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NorthWeGo
  • Paul Spaas
  • Paul Spaas

NorthWeGo

Svalbard, Greenland and Iceland trip En savoir plus
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  • Début du voyage
    9 juillet 2024
  • Paul SpaasNorthWeGoVoyageur

    Venture Longyearbayen 1

    11 juillet 2024, Svalbard et Jan Mayen ⋅ ☁️ 6 °C

    Joining the ship today, full of new experiences !

    I copied the Voyage Tracker text of the vessel, a narrative from the ship's expedition team.

    Today, Seabourn Venture was docked at the port of Longyearbyen for the entire day, presenting a unique opportunity for guests to explore this remote town, the northernmost inhabited place on earth. For those continuing from the previous voyage, it was a chance to delve deeper into this unique destination. Meanwhile, departing guests savored their final onboard experiences, and new guests were warmly welcomed into the Seabourn family.

    As Longyearbyen is one of those hard-to-reach places on Earth, many guests spent at least part of their day touring the community and visiting the museum to maximize their Arctic experience.

    The Svalbard Museum hosts a fantastic display of information that defines Svalbard's history, including its natural and human history, from the whalers, trappers, and miners to today's focus on ecotourism. Coal mining put Longyearbyen on the map, giving the settlement its name, reputation, people, and culture. John Munro Longyear, the American businessman who founded Longyearbyen, first visited the archipelago as a tourist. Today, Longyearbyen, the capital of Svalbard, is a place of active science and research through the activities of the University Center in Svalbard and the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.

    The first tourists arrived at Spitsbergen in the middle 19th century. They came with a different perspective than Seabourn Venture's guests arriving today. Svalbard's first tourists were here looking for hunting trophies; most probably had already shot an elephant in Africa or a tiger in Asia. They dreamed of taking a polar bear skin back home, and this is what they did. Not only polar bears but also Arctic foxes, seals, walruses, and reindeer. It wasn't only whales that commercial hunters and trappers threatened: this early inauspicious tourism was also a factor. One such famous trophy hunter to visit Svalbard was Sir James Lamont, an amateur explorer who named Lamontbukta and Lamontoya on the west side of Spitsbergen Island after himself.

    Once all guests were on board and checked in, Seabourn Venture began the new voyage, sailing south away from Longyearbyen while music filled the air at the Constellation Lounge. It was a relaxing moment for those guests who had joined the ship today after long travels to reach the ship and the start of their expedition on board Seabourn Venture.

    Text by Andrés Fernández, photos by Matthew Costa, Jean Paul Perret and Andres Fernandez.    En savoir plus

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  • Paul SpaasNorthWeGoVoyageur

    Gashamna

    12 juillet 2024, Svalbard et Jan Mayen ⋅ 🌧 4 °C

    Seabourn Venture sailed south throughout the evening towards Hornsund. When guests awoke, the ship was blanketed in a thick layer of mist, which remained for most of the morning. Mystery seeped into every crevice in the ship, and only occasional glimpses of the landscape could be seen by those who were looking.

    As the mountains revealed themselves, the ship became a flurry of activity as the Expedition Team prepared guests for the upcoming adventures. Gear was handed out, biosecurity screenings prevailed, and staff and the Arctic were aptly introduced.

    The plan for the day was to land at Gashamna, a small bay to the south of Hornsund. Unfortunately, with the inclement weather came unfavorable landing conditions: a strong wind and long fetch in the bay meant it would have been unsafe for guests to land on shore. Nonetheless, embodying the true spirit of expedition, a new plan was conjured up. Fortunately, in fjord systems, finding refuge from prevailing winds is relatively straightforward.    En savoir plus

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  • Paul SpaasNorthWeGoVoyageur

    Burgerbukta west

    12 juillet 2024, Svalbard et Jan Mayen ⋅ 🌧 4 °C

    Burgerbukta is a textbook example of a glacially carved U-shaped valley. To the north, the Pajerlbreen glacier descends from the steep mountains and feeds directly into the murky ocean. Pajerlbreen has been monitored closely, and in the last 24 years, it has retreated around three kilometres. This was roughly the same distance as Seabourn Venture was to the glacier face-an unfathomable thought!

