We will need to come back…
Another visit in Longyearbyen in Spitsbergen.
After just a few hours of sleep, we are waking up on a camping site in Longyearbyen in Svalbard. It is Saturday morning and there are still two days for our yacht takeover.
We came here by the plane just a few hours earlier. In theory, it was middle of the night, but because the sun is never setting down here in the summer, it felt like afternoon.
We slept for just a few hours, but we are so excited we are unable to stay in our sleeping bags any longer. The light is so strong, and we cannot believe that we managed to escape from London, Berlin, Krakow, Gdansk and Silesia.
In the canteen, Julia is already waiting for us. Looking through the window at the arctic landscape she sadly says:
And think that in one month we will need to go back from here…
We all know it is true, but for now, we try not to think much about it.
We start our expedition in Longyearbyen. Most of us were here before. Last year when we tried to sail around Spitsbergen, or on some other arctic expedition.
We feel at home here. We probably already know all places in the city. It feels also like we know all the inhabitants. And maybe it is true…
Because of satellite data exchange station which is located here, Longyearbyen has one of the best Internet connection in the Europe. We use our last chance to easily check emails and social media. One of the pictures found there looks strangely familiar. Are those mountains in the background the same we just saw on the other side of the fjord?
The description under the image looks enigmatic, probably not only because it was translated from Norwegian by computer. Looks like they are also here!
We met Ilona Wiśniewska, the author of the books about far-north Białe [White] and Hen [Far Away], one evening in London a few months ago. It looks like now she came to Svalbard the same day as we did.
We go to a museum. Her old work colleagues confirm the couple just arrived, however they don’t know where Ilona could be right now. Unfortunately, nobody answers her Norwegian mobile phone. We must contact her online.
We go to the supermarket. Someone who is here for the first time asks if the grocery shop really works as a free Internet cafe. We loudly debate if it will be better to email her or maybe use Facebook.
Our discussion is overheard by — as we soon learn — a skipper from another yacht. He confirms the Internet is working here for free, but to our surprise, he also says he is on a chat with Ilona right now. Soon after we get her new telephone number, and a few minutes later we made an appointment to meet on our boat the next day.
Even though we have met only once before, we talk like old friends. We quickly exchange information, what has changed in our lives in the last few months. We talk about our present and future plans.
Unfortunately, the meeting is too short. Ilona — which both sides regret — could not sail with us. She only takes as to the centre by car, where we need to make last shopping, and she goes to the airport to pick up other friends.
After a few days in the settlement spent not only on preparations but also on a trip to the nearby mountains, finally it is time to do what we came here for. Time to start sailing. Time to find the ice.
We sail on the other side of Isfjorden. Ice Fjord — as the name is translated — indeed it is spread with many glaciers. Slowly tacking between more and more pieces of the ice, we are coming to one of the nieces of them — Sveabreen.
People who see our yacht for the first time ask why are we carrying the bamboo poles on board. Is it some type of North amulet?
Now the mystery is revealed. Two persons standing on the bow are holding them in their hands and push pieces of the ice away from the hull. However, this really big one — the size of a dinghy or the yacht itself — we must sail around.
The ice is getting thicker and thicker, but after one of the small icebergs, the water is open again. Now we are just few hundred meters from the front of the glacier. We could even moor to it if we like, but this would be dangerous.
Here, the cold wind suddenly stops. The glacier which generated it, now shields us from it.
In the perfect sun, we stand in front of a white and blue wall of ice, high as few store buildings. We cannot get enough of this view. We stop the engine, and all become still.
There is complete silence. We can only hear small bubbles of air escaping the ice crystals. The sea is motionless and reflects the sun, mountains and the glacier as a mirror. The sudden noise of one piece of ice falling few hundred meters away intensifies, and disturbs the quietness. Small, single wave rocks the boat gently, and after the moment the total peace comes back.
We could stay here forever, but soon we will start the engine. The time is pressing. We need to sail.
Our expedition through the Greenland Sea is like one long comeback journey. Once again we will visit Barentsburg, the Russian city on Spitsbergen. We will come back to Iceland where for many of us the adventure with North started.
Coming back south we will however also visit places never seen by us before. The lost island Jan Mayen, but also Ittoqqortoormiit, Uunarteq and Dansk Ø on East Greenland coast.
All the time we will be heading south, but ironically places we visit will often be described as the most northerly. We will absorb them, and soon the picture of the Longyearbyen camping will be as unreal as this of our homes in Europe.
Wherever we stop, we would like to stay there forever. However, we have only one month. A month in which time stops, and the sun will run around and inside our heads 24 hours a day.
The text is part of relation from the sailing expedition from Svalbard to Jan Mayen, Greenland and Iceland on a yacht ‘JoinUs’ in August 2016.
