Longyearbyen is the capital of Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago between mainland Norway and the North Pole. As much as 60% of the landmass is covered with ice and less than 10% has any vegetation. Svalbard has a population of 2500 people, 5500 walrus and the region boasts 3000 polar bears. Svalbard has an arctic climate and is considered a desert due to its low air humidity. In the summer, the sun does not set for 125 days.
And, following Niklas' phone call that caused a sharp left in our summer plans, this is where we have landed!
It has been a considerable process to get us here. To be able to sail in Svalbard, a permit is required from the Governor of Svalbard. Part of this permitting is submitting a detailed travel plan, crew information, search and rescue insurance, communication requirements and polar bear protocols. This all needs to be submitted and approved at least a month prior to the trip starting.
Niklas took care of the permit but we needed to supply our details, proof of Search and Rescue insurance and compliance with polar bear protocols. Fortunately, Garmin provides very affordable S&R insurance if you are a resident of North America. Hurray! That solved a potentially expensive problem. The polar bear protocols were are little more challenging.
When ashore in Svalbard outside the Longyearbyen town limits, a firearm must be carried. And to carry a firearm, you need a permit from the Governor of Svalbard. And to get a permit, you require a police check from your home jurisdiction and proof of a valid firearm licence. One wee, small, little hiccup - neither of us have a gun licence.
So a desperate plea went out to family and friends - and Ed and Jo answered the call. They, and Ed's gun licence, were prepared to fly to Svalbard and keep us safe from polar bears while we explored ... Legends both. With all permits approved and polar bear protocols in place, we snugged up Chinook on Niklas' dock and flew north, far north!
To put some context around just how far north we are, Cape Horn, the famous landmark at the very southern tip of South America is at 55°58' S. The Antarctic Peninsula, where the majority of travellers to the seventh continent visit, is at 63°14' S. And the Mawson Research Station run by the Australian Antarctic Division is at a chilly 67°38' S. Longyearbyen sits at 78° 13' N and is a mere 1300km from the North Pole.
Our dream of soft butter was undeniably dashed!
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| There is a Svalbard Treaty that designates the island group as a free economic zone as well as recognizing Norwegian sovereignty. |
The largest island of the archipelago is Spitsbergen which means 'rugged mountains'. This is where we will be spending our time. There are couple of reasons for this:
- The Gulf Stream's last hurrah as the West Spitsbergen Current brings warm water from the south and thus leaves the west of the island group ice-free for much of the year. The east is subject to the East Spitsbergen Current which brings the chilly water from the north. Eastern Svalbard experiences far more pack ice which is often unnavigable until late summer. With limited time, the last thing we need is to be stuck in the ice.
- The other reason is our permit. We applied to sail just the west coast of Spitsbergen.
Flying into Longyearbyen is startling. The landscape is so foreign, so otherworldly. It is treeless, and to the unaccustomed eyes, devoid of vegetation. Stark, barren, crumbly rock and ice.
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| Not a single tree or bush - quite startling. |
Considering its remoteness and lack of facilities there are a remarkable number of visitors on the plane with us. The Airbus A320 was jam packed and it was one of three flights a day! Three cruise ships (the small, adventure types of course) were in port along with a handful of adventure 'pay-to-play' charter yachts and a half-dozen private boats like us. The most northern and remote town on the Earth is not so desolate after all! That was very much a surprise.
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| Panoramic view from the church on the hill |
Longyearbyen was named after the American industrialist John Munro Longyear, who brought a mining company to extract the coal that is here and built much of the infrastructure that is here today. It has a college, some tertiary services and many tourist companies here now but prior to southerners coming to extract resources, there were no indigenous settlements - it has long been considered too inhospitable to support permanent inhabitants.
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| Part of the cable tram system for transporting coal from the mine site to the harbour. |
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| One of the residential streets. There are some single-family homes but most people live in multi-family buildings. |
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| The tourist information centre. |
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| The dormitory for the college that is here. Notice the pipes that provide water in, sewage out and heat from a central town boiler are bundled together and insulated to keep them from freezing in the winter. Also, pipes are mostly above ground to prevent them from melting the permafrost. |
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| We walked to the edge of town and saw two reindeer foraging for lichen. |
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| There are signs at the edge of the settlement warning you not to go any further without a firearm or some other polar bear deterrent. |
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| Seed Vault Plaque |
Longyearbyen is home to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. It is part of a global network to preserve plant genetic diversity to ensure the world's future food supply. The Seed Vault's main role is to provide back-up to individual collections in the event that the originals are lost through natural disaster, conflict or other circumstances.
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| Entrance to the Seed Vault |
And one of the facilities they provide backup for is the Australian Grains Gene Bank in Horsham!
Niklas met us at the airport in a rental vehicle and drove us back to the harbour. We were all amazed that this was actually happening - we were going to get to sail around Svalbard and Niklas was going to be leaving Myrca in our hands (to bring back to Norway's mainland ... eventually) and he was going to fly back home to work and spend time with his home-from-college kids.
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| Thanks for the airport pickup! |
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| The Harbour - most of the private yachts are aluminium or steel. Myrca looks quite at home! |
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| Nik, Kate and one 'little' bag ... considering we would be aboard for over a month! |
Coming aboard Myrca is somewhat surreal. So similar to Chinook yet just enough differences to make us feel like we're in a parallel world.
And so begins the grand adventure.
We had a day with Niklas to do the boat handover, then he left for the airport and a flight back to Sweden. We had to get set up for crew. Ed and Jo would be joining us shortly. We needed to go over all the systems and equipment on Myrca, as Niklas and his crew had been sailing it around the island group for the past three weeks and there was sure to be some maintenance and restocking required.
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| First things first - make our presence onboard known. |
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Typical. Pull everything out, let it have some air, then put it back in an organised fashion.
Ship shape. |
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| Forward sail locker reorganised. That looks better! |
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| Stores down below needed to be inventoried and put in order. |
It wasn't all swabbing the decks, though. Before Ed and Jo arrived we took a few hours out and visited the museum at the local college - it was very informative and a great foundation of knowledge for what we would see over the next month.
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| It is a local custom for people to remove their shoes upon entering most buildings and offices. This is likely due to snowy, wet and muddy (or coal dusty) footwear most of the year. |
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| The museum exhibition was set up to feel like you were walking on ice floes. |
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| History and wildlife. We are soooo excited! |
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| An actual hunter's cabin that had been disassembled and brought here along with information on local flora. |
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| This is the closest thing we will see to Northern Lights for this trip. It won't be dark enough to see them for another two months! |
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| You could crawl through part of the exhibit that described the coal mining history. |
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| ... and maps and charts. We love this place. |
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| Once Jo and Ed arrived, we put them to work helping us shop and carry the provisions back to Myrca. |
Another of the things to do was to collect the rifle we had rented. We now have our own personal armed guard to protect us from those pesky ice bears.
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| Hope you're a good shot, Ed! |
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| Beers at the World's Northernmost Brewery |
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| It is really lovely here when the sun comes out from behind the clouds |
We were excited to get underway and explore the area. Ed and Jo were here for two weeks and we wanted to push even further north, see some wildlife and learn about what it was like to be WELL above the Arctic Circle ... even though this is the easiest time to be here!
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