Wednesday 18th July: Danskoya
Awelina of Sweden
James Collier
Wed 18 Jul 2012 22:27
Late afternoon yesterday evening we left Ny Alesund, promising to return on Saturday night - when the bar opens (it's closed all other days due to incomprehensible Norwegian rules).
A vignette of the randomness of the rules. I tried to buy 4 cans of Guinness and a bottle of Akevitt at the store at about 11:45 yesterday. This store has a very good selection of wines, beers and spirits: more like a Waitrose than a Spar. When I tried to pay I was asked for my boarding pass (huh? we weren't in a place with a commercial airport). I explained that I'd arrived by boat, to be told that in that case I couldn't buy alcohol. Peter then realised he'd arrived in Svalbard by air, so scurried back to Awelina to fetch his boarding pass. This he got, queued up and was then asked for his passport. So back to Awelina to fetch that. To be told that it now being 1 minute past 12 they couldn't sell alcohol, and wouldn't be able to again 'til Thursday - grr. Shortly after people were coming out with wine, so we enquired about this: ah, wine isn't alcohol, only beer and spirits are... We vowed not to darken this store's door again.
We motored across the fjord back to Ny London, where we passed a quiet night, this time alone except for a speed boat which came in for a short time and gave us two good sized cod they'd just caught. Fiona and Hannah took care of dinner using this benevolent gift while Peter and James roamed around the remains of the works ashore;- steam engines and cranes and other machinery, all made in Leicester and needing only a bit of grease to get going again. It seems amazing that they spent all this effort and money before checking that the marble was worth transporting home. Meanwhile Hannah cut up loads of veg and made her first Laksa curry with noodles and cod which was enjoyed by all.
On getting up it was once again a gentle SE breeze, so we set off north past the inhospitable coast of 7 glaciers towards Magdalenefjord and the islands to the NW of Spitsbergen. We passed Magdalenefjord after motoring in light winds for 6 hours or so, but didn't stop since this looked as if it might be a bit exposed to katabatic winds (it being NNE by then). Instead we went on to Danskoya, where we are now.
1000m mountains all round, glaciers and occasional icebergs, but we're tucked into a cove out of the stream and quite snug. Tomorrow to Virgohamna to see the gruesome remains of buried whalers, and then further north still we hope.