Nap Time

The island of Prince Karls Forland is one of the few places in Svalbard were you are almost guaranteed to see walruses and our visit was no exception; a whole herd of male walruses were hauled out on the beach digesting their latest catch. We anchored just of the beach, as they did not seem bothered by our presence.

Their relaxed mood continued during our shore visit though their meter long tusks and their ability to suddenly move at a remarkably fast pace, discouraged us from getting too close. As we walked near the heard it was easy to see how these trusting creatures became sitting targets for hunters who valued their tusks and tough skin, which were used for conveyor belts. After being hunted nearly to extinction, the walrus population has begun to recover and is starting to return to their former haul outs. However, they still have a long way to go before they become a common sight and have to overcome new challenges including climate change and pollution.

Though walruses are not beautiful in the traditional sense and their shellfish diet does give them a unique smell, they are both endearing and mysterious. Watching their interaction with each other was an amazing display of respect as they harmoniously napped almost on top of each other and occasionally scratch each others' backs. While little is know about their habits, life expectancy or even why they have tusks, just watching them gives the impression that they are wise and kind creatures.

The Big City

During our exploration of Isfjord, we made several stops at Longyearbyen, Svalbard’s main port and administrative center. The name harks back to the days when it was an American coal mining town. Now back under Norwegian ownership it is evolving into a real community with a population of around 1,700 making it the largest settlement in the archipelago.

Many of the people who live there today are driven by economic opportunity. A lot of the work is seasonal and some leave during the winter. The harsh climate is not for everyone and those who stay year round tend to value the isolation. Over all the population is fairly young which is not surprising considering that that there is no hospital.

The density of population has the added bonus of making it one of the few places in Svalbard where you can walk around unarmed. Without Polar Bears to worry about, the real concern becomes not getting run over, as Longyearbyen residents take their SUVs and small amount of road seriously. During the winter snow mobiles and dog sleds become the norm. Apparently the best way to keep a sled team in shape is to have the dogs tow a vehicle during the summer.

One of the nicest stops in town is the Svalbard Museum. Aside from an excellent exhibit covering all aspects of Svalbard, they also have a good selection of books for sale including “Into The Ice, A History Of Norway And The Polar Regions” which has been an invaluable addition to Snow Dragon’s library. The Museum is also one of several places in town which follows the Norwegian custom of removing shoes before entering and kindly provides crocs for anyone who does not want to walk around in their socks.

The heart of town is essentially a shopping center mainly targeted towards the thousands of tourists who come by cruise ship. There are also several restaurants where you can get anything from pizza to seal. We have been told that the local delicacies are quite good, but can only vouch for the pizza.

Our main shopping interest was the supermarket, which only lacked good coffee. Snow Dragon’s wallet however, did choke at paying $8 for a head of lettuce. Over all fresh fruit and vegetables were pricey with the only exception being mangoes and avocadoes. Why you have to go almost to the North Pole to find reasonably priced mangoes and avocadoes is still beyond us. Sticker shock aside, the quality was excellent.

In order to purchase alcohol we had to obtain a permit from the Sysselman (Governor). Requesting our permit did make us feel “underage” but the process was relatively easy and the ration of 2 litres of liquor, 1 litres of fortified wine and 24 cans of beer was generous. The wine was unregulated but the selection turned out to be dismal compared to the wide range of liquor. Not wanting to waste our permit, we purchased a couple bottles of Snow Dragon’s latest vice, Dark Havana Club Rum.

To see more pictures of Longyearbyen, visit my Picasa album.

Perfect Town

The Russian settlement of Pyramiden was intended to be the ideal mining town, providing everything a miner and his family would need to have a good life. In many respects the concept was a success with the layout of the town including an indoor swimming pool, school, library and hospital. Women and children became commonplace and jobs were in demand. However, the prosperity was not sustained and in 1998 Pyramiden was abandoned.

Unlike Barentsburg, the fall of the Soviet Union is not the main reason for the decline. In many respects it’s the harsh arctic conditions that led to the settlements defeat. Most of the year, the town’s harbor is frozen which makes bringing in supplies and ships to retrieve the coal a costly operation. This on top of the coal being difficult to extract led to the decision to abandon the town.

