09/08/2009, S/Y Best Explorer - Svalbard tour 2009
The now usual drizzle and very overcast sky with low clouds was present in the morning and followed us the whole day yesterday Saturday, 8 August. Two harbour seals were hauled out and a third, young little seal, porpoised around for a while before joining the two others. A little aluminum boat, a Buster XL with 3 persons onboard all dressed in survival suits stopped by for a rest and a bite on land. The owner of the boat, a guy that works as a technician on ground for Wideroe in Troms=F8 as we learned from him, sailed his boat up to ours as we were lifting anchor (and cleaning the chain, again) to exchange a few words. We discussed the weather forecast as they were also sailing to Ny Aalesund today and later to Longyear. They had been on a boat camping trip to Norske- and Danskeoeyane (quite a holiday if you ask me!) and now they would return to Longyear where they would again leave the boat until next year's trip. This is also a way to tour Svalbard from the sea :) As we motored out of the bay another seal showed its cute face and during the whole 35 and something miles of the trip we saw a couple of other seals probably bearded (at least one was for sure a bearded seal in Signehamna right by the boat). Two minke whales also surfaced quite close to us: one just out and one just in from Cape Mitra at the entrance of Kings Bay (Kongsfjord). Two currents, two different water colours: one turquoise and one lead blue, met each other by Cape Mitra. The turquoise one smelled very strongly of freshwater, a little like an alpine lake, and the other was more like the open sea. Fulmars, kittiwakes, guillemots and puffins were aligned along the border of the two waters and followed the whirls and waves in its shape. Further into Krossfjord we begun to see ice blocks and small icebergs and the guillemots were often followed by their chicks in the water, like miniatures of the adults. Signehamna was strewn with the same ice bocks as the main fjord but we found a good anchoring spot by the northern side of the central peninsula. The ground was shallow enough to bar access to this part of the bay of the bigger bergs that would trouble our sleep. Léo by now is a really experienced sailor, he walks around just as wobbly as any of us when the boat is sailing and would like to climb the companionway's ladder at any occasion. Wind and waves do not trouble his activities in the least. He can open all the storage chests with ease, especially the one that contain biscuits and the one with electrical spares, and knows how to reach the top of the chart table and all the buttons on the instruments and the electrical table. Not even a little fever caused by his new budding teeth diminishes his good humor and appetite, he just sleeps a little more than usual during the day. Today, Sunday 9 August the weather is a little drier and the clouds are higher and let us see most of the mountainsides. The little peninsula in the middle of the bay has a stand and a sign on its top, probably at the site of the German WWII weather stations "Knospe" and "Nussbaum" that were active in 1941-42. We plan to explore this fjord system and anchor in Ny London for the next night before proceeding our journey southwards.
|
Comments [0]
08/08/2009, S/Y Best Explorer - Svalbard tour 2009
Yesterday, leaving Vulkanhamna we had to spend time cleaning the anchor chain from the reddish mud that formed a uniform coating hiding even the shape of the links! We used the motor pump and sea water and a good deal of muscle power and at the end we managed to take away most of it. All the way out of Woodfjord the sea was a mirror and in spite of the overcast day presented the complete panorama of the area. Reinsdyrflya on the northeast, flat and uniform, the straight east coast with its mighty mountains, the reddish peaks around Bockfjord and the islands at the mouth of Liefdefjord. Noorderlicht was at anchor by Andoeyane, Nordsyssel was coming in from the north. There were bearded and ringed seals, minke and fin whales all around (we even saw a small minke that could very well have been the same one from the previous day). It was all in all a very appropriate goodbye to this area now that we unfortunately have to head south again. Again in calm weather we had to motor all the way to Hamburgbukta, but the 1 to 1.5kn of current this time were in our favour and we made good speed. At Sallyhamna we spotted Southern Star at anchor by the western branch of Holmiabreen. The dead minke whale that we had seen in Magdalenefjord was now aground in the bay even more bloated than last week. Olivier told us that they had observed a polar bear by the carcass and that the bear had run away when a black zodiac from one of the expedition cruisers had zipped by at full speed trying to spot it. While still chatting with Olivier the two small Norwegian motor cruisers that had spent the night with us at Mushamna arrived and anchored 30m from the dead whale. We wondered if they had actually noticed the cadaver! Olivier commented that he had never seen so many private boats as this year and that these were the first small motor boats that he had ever seen in this part of the world. Thick drizzle dominated the rest of the way to Hamburgbukta where we cast anchor in the early hours of today. At the moment we have just left the bay and the harbour seals and we are motoring south in the same drizzle and headwind as earlier. It looks like this tour would have been just as noisy if made in a motor boat!
|
06/08/2009, S/Y Best Explorer - Svalbard tour 2009
Thursday 6 August. Left Holbaekpollen after a lazy morning and a hearty lunch. Heading east along the red-rock coast of Germaniahalvoeya. We saw two beardes seals, one of which an adult with its characteristic red face by Maakeoeyane. Shortly later, just around Roosneset into Woodfjord a "white stone" turned out to be a sleeping polar bear, our fourth this tour. Nanni brought the boat as close as reasonable to the coastline and we watched as the animal lazily looked at us, rolled over, scratched its back on the ground got up and walked a few steps over to another spot a few meters away from where it watched us as much as we watched him. It actually looked like he had a larger than normal belly. In any case it was another great observation of this species. But the observations were not finished for the day as Nanni spotted a very small minke whale on relatively shallow water shortly after. We were lucky and the whale surfaced twice quite close to the bow from which we can confirm it was a very young animal of probably 5-6 meters. We approached Bockfjord in a fantastic light that set the mountains on the East on fire and ehnanced the contrast between these and the ones on the opposite shore. Sverrefjell, the ancient volcano with its warm water sources, was very visible in the middle and now is just across from Vulkanhamna, the gulf where we cast anchor and will spend the night.
|
