Turning Point

Sorgfjord was where we struggled with the decision of whether or not to make another attempt at Hinlopen Strait. Our first try was aborted when Lady Be Good, a Norwegian sailboat that we shared an anchorage with in Sorgfjord, radioed and told us that Hinlopen was choked with ice. They had called the Norwegian met. office who told them that there was no chance of it clearing that week. We had barely entered the strait but could already see the edge of the dense ice that was keeping the area closed.

Back at Sorgfjord we saw Noorderlicht and once again sought their opinion. They agreed that Hinlopen was not passable and insisted that “only god knows when it will be open”. The God news they gave us was that the north entrance of Murchinsonfjord was clear enough to get into Kinnvika.  

At this point going to Kinnvika was the only navigational decision we could agree on.  Frances was considering turning around after Murchinsonfjord and going back down Svalbard’s west coast. She was tired of the relentless gray, rainy weather and the thick fog which appeared almost daily. These conditions made the beautiful pink rock, easy walking on the raised beaches and the varying shades of green in the hills a distant memory. Krystina on the other hand wanted to give Hinlopen another shot and was sure that Frances did too if she could just get her mind of the weather which admittedly was pretty discouraging.

We agreed to make the final decision based on fuel reserves.  After calculating our remaining diesel we came to the conclusion that we could wait two weeks at the most before running low. In the mean time we would not move from Sorgfjord unless it could be done under sail.  

The weather continued to be uninspiring during our eight day stay in the fjord. At times the fog was so thick that it made trips to shore unadvisable. If we could not see five feet in front of us, how were we supposed to avoid  polar bears? We would supplement our shore time by exploring from the dinghy but even that had to be done with caution as the low visibility made it easy to get disoriented.  

For more photos please click on Sorgfjord Album.