Fwd: Trip Log #14: Isafjordur, Iceland July 31, 2009

Dear Friends,

 

Well, here we are in the northwest corner of Iceland in an area that is like a peninsula jutting out from the big island but is full of fjords.  Really interesting if you see it on a map of Iceland.  We were told it was kind of a sleep little town that we could just walk around in, so we didn't book any tour.  Turned out that was kind of a mistake since the pretty scenery and interesting stuff to see was outside of town. This is called the Westfjords region and is dramatically beautiful. A landscape of extremes with valleys separating mountains from fjords, it is isolated, only connected to the main island by a narrow isthmus.  The 9600 inhabitants of the Westfjords rely on fishing.  With 2900 residents, Isafjordur is the largest population center in the Westfjords. 

 

Irish monks were already living in Iceland by the time Scandinavian sailors arrived in the 9th century. How they managed to reach it is nott clear, but they surely set out in their primitive boats armed with lots of faith. Between 870AD and 930AD, masses of Icelandic emigres came from Scandinavia, Ireland, Scotland, and Britain.

 

Europe's second largest island, contemporary Iceland also has one of the smallest population densities (three residents per square mile).  The young nation is a place of volcanoes, lava beds, and glaciers.  It is also seismically active.  Only 20% of the land is habitable annd most people live near the sea.  Iceland is a social-democracy. The cost for the arrangement is a 50% income tax ceiling, but all citizens are entitled to free health care, free education, and enjoy a high living standard.  Main industries are tourism, fishing and geothermal power generation.

 

The pleasant and prosperous town of Isafjordur is the commercial center of the Westfjords and is home to more than half the population of the Westfjords.  Despite its relative isolation, Isafjordur is surprisingly cosmopolitan; however parts of the old town center have barely changed since the harbor was full of tall ships in the 18th century.  Under the Danish Trade Monopoly of 1602, Isafjordur developed as a fishing and trading center.  In the centuries to follow Isafjordur became a logistical center for Norwegian whaling ships, although Icelanders themselves took up commercial whaling only in the 1950's.  Isafjordur was the setting for some of the battles between whalers and environmental campaigners that eventually led to the world-wide ban on commercial whaling in 1989.  The recent decision by the Icelandic government to resume limited whaling has brought Isafjordur back into the media spotlight and continues to be one of the most controversial topics, not only in Isafjordur, but in all of Iceland. 

 

So, off we went for a walk around town.  Just down the dock was the Maritime Museum.  There were several little buildings there as well as some old boats and implements used.  Then we walked around the dock to see some of the fishing vessels docked there.  That took us into the little town.  We walked down the main street and thru the central square.  Considering it was a Friday, it was a sleepy, little, quiet town - not many locals around. It was a nice day and we had a nice walk. 

 

Jan and Dick 

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Fwd: Trip Log #12: scenic cruising by Jan Mayan Island July 29, 2009

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <JYETKE@aol.com>
Date: Mon, Aug 3, 2009 at 3:26 PM
Subject: Trip Log #12: scenic cruising by Jan Mayan Island July 29, 2009
To: JYETKE@aol.com

 

Dear Friends,

 

This little island is between Norway and Iceland.  We were to have a "scenic" cruise by between 7am and 9am.  We had coffee delivered to our cabin at 6:45am, got up, opened the curtains to enjoy the view.  Oh dear, mostly all fog!!!  Ship's fog horn was blowing all the time.  We did get a glimpse of the highest mountain (see in photo) and a few more glimpses before it was totally engulfed in fog.  So much for scenic cruising that day.

