, as guillemots seem to rush to their everyday duties. Cruising among the clouds of birds flying above our heads was an experience to remember. As we continued our cruise along the base of the cliff, we saw a polar fox at its end! It was scavenging just at the shoreline, from time to time, hiding between angular boulders deposited at the foot of the mountain. Our Zodiacs had fantastic photographic opportunities – the fox was posing like it knew it was his five minutes of fame. We then said farewell to the fox and continued our cruise towards the north, where soon afterward, we faced a spectacular glacier steeply descending from the highlands down to the sea. Around 11 AM, we headed back to the ship, where a well-prepared lunch was soon served. Under good weather, Alkefjellet had a memorable experience, which was one of the expedition's highlights!

After lunch, Plancius turned south. Since we have yet to spot a polar bear, our expedition leader Christophe and captain Ernesto decided to explore a group of small rocky islands further south in the Hinlopen strait with hopes of showing us the king of the Arctic. The bridge and expedition teams scanned the area with binoculars, and their efforts were almost immediately rewarded - they found a polar bear just six kilometers from the Guillemot mountain! We rushed to the outside decks with binoculars and the longest lenses to capture this magnificent animal. It was peacefully sleeping on top of a rocky island, Tomellen, raising its head occasionally. We were all very excited when Christophe announced at 1:15 PM that we would drop all zodiacs so we could get a little closer! It took a little while to get to the animal as all the Zodiacs moved slowly together as a raft. As we did not want to disturb its siesta, we stayed at a safe distance and remained as quiet as possible. What a spectacle it was! At some point, our sleeping bear stood up, demonstrated its healthy-looking profile, and looked somewhere over the horizon as if it posed for photographs. At this moment, we knew that this might be the opportunity we came here for – to take a dream picture of their royal majesty, and most of us did. And then, to make this day even more special, we saw a minke whale nearby! We left the bear alone and undisturbed. We continued a bit further south in the zodiacs to briefly peek into a glacier bay of Tomellbreen. This five-kilometer-wide glacier has recently retreated from the sea to the land. That was the end point of our beautiful cruise, another highlight of our expedition!

At about 4 PM, we returned to the ship and gathered in the lounge at 6 PM for a recap. This evening's dinner was unlike any previous one. Plancius is anchored in the bay of Tomellbreen for a polar BBQ on the outside decks! We ate and danced until late, celebrating perhaps the best day of our voyage so far!

“This too shall pass” is used to give us strength and resilience when the going gets tough and reminds us that the bad times will not last forever. The phrase is also used as a reminder to enjoy the good times fully because these also won’t last forever. This was the case for us and the end of clear sunny skies. This morning, we woke up to thick fog, and visibility was heavily reduced. As Paolo will later explain, fog forms when a parcel of air is cooled down to its dew point by moving over a cold surface. In this case, mild, southerly winds run for thousands of miles of the North Atlantic, collecting moisture as they move and suddenly cooling in the colder sea temperatures around Svalbard. Our plans to land in Torellnesset have been put on hold; we were anchored not too far from the coast but could not see anything. We waited for conditions to improve slightly, and Christophe and Pierre headed out scouting on a zodiac to see the actual visibility at sea level and closer to shore around the walrus colony.

They came back with great news. The visibility by the coast and at sea level was better. Ultimately, the expedition team organized a zodiac cruise in waves, leaving half of the guests onboard and taking turns visiting the walruses. It was an effective use of the limited, safe options available. We could not land in these conditions for the risk of encountering a polar bear, but visibility was good enough to let us view the walruses from the water.

Once everybody was back onboard, we sailed to our next destination; we knew the chances of a fog-free afternoon were extremely low, but still. Capt. Barria and his bridge team took us to the largest glacier front in Svalbard and one of the largest in the world, the Brasvellbreen. Unfortunately, the visibility did not improve; we were at the minimum possible safe distance from the glacier front thanks to the radar and instruments on the bridge, yet we could not see it. We could hear the waves crashing against its ice wall, but without being able to see it. As we sail along the glacier front, we enter an area with giant icebergs and bergy bits while having a 2.5m swell. There was no wind, and the sea was smooth, but the swell made navigation between the icebergs very demanding for the bridge team. They showed off their seamanship during such ice navigations; it was impressive to witness.

In the afternoon, we also enjoyed a detailed lecture on the polar bear. We had the opportunity to learn about this protected species' biology, taxonomy, habitat, reproduction, and past and current status. We also learned of the expedition leader Christophe's firsthand encounters with this animal and his 20 years of experience guiding in and around apex predator territories.

Overall, it was a day well-traveled by all, making the absolute best of adverse weather conditions.

As usual, our expedition leader, Christophe, woke us up at 7.15 am; it was 5 degrees Celsius outside. We were positively surprised by the view because we could see land and no more fog surrounding us. Soon after breakfast, we prepared to go on land, visiting a site called Kapp Waldburg on the island of Barentsøya. The landscape looked very interesting; there was a large area of tundra in the foreground and a canyon with a ridge in the background, and in between, some more canyons were visible. We arrived with the zodiacs at our landing beach, and Christophe organized us into three groups to visit a kittiwake colony that was nestled on the steep canyon walls ahead of us. On our walk there, we encountered some Svalbard reindeer grazing on the tundra and some nice creeks coming down from the canyons. We had already observed that a wall of fog was gradually coming in. However, we still managed to reach our main attraction point: the kittiwake colony. Very soon after arriving at the kittiwakes unfortunately our operation had to be cancelled because the fog was too thick and visibility was poor, so Christophe called us back to the landing site where we jumped back into the Zodiacs returning to Plancius once more.

