LOG BOOK

LOG BOOK
Svalbard, June 22 – June 26, 2012
Map of Svalbard with possible landing locations. In the log book you will find numbers on the sections. Those numbers refer to the locations
on this map.
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JUNE 22
LONGYEARBYEN
7810’N, 01520’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 1906. 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. 2000
people. Today mining, science and tourism comprises
three major business fields.
After a guided tour in the settlement and a visit to the
Svalbard Museum and the Gallery 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 Colesbay.
BARENTSBURG
78°00’N, 014°00’E
4
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
1932. 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.
MS Nordstjernen sailed out of Isfjorden at midnight
and passed the island of Prins Karls Forland on our
way north to many anticipated adventures.
JUNE 23
MAGDALENEFJORDEN
79 30' N, 010 30' E
50
This is one of the most well-known fiords in Svalbard
and also one of the few places where large cruise ships
are able to anchor. It is a small fjord surrounded by
cathedral like mountains and glaciers that fall into the
sea. These is what met Wilhelm Barents when he
discovered Svalbard in 1596 and hence he gave the
name Spitsbergen (Peaky Mountains) to the new
discovered land. Entering the fjord, 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 Dutch whalers from NW Spitsbergen
came to bury their dead in the 17th and 18th century.
Stone-gatherings and wooden-coffins remain from the
graves and there are hundreds of them. Down on the
beach are remaining from two blubber-ovens where
whale blubber was boiled. Towards the end of the
beach lies a small cabin where Sysselmannen has two
field inspectors accommodated.
During night we had some waves, but as we entered
Magdalenefjord the sea became calmer. After having
enjoyed breakfast we landed on the peninsula
Gravneset in 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 three 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. The ground was
still partly covered with snow and we could see some
polar bear tracks going in different directions. On the
other side of the peninsula we enjoyed a nice panorama
and also saw two walruses playing in the water. Before
we tendered back to the MS Nordstjernen the bravest
(and youngest!) amongst us went for a swim. The
water holds a temperature of approximately 4 degrees!
Well back on the ship we could enjoy the last view of
this scenic fiord with the Waggonway glacier at the
head of it before we headed north.
BJØRNEFJORDEN
SMEERENBURGBREEN
79°30’N, 11°30’E
from the barbecue. Ralf‟s accordion playing created a
cosy atmosphere along this northern shore of Svalbard.
JUNE 24
After lunch the ship navigated through Sørgattet at the
northwest corner of Spitsbergen, a narrow passage, and
into
Smeerenburgfjorden.
The
name
Smeerenburgfjorden was introduced by Nordenskiöld.
Smeer means speck/blubber hence the name translates
into the fiord of blubber. The Dutch had a great
whaling station on Amsterdamøya, at the north western
part of the fiord, between 1617 and 1642.
BOCKFJORDEN
79º30’N, 13º00’E
40
The inner part of Smeerenburgfjorden is called
Bjørnefjorden (bear fiord) where Smeerenburgbreen
(translated into „the blubber town glacier‟) debouches
into the head of the fiord.
This is a beautiful glacier surrounded by jagged
mountains. The front is up to 30 metres high and is
very varied in its shape.
We entered the tender boats and had a tender boat
cruise in front of the glacier. In the bay in front of the
glacier there was ice coming from the calving of the
glacier. Two bearded seals were lying on ice floes,
sunbathing.
Back on the ship our guide Ralf played melancholic
tunes with the accordion on the aft deck.
RAUDFJORDEN
79º45’N, 12º16’E
43
Bockfjorden is located between Liefdefjorden and
Woodfjorden. The mountains in Bockfjorden are quite
spectacular. On one side of the fiord one can see „Hecla
Hoek‟ formations, the oldest mountain formations
(1000 million years old) consisting of granites and
gneiss. On the opposite side of the fiord the mountains
are red from the time when all the continents were
merged together and formed the continent Pangaea
(350 million years). The central parts of this continent
was a red coloured desert (from iron oxide), and it is
believed that there has 25 kilometres deep deposits of
sand in river deltas and lakes. These deposits are today
the red mountains in Bockfjorden. When Svalbard and
Greenland collided some 50 million years ago there
was a folding creating mountain ranges up to 5000
meters high, but also creating geological fault zones
where the earth‟s crust is not more than 20 kilometres
thick. In these weak zones, going in north – south
direction, there has been volcanic activity, last time
about 1 million years ago, in Sverrefjellet.
The remains of this activity are “hot spots” where
water comes up to the surface, and some of these hot
spots are in Bockfjorden. The water in the small ponds
holds app 11 degrees (further south, in Hornsund, the
temperature is app. 4 degrees).
The area around the springs (in Bockfjorden) is covered
by so-called “evaporates” – minerals like chalk etc. which are precipitated from the temperate water when
it is cooled off by the atmosphere.
Raudfjorden is the westernmost fjord on the north coast
of Spitsbergen. Several glaciers calve into this fjord
and it‟s often filled with ice from the glaciers.
Raudfjorden means “Red Fjord” and is named so due
to its abundant red rocks in the region. The adjacent
Devonian sandstones (app. 300-400 mill years ago)
when Svalbard was a desert at 30ºN.
