Date: 1st July
Latitude & longitude: 79.16°N, 15.30°E
Wind speed: 20km/hr
Wind direction: SE
Barometer: 1020 hPa
Air temperature: 5°C
Sea temperature: 5.8°C

Each morning on the ship, we are to be woken up early for breakfast. Across the tannoy at 7am comes a call — half an hour till breakfast is ready! That message serves as our wake up call and we quickly get ready to feast — a delicious buffet awaits us.

We were still anchored in Longyearbyen Harbour and spent the morning doing some mandatory activities — a Zodiac briefing, an AECO (Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators) informational slide show and a biosecurity check.

In the afternoon we took our first trip out on the Zodiac into a Grand Canyon to make our first landing at Skansbukta. Here, we learned about the gypsum mine that operated from 1918 until the 1930s, marvelling at the remains, which included a twisting railway that led from the mine out towards the loading platform on the shore.

We watched as two lazy reindeer grazed on the grass nearby and we carefully tread around the skeletal remains of another reindeer that had met a grisly end in the jaws of a polar bear — somewhat recently, it seemed!

Later, on our way back to the ship, we cruised past the puffin cliffs to get a glimpse of the puffins swarming and nesting, and then headed back to the ship where Captain Oleg Klaptenko introduced himself and his officers, and officially welcomed us all aboard.

See you tomorrow and thanks for reading!

Love from the A Team
Tanya, Gavin, Richard & Graeme