    The Expedition Team took guests out in the Zodiacs, cruising from the east side of the fjord towards the glacier and witnessing some fantastic geological formations. The rocks date from the Devonian to the early Triassic period, meaning they have seen the evolution of fish, trees, reptiles and early mammals.

    As well as rocks and ice, there was also wildlife. Common Guillemots, or as the Americans refer to them, Common Murres, dotted the waters. This species can dive to extraordinary depths to hunt for food, sometimes as deep as 180 metres. A flock of opportunistic Black-legged Kittiwakes crowded around the wash of the ship's thrusters, taking their daily pickings from the upwelling waters. Among them was a Glaucous Gull and some Northern Fulmars.

    The final surprise came at the end of the Zodiac cruise when a pod of beluga whales stealthily made their way across the western edge of the fjord. A few lucky guests could see them from the decks and balconies

    Text by Sabine Henry, photos by Sabine Henry and Alexander Nemeth.    En savoir plus

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  • Paul SpaasNorthWeGoVoyageur

    Recherchefjord / Rubypynten

    13 juillet 2024, Svalbard et Jan Mayen ⋅ 🌫 3 °C

    Today, Seabourn Venture had a full day of activities, with two landings at sites on the southern end of Svalbard. The first, Rubypynten, offered views of the beautiful Rechercherbreen, a towering glacier surrounded by steep mountains. The second, Bamsebu at Ingebrigtsenbukta, is a historic site used by whalers during the period of exploitation of Svalbard's wildlife.

    Rubypynten, located within Rechercherfjorden on the south side of Bellsund, is a definitive highlight of Svalbard's south. Willem Barentsz and the crew aboard De Witte Swaen are credited as the first to set eyes upon the archipelago, originally naming Bellsund Inwyck, simply meaning 'inlet'. The area was later named by Jonas Poole, a British explorer, sealer and whaler. Due to the abundance of whales there, it subsequently became of great interest to whalers from the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The two nations disputed the region, with the British appropriating the land and its whaling station in 1616.

    Rechercherfjorden is a stunning fjord between two high mountain ranges that reach heights of over 500m. Upon arrival at the landing site, the Expedition Team marked a straight route across the flat terrain, culminating at the glacial lake. The walk was undemanding and easily completed, with wildlife present throughout the morning.

    An Arctic fox slinked through the region and caught the eye of many of the bear guards, who witnessed a flash of movement across the flat ground. Reindeer grazed the whole day along the eastern banks while various bird species were documented, and even a lonely walrus swam close to the ship.

    The walking tour of the glacier allowed each guest the freedom to explore independently and become fascinated with particular things that caught their attention. In some cases, this was the distinctive glacial moraines and the deep crevasses atop the glacier's surface; for others, it was the brilliant blue that emanated from within or the landscape as a whole.    En savoir plus

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  • Paul SpaasNorthWeGoVoyageur

    Bamsebu

    13 juillet 2024, Svalbard et Jan Mayen ⋅ ☁️ 5 °C

    The afternoon at Ingebrigtsenbukta, also known as Bamsebu, highlighted the historic human presence on Svalbard. Upon landing, the most startling and apparent feature was the many mounds of bones belonging to beluga. Beluga, now protected in Svalbard, have a long history of exploitation across the Arctic for subsistence and commercial reasons. They were the sole target of Norwegian whalers from the 1930s at Bamsebu until the early 1960s.

    The whaling station at Bamsebu is unique, as it is the only remaining example of a targeted beluga station. Initially established by Ingvald Svendsen, it was responsible for the thousands of bones that now litter the beach. In 1977, scientists estimated that the bones originated from 550 individuals. The total number of belugas taken during the station's operation is unknown but presumed to be more than 15,000.

    The wooden hut, Bamsebu, for which the site is named, was constructed by the whalers and is still used today. Its most famous recent occupants were Hilde Fålun Strøm and Sunniva Sorby, two citizen scientists who occupied the cabin from May to November 2020, collecting data on climate change. While the whaling station was still active, the hut served as a living quarters for the staff. The rowboats that now lie overturned on the beach would have been used to cast huge seine nets into the bay and tow entangled beluga ashore, where they met their end with a blow from a lance or rifle shot. Besides the main cabin, an upturned rowing boat named Kjeftausa was converted into a storage hut.