After dinner we went ashore at a protected bay called
Alicehamna at Raudfjorden to celebrate midsummer
night. We made a fire at the beach and had a sausage
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The landing in Bockfjord got cancelled due to wind
and waves, but instead the guides talked about geology
onboard.
LIEFDEFJORDEN
MONACOBREEN
79 20`N, 012°30’E
42
Austfjordneset. The stations are today closed in
anticipation of new and modernised regulations
regarding trapping. Overwintering trapping in the 21st
century is by far like it was fifty years ago. The
purpose of the stations is to give people with the right
experience and the interest the possibility to spend up
to two years trapping in the Arctic. The trapper hunting
activities mainly focus on game such as foxes, seals,
geese and reindeer. The running of these stations also
keeps a long trapping tradition in Svalbard alive; a
connection between the past and the present.
In addition to Mushamna and Austfjordneset there are
today three private trapping stations, all on the west
coast of Spitsbergen.
After having visited Moffen we headed south into
Liefdefjorden (Dutch for the Fjord of Love). The fjord
is spectacular with many smaller islands scattered
along the coastline and the mountains rising on both
sides. At the head of the fiord is Monacobreen.
The terrain along the coast was still partly snow
covered since winter and hence it was possible to see
tracks of both polar bear and reindeer as we navigated
further into the fiord.
We stopped for a while to enjoy the scenery.
The rest of the evening the ship navigated at the mouth
of Woodfjorden and continued its journey in northerly
direction towards Moffen.
MOFFEN
80°00’N, 014°26’E
38
The Monaco glacier is thirty-eight kilometres long and
about five kilometres broad. The glacier is named after
Albert Honorè Charles (Albert I), prince of Monaco,
who financed several scientific expeditions to this area.
On our way out of the fjord we discovered a polar bear
at the beach. Many of us went out on the front deck
where we had a nice view of the bear.
WOODFJORDEN
MUSHAMNA
7930’N, 14ºE
39
During lunch the ship navigated north to Woodfjorden
and along the eastern side of the fiord to a bay called
Mushamna. In Mushamna there is a trapper‟s station,
also called Mushamna. The station was built by Reidar
Hovelsrud in the mid eighties and he used it for
overwintering trapping. The main cabin of the station is
beautifully made. The most recent addition to the
station is a sauna.
When he left, the Governor of Svalbard took over the
station. Today it is one of two trappers‟ stations run by
the Governor. The other is in Widjefjorden, called
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The island of Moffen is a peculiar ring-shaped atoll of
about 4,5 km² and consists of sand and gravel. It is
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 it is a popular haul-out place for walruses. The
walruses are social animals and enjoy lying together in
groups and enjoy the sun. The walruses 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 Sabines Gull is regularly spotted.
The name “Moffen” is originally Dutch and has its
origin from the whale hunting period. It refers to 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 champagne. Interesting to think
that between the North Pole and us on the ship there
was probably nobody else!
25 JUNE
NY ÅLESUND
7850’N, 1130’E
57
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'. The airship flew over the North
Pole as planned and landed in Teller, Alaska. In 1928
Umberto Nobile was back with the airship 'Italia'. The
airship crashed on the pack ice northeast of the second
largest island of the Svalbard archipelago and the
biggest rescue operation in the Arctic until today took
place, also from Ny Ålesund. More than 1 700 people
and 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.
When everyone was back onboard, MS Nordstjernen
sailed out of Kongsfjord and into Krossfjorden.
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 1610. Another three hundred years
were to pass before commercial exploitation on the
coal deposits started.
14. JULIBREEN
7908’N, 1150’E
54
Ny Ålesund was a coal mining settlement 1917 – 1962.
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 2000. 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
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On the north side in the bay of the „14th of july’ –
breen (The 14th July Glacier) below a bird cliff, there is
a slope filled with flowers of all kinds. This spot is
nameless, but we call it the „Hall of Silence‟. This
unique place surrounded with grass and moss some 60
meters up from the beach is normally filled with the
ear-deafening sound of the birds from the large bird
cliff above. However, if you walk towards the „Hall of
silence‟ the sound from the birds will suddenly stop!
It‟s somehow bizarre: One step out from the wall you
hear everything – one step towards the wall and it is
completely quiet. On the cliffs we could see nesting
kittiwakes, guillemots and glaucus gulls, and there
were also three Svalbard reindeers on top of the cliff. It
was nice to follow the beach east towards the glacier.
There we were picked up by our tendering boats.
FAREWELL GATHERING
In the evening we gathered with the ship‟s crew and
the guides for a farewell „ceremony‟. Certificates were
handed out for passing the 80ºN latitude, and the true
heroes among us received certificates proving that they
took a swim in the chilly arctic water! Clean-UpSvalbard pins were also handed out to those who
deserved it. During the evening we will sail southwards
and reach Longyearbyen and that is the end of the
Svalbard summer adventure for this time.
Are you sad to leave Svalbard? Are you curious about
what it is like in the winter? Grab a copy of our
catalogue or visit www.spitsbergentravel.com. We
hope to see you back again for another arctic
adventure.
The ship‟s crew, the guide team and Spitsbergen Travel
wish you a safe and pleasant journey back home.
Best regards,
Cruise guides; Heiko, Silje, Ralf, Stephane, Susanne
and Stine.
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