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Svalbard June 24 SVALBARD POLAR BEAR SPECIAL JUNE 24 - JULY 4, 2019 ON BOARD M/S FREYA TOUR REPORT PARTICIPANTS Guests: Crew: Richard Barrett Kristian Nordström, captain Erin Lynn Bierie Edvin Vidarsson, chief officer Michael David Bierie Erik Frenning, chief engineer Graham John Boulnois Patrick Lindroos, chef Bonnie Lydell Boyer (Lydie) Staffan Hallberg, AB Lew Ah Kheng (Jo) Wilhelm Skoglund, AB James Scott Maki (Jim) Gabriella Evrén, stewardess Maxine Edith Monaghan Gabriella Johansson, stewardess Nancy Jean Porter Robin Ahlgren, cadet William Fairbanks Richardson (Bill) John F. Rubin Guides & Charterers: Lee Yit Seong Morten Jørgensen, guide & charterer Jennifer Margaret Varley (Jenny) Nozomi Takeyabu, guide & charterer Kaye-Eileen Willard Rinie van Meurs, expedition leader Chelsea Paige Wright Sarah Neebe Wright Stephen Scott Wright (Steve) SUMMARY This year’s ice conditions during the month of June made it an obvious decision from the out- set, that we would head south and then east on this voyage. Massive pack-ice amounts on the north-west corner would stop us from going very far there, and reports suggested few polar bears in that area as well (but many ships). As the obvious alternative, the north end of Storfjorden still held a bit of fast-ice, and the east beyond Edgeøya and Barentsøya lay open to us. Over the first couple of days, we stopped in Hornsund en route, and also at Kapp Lee on Edgeøya, then ventured into the unknown through Freemansundet. The weather played tricks on us during the following days. We first had a lot of fog while in the surprisingly wild- life void pack-ice near Kong Karl’s Land. Then we had to make a dash for it when strong north- east winds began closing the escape routes back to the west. Two of the three options were already blocked by ice, and we were forced the long way around Edgeøya to make it back to the Storfjorden fast ice. There, we had our bears, and one particular encounter with a healthy female and her yearling cub became one of the absolute highlights of the voyage. Other highlights included wonderful blue icebergs against dark skies, large quantities of ivory gulls seen very well, and towards the end of the voyage, when back on the west coast of Spitsbergen, meetings with Svalbard reindeer and Arctic foxes, as well as a mega-pod of belugas. Another highlight for all of us was each other’s delight- ful company. Rarely have we enjoyed such good company on board. Thank you all for your generosity and good spirits. Ice chart at the beginning of the voyage Ice chart at the end of the voyage DIARY WITH ITINERARY AND WEATHER June 24: Longyearbyen - Isfjorden - S along the W coast of Spits- bergen Sunny, clear, f1 variable, 10°C/50°F. Just before 4.00 pm, everyone arrived to the floating dock of Longyearbyen, and soon we were on board M/V Freya. The port was busy on this day, with numerous small and a couple of large vessels in. We commented on the pleasures of going on one of the smaller ones. We had a good hour to settle into our cabins and have a first look around the vessel. Come 5.00 pm, we pulled away from the pier, and at 5.15 pm, Captain Kristian and his crew introduced themselves, after which Edvin introduced us to the safety equipment and procedures. This important session was fol- lowed by a round of introductions, where we all told each other a bit about who we are, and Rinie, Nozomi and Morten added some notes about the plans for the upcoming voyage. All of the above brought us close to dinner time and our first meal on board. During dinner, we had already sailed out of Isfjorden and come into more open waters, but the weather was mild and the sea was kind to us, and we had a smooth sailing overnight. June 25: Hornsund: Samarinvågen and Vestre Burgerbukta - Storfjorden Overcast, initially very low cloud, but clearing through the morning, a few sunny patches increasing to mostly sunny afternoon; from midmorning clear; almost still morning, afternoon and evening increasing to f4 from first N then W; 7-9°C/45-48°F. Upon arriving at the mouth of Hornsund, the southernmost fjord system of Spitsbergen, the visibility was low and there was a light drizzle in the air. Not quite sure what to expect the weather to do later, we decided to begin our day by cruising slowly with the ship into and back out of Samarinvågen, the south-pointing fjord. A dozen or so Atlantic puffins were the wildlife highlight of the early morning, and the views of the surroundings mountains were fine as well. While we repositioned the ship up north