In the morning we went ashore in the small bay of Faksevågen, where we were going to do the polar plunge in the icy water. After midnight, a glacier emerged from the fog.
Faksevågen in the green circle
on the Vessel Finder app.
The daily program for June 30.
June 30
We spent the night in fog, and only when it cleared in the morning did we see that we were in a small bay, Faksevågen. Here we would go ashore in the morning. The weather conditions were so much better that there was an announcement that a polar plunge would be possible for those who were interested. I came prepared to dip my toes in the Arctic Ocean and I had brought my water shoes.
We went ashore in the usual way with the zodiac boats and went for a walk on the shingle beach and on the ice. Walking wasn’t easy, and Alex got his leg stuck in a hole on the way back, and I slipped when I tried to go help him. Fortunately, no one was hurt and we had a good laugh about it.
Polar plunge
The time had finally come to enter the waters of the Arctic Ocean. The water temperature was 1.5°C, the air temperature was 2.2°C, and there were ice floes floating in the water. Earlier in the week we were told that you can only last 10 minutes in such cold water before losing consciousness.
We were the last group to go ashore, and out of our group, we were the only ones who were brave enough to go into the water. We took off our winter clothes and stepped into the icy water. The water was so cold that after the initial shock within seconds we didn’t really feel anything anymore. No cold, no pain, just a tingling sensation on the skin that does not feel unpleasant.
Since I suffer from Spondiloartrite, I chose to only get my legs wet and not take a full plunge in the icy water, although I would have liked to. But we did it and both of us got the polar plunge certificate! We got a private zodiac back to the ship, where the deck grill was on and we were treated to (vegetarian) burgers.
My polar plunge certificate signed by the captain and the expedition leader.
In the fog
In the afternoon we enjoyed the lectures, took pictures of the different rooms of the ship and rested. Unfortunately the fog came back again and the cloud observation on deck was cancelled. Also the afternoon scenic sailing got lost in the fog. Before the fog swallowed us, I managed to photograph a group of guillemots (or were they penguins?) and some gulls on an ice floe. We headed for a glacier that we would be able see from the ship around midnight, weather permitting, of course.
The Bråsvellbreen glacier
We sailed further south towards the Bråsvellbreen glacier, which we would be able to see from the ship around midnight if the fog cleared. Most of the passengers called it a day after dinner, but we were back on deck with the same group of perseverers we met outside every day. The ship was sailing slowly, and the visibility was so poor that we could only see where we were sailing in the immediate vicinity. Every now and then it would clear up a bit and we could see a milky sun shining through the clouds and very a long time we could also see a fog bow. It appears just like a rainbow when water droplets are shone on by the sun. Because the droplets in fog are very small, the bow is very pale, almost white. The fog lay like a thick blanket over the sea and landscape, beautiful, silent and opaque, a perfect scenario for a horror movie.
By midnight we came close to the glacier on Nordaustlandet Island, the Bråsvellbreen. This glacier has an ice edge 24 meters high and a length of no less than 180 km, making it the longest glacier edge in the northern hemisphere. The 45-kilometer-long stream flows into the sea on the southern coast of the island.
We sailed on very slowly, peering into the fog to see if we could see anything, and to our surprise, two walruses floated by in the fog, and one even waved at us! Finally the glacier loomed out of the fog, we saw a wall of ice and several waterfalls plunging into the sea. It was a beautiful sight that we had a chance to enjoy for a while before the next leg of the journey.
