After our short stop in Longyearbyen we made our way back out to sea in the late morning two days ago (29th Jul) and had a wonderful beat down Isfjorden with some very welcome positive wind shifts, but also some very frustrating less positive ones.  The wind changes constantly in both strength and direction in the fjords, so keeps us on our toes.  Overnight we headed south down the west Spitsbergen coast to Bellsund, a total distance of just under 70nm, but well over a 100nm for us as we tacked in the constant wind shifts.  We were commenting amongst ourselves about how accustomed we’ve become to setting sail for destinations far away without a second thought and at almost no notice.

 

We entered the broad expanse of Bellsund in a stiff breeze at around 0400 yesterday and had a minor drama as the boathook was lost as we were trying to latch Millie the Monitor’s windvane steering paddle into position over the stern.  Despite almost an hour searching we couldn’t find it.  It’s been really useful for pulling kelp off the anchor as well as for setting up Millie, so we’ll try to find a replacement when we can.  It was also a salutary reminder of the need to keep on top of man overboard drills.  After more frustrating tacking in constant windshifts, some as much as 60^o , we finally arrived at our first anchorage in Fleur de Lyshamna at just before 0900.  It was blowing quite hard from the east which was just the direction we didn’t want as it would leave us exposed and on a lee shore once at anchor.  One of our pilot books tells the story of a yacht that had dragged its anchor and ended up on the beach here and then had to scare away a roving polar bear.  They were fortunate to have a lifting keel yacht that could beach without damage, and to find another vessel that could tow them off before too long.  We weren’t in that game and kept an anxious anchor watch for a couple of hours before deciding it was not safe to leave Rosinis for the 40m dinghy trip ashore.  We decided to leave, glad that we’d been there otherwise we’d never have known what it was like, and we did get some good photos of old whaling boats, supposedly a century or more in age, upturned on the beach, preserved by the cold dry air.  As we motored out the full force of a building easterly hit us: it had been the right decision to get out while we could. 

 

Soon we were sailing at 7 knots to our next anchorage, just 15nm away, which turned out to be just perfect.  As we sailed between two of the three main fjords in Bellsund, along the length of the island of Akseloya, the sun came out, the sky turned a deep blue and the wind moderated.  Our destination was Fridtjofhamna, a bay protected by a low spit across its entrance, and with a large glacier at its head.  On arrival we rewarded ourselves with a cuppa and a slice of Claire’s wonderful fruit cake, sitting in the cockpit in the afternoon sun – not a frequent occurrence!  It was magnificent: wonderful scenery, perfect weather, good shelter on all sides, and just a few growlers circulating in the bay, but nothing that caused any concern. We soon headed ashore, aiming to trek to the glacier, adopting our usual drill of separating an immersion suit and lifejacket from the beached dinghy and hiding it elsewhere as a back-up in case the dinghy was trashed by a bear or walrus.  It was good to be able to stretch our legs and we made good time to the head of the fjord, spotting new birds, later identified as arctic skuas, en route.  Unfortunately we were unable to make it right to the glacier as our way was barred by a roaring river of freezing glacial water tumbling through the moraine.  It was tempting to try and cross but we had to remind ourselves of how exposed we were, and good sense prevailed.  We still had a very close view of the face of one of only two glaciers in Spitsbergen that are still advancing.  On our return we had a fun shoot, finishing off the zeroing rounds using floating ice as a target, firing from underneath a wooden drying platform from which a number of seal carcuses hung in a pretty disgusting state – probably the property of one of the trappers in the area.  An excellent day was concluded with gins in the cockpit and a very tasty chicken curry, and we then had an early night, exhausted from our sail south and trek ashore.

 

We’re now heading back to Longyearbyen for the final time and have a had a couple of walrus surfacing close to Rosinis as we motor north in no wind.  As we enter Isfjorden once more we discover a minor disaster: we’ve run out of tonic!  I’ve never seen the crew move so fast hunting through lockers trying to find another can or bottle, but to no avail, so we settle for rum and coke as our pre-dinner tipple.  Fortunately we’ll be in port tonight and can replenish stocks tomorrow.  We also need to check out with the Sysselmann (the Governor), return our rifle, and replenish ready for our 670nm passage back to Tromso.  We’ll be leaving on Thu 2nd and plan to sail well out to the southwest in anticipation of stronger winds coming in from the west as we approach the Norwegian coast.  Unless there’s something particularly noteworthy en route, in which case we’ll update via satellite, our next blog will be from Norway.  We still haven’t seen any polar bears, but were saddened to hear a couple of days ago that one had been shot when it attacked guards from a cruise ship up on the north coast. 

 

The attached photos show a couple of early morning views as we sailed into Bellsund; one of the ancient whaling boats on the beach at Fleur de Lyshamna; tea and cake in Fridtjofhamna; our perfect anchorage; as close as we could get to the glacier face on shore; seal meat hanging out of reach of hungry bears, and the view up to the head of Isfjorden on our final approach into Longyearbyen.