 

Jan Mayen Island has two parts: larger northest Nord-Jan and smaller Sor-Jan, linked by an isthmus.  It lies 400 miles northeast of Iceland and 300 miles east of central Greenland.  It is part of the Kingdom of Norway and is an integral part of the country.  Since 1995, it has been administered by the County Governor of the northern Norwegian county of Nordland; however, some authority has been delegated to a station commander of the Norwegian Defense Logistics Organization, a branch of the Norwegian Armed Forces. The only inhabitants on the island are personnel working for the Norwegian Armed Forces or the Norwegian Meteorological Institute.  There are 18 people who spend the winter on the island, but the population may double (35) during the summer.  Personnel serve either six months or one year, and are exchanged twice a year in April and October.  The meterorological station is located a short distance from the settlement, Olonkinbyen, where everyone lives!  The first known discovery of the island was in 1614.  The first meterorological sation was opened in 1921 by the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, who annexed the island in 1922 for Norway.  During WWII continental Norway was invaded and occupied by Germany in the spring of 1940.  The four-man team on Jan Mayen stayed at their posts and in an act of defiance began sending their weather reports to Great Britain instead of Norway.  We also learned that the USCG built a Loran Station there.  (Any of our Coast Guard friends know more about that?)

 

We continued to have heavy fog for the rest of that day and night.

 

Jan and Dick

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Fwd: Trip Log #11: Spitsbergen, Norway July 27, 2009

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <JYETKE@aol.com>
Date: Mon, Aug 3, 2009 at 8:56 AM
Subject: Trip Log #11: Spitsbergen, Norway July 27, 2009
To: JYETKE@aol.com

 

Dear Friends,

 

We had a beautiful sail in to Spitsbergen and docked about 11am.  It is a very small little town with only one dock for a ship. Remember the cruise ship we saw up in the Magdelenafjord?  Well, she was at the dock here in the morning and we had to wait for her to leave the dock so we could go in.  Amazing how we can be up in this desolate place and have a "cruise ship traffic jam".  She went out and anchored and her passengers had to tender the rest of the day while we enjoyed the use of the dock for the afternoon. 

 

Longyearbyen is located on Svalbard's largest island, Spitsbergen. It is one of the  world's northernmost towns. The settlement was founded in 1906 by the American mining entrepreneur John M. Longyear, the principle owner of the Arctic Coal Company of Boston.  "Byen" is Norwegian for "the city".  The town is a coal-mining hub, the chief port and administrative center for the isolated island group.  Longyearbyen, the largest settlement in Spitsbergen and its capital, is locaated at 78degrees13'N 15degrees33'E.  It has approvimately 1800 residents, most of them Norwegian, some Russian and is also the home of the Governor of Svalbard. Destroyed during WWII, the town was completely rebuilt after 1945.  Due to its location so far north of the Arctic Circle, it remains polar night from the end of October through mid February and polar day from mid April until August.  Longyearbyen has an arctic tundra climate.  Until the early 1990s the coal mining industry was the major employer in Longyearbyen and daily life circled only around this business.  Today, the community offers a wide range of activities and facilities.  here is a swimming hall, a climbing wall, a Squash court, a big sports hall, a grocery store, three pubs, three hotels, one church, several tourist shops, a cinema (open on Sundays only) and one night club.  Thrilling place, huh!!!!  We also were told it is a place for young people to live - no seniors live there. 

 

You will notice that many buildings are supported on pilings to keep permafrost from melting beneath the foundation.  For the same reason, insulated pipes are laid above ground.  Neatly aligned, local homes are brightly painted to counter the effects of the dark winter.  After all, the sun sets each year at the end of October and doesn't rise again until mid-February (and then for only about an hour). 

 

The Svalbard Archipelago is comprised of many islands with one main island.  There are deep fjords and many towering mountains with the interior consisting of large glaciers.  The geological conditions are of great interest and all formations are from the Pre-cambrian period and forward.  The large coal layers date mainly from the Tertiary Era.  The fauna and flora are unexpectedly rich - reindeer, polar fox, walrus, seals and, of course, polar bears.  One of the rules is that when you are out of the town, you MUST carry a loaded rifle with you.  Also, around the schools, they have a high fence to keep out the polar bears.  At this time of year we were not likely to encounter any polar bears but in the winter they do.  We did see, however, many people carrying their rifles around with them. 

 

We took a tour that first took us out of town about 5 miles or so to the area called Adventdalen Valley.  We visited the Svalbard Villmarkssenter (Svalbard Wilderness Center) which is a Huskie dog farm.  We walked around and were given a demonstration on how they hook up the dogs to a sled and lots of info about the dogs.  They were beautiful!!  There are 4 types of huskies and they use them all.  They start training a dog at about 9 months to be a team dog.  There were many little puppies running around. They also treated us to coffee and a small pancake. 

