Hamburgbukta to Moffen Island
We arrived this morning to the northwestern tip of Spitsbergen Island, a region rich with history. After breakfast we headed ashore by Zodiac into a small bay surrounded by snow-draped mountains. This was Hamburgbukta, or “Hamburg Bay,” named by men who came north from Hamburg to hunt whales here in 1642. They made a small settlement in this protected bay, not far from where the Dutch were whaling at the time. Onshore there were remains from these early times, as well as a collapsed wooden shelter used more recently by Norwegian hunters in the 1900’s. Our cultural historian, Carol Knott, explained to us a bit about the artifacts and shallow graves that we stepped cautiously past during walks ashore. The tundra here was thick with mosses and hardy lichens, and it appeared that the resident Svalbard reindeer had never made it to this isolated peninsula. Snow buntings were flitting about, and a pair of arctic skuas was warily keeping us away from their nest site where they were incubating this season’s clutch of eggs.
Raising anchor, we continued on our path northward past the smaller islands of Danskøya and Amsterdamøya, each steeped in arctic history. This area was the initial focus of whaling activities by the Dutch in the beginning of the 1600’s, and had also been the launching point for numerous early attempts to reach the North Pole.
Rounding the northwestern edge of Spitsbergen, we turned eastward across the northerly shores, mostly still bathed in snow. We steered into Woodfjord in search of wildlife, finding some beluga whales, and minke whales and eventually three polar bears far out on the fast ice, including a mother and cub. We plied slowly for a while through the soft ice in their direction, but eventually turned back, not wishing to further carve up the habitat where these bears hunt for seals.
From Woodfjord we turned northward toward the low-lying island of Moffen, a walrus reserve. Shortly before reaching Moffen, another polar bear was sighted, this time out on the drifting pack ice. The captain inched the ship closer with delicately slow movements. The bear occasionally raised its head to peer at us over a snow bank, then went back to resting. We eventually were right next to this very relaxed bear who gazed at us and then resumed napping. He got up and walked fifty feet away to another bump of snow that he stood on, and then flopped across in a casual manner. We lingered with incredible views, and then pulled away to go and view walrus in the water and hauled out on Moffen Island.
As the midnight sun arced across the northern horizon, we made our way eastward towards the Hinlopen Strait.