Walking around Pyramiden, we got the feeling that the inhabitants were ordered to leave without much warning. Shriveled houseplants line the windows giving the impression that at any moment the settlement might spring back to life. While the scattered children’s toys and the empty swing set make it easy to imagine the laughter that used to fill the air.

The only people who live there now are a few caretakers, a job that is given to loyal workers at Barentburg as a reward for their service. They are supposed to be fulfilling Russia’s obligation to remove equipment and generally clean up the area but the number of workers is small compared to how many it would take to complete such a task. For now Pyramiden remains nothing more than an intriguing curiosity.

Visit my Picasa Web Albums for more photos of Pyramiden and the Doors of Pyramiden.

Revenge Of The Sea Ice

Our anchorage at Pyramiden seemed ideal, good holding, a spectacular view of Nordenskiold glacier and a visiting piece of sea ice that was large enough for Frances to stroll on with a brightly colored beach umbrella. Though the sheet of ice was four times the size of Snow Dragon, they seemed to coexist without incident. Suddenly the wind picked up, filling the bay with ice, and the friendly ice sheet began pushing against Snow Dragon.

We are not sure if the ice was more offended by being walked on or the bright colored umbrella but needless to say we got the message: the ice wanted us gone. The only thing preventing us from a speedy departure was that the objecting piece of ice was sitting on top of our anchor. This normally would not have been a problem but in this instance the ice was pushing us towards shore.

In effort to let the ice move past without having to cut our anchor loose, Frances dumped all 120 meters of anchor chain into the water while Krystina maneuvered Snow Dragon around the large sheet of ice. The anchor was pulling us towards deeper water but the combination of ice and wind pushing against Snow Dragon’s bow made it questionable how much longer the anchor would continue to hold. The ice had already managed to push us into shallow water where Snow Dragon found herself firmly aground.

While pulling the anchor up from under the ice, our powered windlass stopped functioning and we resorted to pulling 60 meters of chain manually. Two and half hours into our ice dispute, we finally got the anchor up and managed to motor Snow Dragon off the mud. By this time the wind had dropped and the ice had left the bay.

Snow Dragon escaped from her unscheduled shore visit without any damage and headed back to Longyearbyen to spend a couple days free of ice. On our way, we discovered that the anchor windlass had only flipped its circuit breaker when it sensed that it was being overworked. With a flip of the switch the windlass was back in action.

Once we got settled, Frances suited up in multiple layers of dive gear and went down to double check that there was no hidden damage. Everything looked good and Frances took a few moments to do a bit of recreational diving before getting out of the freezing water.

     (photo courtesy of Twinga)

Ice, Ice And More Ice

Elvar decided to spend a few extra days on board before returning to Tromso. After contemplating a few possibilities, we decided to try and get into the Russian ghost town of Pyramiden. The closest we were able to get was four miles outside the town, as the approach was still frozen solid with sea ice. After inventing an anchorage, Frances and Elvar decided to hike into the town.

It turned out to be quite a trek, taking them over three hours, but well worth the effort. On arrival the town was completely quiet. Then suddenly a ghostly yellow machine appeared and disappeared between two buildings. Were there people? The answer soon came as two men riding on a front-end loader approached. They were surprised that Frances and Elvar had walked in from the edge of the ice and gladly gave them permission to explore the town.

Meanwhile Krystina stayed on board battling sheets of drift ice that were so dense at times she began to doubt if she would be able to retrieve Frances and Elvar from shore. The ice eventually let up enough to lower the dinghy into the water and collect the two tired hikers. Not wanting to spend the night with large sheets of ice banging against Snow Dragon we decided to retreat to the secure anchorage of Skansbukta. Which did prove to be calm and peaceful until the bay filled with drift ice, making it necessary to push more ice in order to get back to Longyearbyen.

After Elvar left, we made another attempt at getting into Pyramiden.The ice was more broken than the previous week and we decided to try and push through. Once Snow Dragon entered the pack ice, our friends Willem and Ingrid, on Twinga radioed to tell us that watching Snow Dragon in action was more entertaining than TV. After making a few exploratory pokes at the ice, we decided to turn around and join Twinga in her anchorage.

We were fairly sure the ice would move out with the tide and decided to wait until morning before committing to pushing miles of ice. Sure enough the ice cleared and we were able to get into the bay and explore the town. The only obstacle this time was the pier, which was a good climb from our dinghy with virtually no footholds.