On the way back to town, we spotted four reindeer along a little lake. 

In town we were shown the homes and told about life there.  Then we got out and spent about 1/2 hour inside the museum. It was really interesting.  The photos of the animals that I have included were actually real at one time.  Huge polar bear!!!

 

This was our last stop in Norway.  Now we head out to Iceland.

 

Enjoy!

 

Jan and Dick

 

 

 

 

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Fwd: Trip Log #10: Scenic Cruising-Magdelenafjord, Polar Ice Cap July 26, 2009

No Sunset - More Midnight Sun!!   Cold - Cloudy

 

Dear Friends,

 

Today was a beautiful day of scenic cruising!!!  Yes, it was cold.

But it was bright, not raining.

During the night, we had sailed up along the west coast of Spitsbergen, an island north of Norway, but part of Norway. In the morning for about an hour or so, we cruised into and back out of the Magdalena Fjord where we saw beautiful glaciers and scenery.  It was glassy calm and quiet in this fjord.  Hope you can kind of get the feeling thru the photos.  Please note the two sailboats anchored in a little cove at the bottom of a glacier!!!  Well, you can be sure you will not be seeing us sailing up here.  What in the world are they doing there we said to ourselves!!!

There are 10 photos in this beautiful fjord.

 

After coming out of the fjord, we headed north to look for the ICE - outer edge of the Polar Ice Cap.  The name of this cruise is "Top of the World" Voyage.  We reached the Polar Ice Cap at 12:29pm, ship's position was 80degrees20.8653' North Latitude (579 Nautical Miles from the Geographical North Pole). Our longitude was 10degrees28.6479' East Longitude. The captain slowly nudged the nose of the ship into the ice field.  They assembled the crew out onto the bow for a crew photo.  Captain did not show up - he felt he should remain on the bridge.  It was rather magical to be there!! There was no wind so it was calm and beautiful, very bright.  I was right out on the front of deck 10 taking photos.  I am attaching 6 photos from the Polar Ice.

 

Polar ice packs are large areas of packed ice formed from seawter in the Earth's polar regions, known as polar ice caps: the Arctic ice pack (or Arctic ice cap) of the Arctic Ocean and the Antarctic ice pack of the Southern Ocean, fringing the Antarctic ice sheet.  Polar packs grow and retreat in size significantly during seasonal changes.  However, underlying this seasonal variation, there is a fundamental trend of melting as part of a more general process of Arctic shrinkage.  In spring and summer, when melting occurs, the boundaries of the sea ice retreat.  The bulk of the world's sea ice formsw in the Arctic ocean and the Southern Ocean, around Antarctica.  The Antarctic ice cover is highly seasonal, with very little ice in the austral summer, expanding to an area roughly equal to that of Antarctica in winter.  Consequently, most Antarctic sea ice is first year ice, up to three feet thick.  The conditions in the Arctic are very different (a polar sea surrounded by land, as opposed to a polar continent surrounded by sea) and the seasonal variation much less, currently 28% of Arctic basin sea ice is multi-year ice and much thicker than seaonsl: ranging from 9-12 feet thick over large areas, with ridges up to 66 feet thick.  On August 27, 2008, both the Northwest Passage and the Northeast Passage were ice-free.  This was the first time in recorded history that both passages were open at the same time.  At that point, tthe North Pole could have been circumnavigated, although the icebreaker Polarstern was the only ship to actually do it. 

 

An icecap is an ice mass that covers less han 19,000 square miles of land area.  Masses of ice covering more than 19,000 square miles are termed an "ice sheet".  Icecaps are not constrained by topographical features but their dome is usually centered on the highest point of a massif.  

 

After leaving the ice field, we headed south again along the coast of northern Spitsbergen.  You will see a few shots of cruising along northern Spitsbergen.  There are 4 more photos from this.

 

Enjoy all the photos of glaciers, ice, and snow!  Dick is still looking for the sun and the warm Caribbean.  Not up here.

 

Jan and Dick

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