into Vestre Burgerbukta, the guides delivered the required information about how we can collectively ensure safe operations while in Svalbard. At 11.45, we embarked upon our first Zodiac cruise and had a delightful 1,5 hours out there among all the blue and white bergy bits and small icebergs, the melting ice popping and crackling, the veils of cloud and the sun both playing with the light and colours of the mountainsides around us, and the birds mostly quietly sitting on ice or swimming about. The most numerous bird was the black-legged kittiwake, of which some 3.000 were gathered right under the glacier wall at the head of the fjord. It was somewhat chilly out, and we were happy to enjoy a pasta Bolognese for lunch once back on board. While we continued south and eventually around the southern tip of Spitsbergen en route to Storfjorden, we had time for a quick nap, there was cake and coffee at 4.00 pm, and shortly before 5.00 pm Rinie deliv- ered a power point presentation introducing the basics of the Arctic food web. There was a slight rolling of the vessel this afternoon and evening, but we still made good speed. June 26: Edgeøya: Kapp Lee - Freemansundet - Olgastretet - towards Kong Karls Land Scattered cloud and increasingly overcast; clear but late evening light snow and reduced visibility; morning and early afternoon f2 N, later NW f5; 7°C/45°F dropping to 2°C/35°F. After a smooth night’s sailing, we were off Kapp Lee on the NW tip of Edgeøya in the morning. We ap- proached close enough to shore to be able to see a pile of walrus there, and duly decided to go visit them. After breakfast, we headed in and landed on a sand beach next to three walruses hauled out separately. We walked over a little hill, stopped for a while to enjoy a reindeer posing nicely as it rested on the cool surface of a snow patch, then continued down towards the almost 40 hauled out male walruses near the huts. Using the huts to somewhat hide us, and generally just approaching slowly and being quiet, we were able to grad- ually close in on the animals until we were enjoying them (but not enjoying their smell) from close quarters. There was a bit of jostling for position in the sleepy group on the beach, and there were a couple that heaved themselves back into the water. The entire scene was pleasantly lined with distant grazing reindeer, overfly- ing skeins of pink-footed geese, a courting pair of Arctic skuas (parasitic jaegers) calling and snow bunting males singing. In Freemansundet, we had plenty of open water to keep up speed, while we passed many brownish ice floes and while we also scanned the shorelines. The winds were gradually picking up from the NW, particularly as we headed into Olgastretet and proceeded east. Long strands of old ice were replaced by long strands of newer ice, but still the main pack lay ahead. After dinner, we had not quite reached it yet, but we did find a very large, wonderfully blue and white, solid ice floe to which we attached the ship for a kind of overnight anchorage. Just before that, we had ticked off species on our species lists, and were soon ready for a quiet night. June 27: In heavy pack-ice from Olgastretet to Svenskøya (Kong Karl’s Land) Overcast, highly variable visibility from good to poor during many snowsqualls, f0-2 NW and N morning, afternoon f4 NE; 2-0°C/35- 32°F. Overnight, we had drifted some 4 NM south-southeast together with our ice-floe, but once we let go from it, we proceeded north- east pretty much all day. In the first hours, we were mostly in open water, then we progres- sively got into heavier and heavier pack-ice. We came into the general area of Kong Karl’s Land, the special polar bear reserve east of Olgastretet. The guides spent the entire day scanning for polar bear, at times in very diffi- cult conditions, visibility came and went and was often not conducible to success, at other times the wind was fierce on their faces. But although we came across an increasing amount of ringed seals through the day, and a few bearded ones as well, the polar bear den- sity in the area proved very thin, with only one sighting of a bear unfortunately walking away from us at distance and behind too heavy ice. A walrus female with her 3-year old calf was the highlight of the day on the wildlife front. The magnitude and silent power of the grip of the ice was perhaps the highlight as far as the overall experience goes. As far as meals go, there were two highlights – for lunch we had a Swedish specialty called “smørgåstorta”, meaning sandwich cake.
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