Hornsundtind and Iceberg

I found it incredibly hard to choose the photos for today. It was an amazing day. We've had fog and then clear blue skies with brilliant sunshine.

We sailed even further south into the Hornsund fjord. We also encoutered pack ice too, which seems a bit strange moving further south? Apparently the East Spitsbergen Current drove rafts of ice south where the warmer, northerly moving West Spitsbergen Current pushed the ice north along the west coast of the island. Flooding then dragged it into the Hornsund fjord complex.

Along with the fog we sailed into, it was really atmospheric. Our destination was Storbreen, one of Hornsund's glaciers. We really thought we wouldn't see anything but the fog parted just before we arrived at the glacier, giving us our first glimpses. It was an amazing vista. The name Storbreen translates to "large glacier". And it's 15km long and 5km wide!!

We headed out in the Zodiacs to explore...... We had more amazing views of the ship shrouded in mist with Hornsundtind, the fourth highest mountain in the archipelago, in the background.

The extra shots include an ivory gull, a shot showing the pack ice cover and a view of the glacier. Just take a look at the tiny Zodiacs! And I make no excuses for so many extra shots. There was so much to see in just one day.

We had a barbeque on deck this evening, then made our way out of the fjord. The ice was now up to nine tenths thickness, and our ship was at it's limit as it wasn't an ice breaker! We travelled very slowly back out to sea. It was a truly spectacular experience.