Back onboard, Esther entertained us with a lecture about the history of whaling in Svalbard. After that, we had lunch, and just as we finished, we heard an announcement from Christophe that we must get dressed quickly because a polar bear had been spotted from the bridge, walking along the beach of our next landing site, Kapp Lee, on the island of Edgeøya. Hence, we jumped into the Zodiacs, and there we were: suddenly in the vicinity of a polar bear. All the Zodiacs stayed together, and Christophe assessed the situation. The bear was walking along the beach, sniffing and looking for something to eat. He took a short break but decided to keep on searching. Once the bear arrived at the shore, he played with some kelp, chewing it in a very photogenic way.

Then the bear got slightly too curious about us and decided to enter the water and swim towards us. That was the moment for us to leave the bear and move on to another bear at the other end of that beach, resting up on a hill. When we arrived with the Zodiacs, we saw some reindeer grazing close to the polar bear, but neither species seemed interested in each other. So, we continued to observe the walruses which were hauled out together. We did some Zodiac carousels so everyone could view the walrus well without disturbance. When we decided to leave them, we took another look with the zodiacs to the other side of the island, but there was nothing else to see. So, Christophe decided to have another last look in the bay by the walrus, and it turned out that the bear was descending from his sleeping spot on the hill towards the shore. He took a good look at us, and we at him, but soon after, he decided to go up again and rest.

In the meantime, two walruses appeared in the water, and we observed them for a while. Happy and excited, we returned to the ship and had a lot of great stories to exchange and photos to look at. We enjoyed happy hour in the lounge and an excellent recap from Esther about the plants of Svalbard and Emily about the reindeer. Our Expedition leader briefed us about the next day's plans, and he eventually confirmed that the two bears we had seen were both males. We enjoyed another delicious dinner in the restaurant and went to bed feeling very content with the day.

Rounding the southernmost point of Spitsbergen, we entered the majestic Hornsund this morning. Thick fog benches covered many small bays along the approximately 30km long fjord. Our initial plan was to visit Gåshamna, but Christophe took us to Hyrneodden instead since the visibility there seemed very poor. Once we arrived on land, the fog slowly lifted, and the incredible panorama surrounding us opened. Like every time, we got to choose between three different hiking options on land.

The more arduous tour was accompanied by Pierre and Paolo and consisted of a steep uphill hike that led us to a point with the best views over the bay. The medium hike with Emily, Jakub, and Andi, got to see some Arctic skuas and took a closer look at permafrost stone patterns while enjoying a nice panorama of the nearby glacier. Today, the leisurely stroll was very popular, and many of us just wanted to take our time to soak up the stunning landscape around us. As usual, the walk was guided by Christophe, additionally, we had Esther and Koen, who kept us safe and told us a lot of interesting stories about the vegetation in this area and the “breathing cycle” of the earth, how small patches of moss push away even large rocks when the water that they contain freezes in winter and therewith expands. We learned that we found ourselves in the high-arctic zone here, the so-called “Svalbard Poppy zone.” Even though this vegetation zone is named after this hardy little flower, they are difficult to find; after a good scan of the area, we finally found a couple of fine specimens. Besides this iconic plant, we even discovered tiny Polar Willows, miniature trees creeping over the ground.

We all returned to the landing site after our walks to witness a truly spectacular sight: The Polar Plunge! The brave passengers among us stepped outside their comfort zone, removed their warm layers of clothing, and ran into the ice-cold fjord! Many of us stayed ashore to watch the show.

After all the swimmers had embraced the elements, we returned to the comfort of our dear Plancius, where a hot shower and a delicious lunch awaited us.

In the afternoon, we went out on our Zodiacs for the last time on this journey, which took us all around Spitsbergen, the largest island of Svalbard. On our small boats, we circumnavigated large icebergs and stopped in front of the towering mountain walls surrounding Vestre Burgerbukta. We learned more about the fascinating geology of this place and why the waterfalls here are red, due to the iron oxide in the rocks gets washed out with the water. We advanced to the end of the bay, where we reached the beautiful glacier Paierlbreen. Many of the place names here actually have Austrian origin, as the fjord was first mapped on an expedition led by Count Hans Wilczek in 1872. Some names are derived from members of his expeditions, others from friends and family, such as Luciakammen and Mariekammen, after Wilczek’s two daughters.

In front of the majestic glacier, we enjoyed the Arctic silence one last time before we made our way back to the ship. There, we shortly met the crew of the Sysselmester, the Governor of Svalbard, who regularly checks whether the expedition ships have all of their correct paperwork and are abiding by the rules. We passed without problems!

The evening program for this last day of our incredible tour consisted of a glass of prosecco for most of us and some beautiful speeches by Captain Ernesto and Christophe. As a beautiful memory for us to take home, Koen prepared a video full of memories of our voyage that we watched all together! Many of us had tears in our eyes. We enjoyed our last dinner together before we packed our bags and started preparing for our journey home.

All too soon we arrived back in Longyearbyen and it was time to say our goodbyes. The staff and crew took care of our luggage, placing it carefully on the dock. We had our last breakfast aboard Plancius then gathered the last of our things and headed for the gangway. We said goodbye to the whole team onboard and alighted the bus waiting for us to start the long journey home or to our next adventure.

Thank you for your enthusiasm and support, but most of all for joining us on this exploratory North Atlantic voyage. We hope to see you again in the future, wherever that might be!

Total distance sailed: 1,157 nautical miles

Farthest north: 81°25’N

On behalf of Oceanwide Expeditions, Captain Ernesto Barria, Expedition Leader Christophe Bouchoux, Hotel Manager Oleksandr Lyebyedyev, and all the crew and staff of M/V Plancius, it has been a pleasure travelling with you!