    Guests enjoyed an hour ashore, wandering the beach and inspecting the cabin. Its specialised polar bear protection includes sharp nails that protrude outwards to help ward off any curious creatures. It is always a strange feeling when visiting such sites. The sombre atmosphere where hundreds of incredible creatures lost their lives can still be felt and provokes a genuine feeling of sadness. However, the exploitation and commercialisation of such hunts form an integral part of the region's history and provide a fascinating insight into the lives of the men and women looking to make their fortunes in these distant shores.

    Text by Mike Smith, photos by John Shedwick.    En savoir plus

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  • Paul SpaasNorthWeGoVoyageur

    Smeerenburg

    14 juillet 2024, Svalbard et Jan Mayen ⋅ ☁️ 4 °C

    The 'High Arctic City of Dreams' was how Smeerenburg, on Amsterdamøya (Amsterdam Island), was promoted in the early seventeenth century, although the literal meaning of the word should have given pause for second thoughts. "Blubbertown" was a serious clue to the actual function of this remote settlement. A mere 200 souls resided in an establishment of shacks and shanties as opposed to the 20,000 who populated the fantasy metropolis of persuasive recruitment advertisements posted around the North Sea ports of Elizabethan Holland.

    Gullible young gentlemen, desperate to make their fortunes, cast off their ruffs and codpieces and clothed in wool, leather and canvas clothing, they braved the stormy seas to sail as far north as you physically can on this planet. Carried north on the tail of the Gulf Stream, their wooden sailing ships beam-reached up the coast of Norway and crossed the Barents Sea via Bear Island to the northwest coast of Svalbard, where the fjords were a flop with whales.

    Living in canvas tents and working through the long days of the midnight sun from April to September, they chased the bowhead and northern right whales down in rowing boats with hand-thrown harpoons. As guests walked along those beaches today, they witnessed, after 400 years, the evidence of their blubber melting pots: broken black circles of consolidated blubber and sand. They could only imagine their desperate lives. As in The Eagles' song "Desperado", the early whalers "could not tell the night-time from the day".

    Fridtjof Nansen, in 1920, summed up the whaling situation in Svalbard as follows, "So little by little they killed off the whales, and they all disappeared - and winter reclaimed the land as its own."    En savoir plus

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  • Paul SpaasNorthWeGoVoyageur

    Smeerburg Glacier in Bjornfjordur

    14 juillet 2024, Svalbard et Jan Mayen ⋅ 🌫 2 °C

    In the afternoon, Seabourn Venture sailed to the far end of the fjord and into a heavily glaciated and sea-washed wonderland. The scene: ancient granite bedrock beneath tumbling, rumbling, crumbling glaciers, sliced, as if by a manic troll's axe, into crevasses and towering ridges of broken séracs, aiguilles of ice poised above the sea. The colours expressed in the ice are reflected light. As snow is compressed in the heart of glaciers, the air is forced out, and gradually, the snowflakes are turned into ice that reflects light from the blue/violet end of the spectrum: ultramarine, turquoise and sapphire.

    In Smeerenburgfjorden, melting glaciers coloured the water with reflected light from suspended minerals. Re-frozen, pure water ice from the glacier's base pirouetted in the tide and sparkled like a gigantic cut diamond reflecting light in every direction. The scalloped surfaces of rolled icebergs showed the petticoats of past positions, revealing that a constant flow of water had washed the ice back and forth before the centre of gravity altered and it had pivoted to turn upside down.

    Two rock arms had cradled the waves between them, channelled them and raised their crests to carve out the glacier's base, creating a deep cave. This brought to mind a tunnel into the underworld, like something from Viking Mythology: Niflheim, the cold, dark, misty region to the north where the world was created.

    This incredible rock and icescape held guests' view and fired their imaginations until it was time to return to their ten-deck tower of comfort and care to reflect on an amazing afternoon close to nature, raw and uncompromised.

    As John Muir knew from his time outdoors, "As long as I live, I'll hear waterfalls and birds and winds sing. I'll interpret the rocks, learn the language of flood, storm and the avalanche. I'll acquaint myself with the glaciers and wild gardens and get as near the heart of the world as I can."

    Text and photos by Robert Egelstaff    En savoir plus

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