Category: travel

To Jan Mayen

July 15, 2025 • 8:00 am

Our destination is isolated Jan Mayen Island, home of the world’s most notherly active volcano (the last eruption was 1985). From Wikipedia:

For some time scientists doubted that the Beerenberg volcano [JAC: the big one in the pictures; there are two others] would become active, but in 1970 it erupted for about three weeks, adding another 3 km2 (1.2 sq mi) of land area to the island. It also erupted in 1973 and 1985. During an eruption, the sea temperature around the island may increase from just above freezing to about 30 °C (86 °F).

A nice warm bath! That’s the only thing that would persuade me to take the infamous “Polar Plunge”, a staple of Arctic and Antarctic cruises. You put on your bathing suit, tether yourself to a rope, and then jump into the sea emitting a porcine squeal as you hit the freezing water (3 degrees C).  Half of the passengers did this, which I see as a bizarre form of braggadocio and masochism. However, you do get a nifty badge for your efforts.

Jan Mayan appeared, as if by magic, early this morning, and is the only bit of land for hundreds of km around. Here’s its location from a CIA map given on Wikipedia. I’ve added the arrow. It’s a two-day sea voyage SW of Svalbard:

The island is spoon-shaped, with the spoon part containing the big volcano and its effluent:

. Like Svalbard, it’s also also Norwegian, and is often lumped together with the archipelago.  It has no permanent inhabitants but plenty of gravel. We were told at last night’s briefing that there are 18 inhabitants, most of them members of the Norwegian military, but also two meteorologists. There’s also a gift shop that will be open for our arrival; I’m curious to see what they are selling.

Most ships are not allowed to land there, but with some clever bargaining on the part of our expedition leader, we were given permission to land this afternoon.

As Wikipedia notes:

Jan Mayen (Urban East Norwegian: [jɑnˈmɑ̀ɪən]) is a Norwegian volcanic island in the Arctic Ocean with no permanent population. It is 55 km (34 mi) long (southwest-northeast) and 377 km2 (146 sq mi) in area, partly covered by glaciers (an area of 114.2 km2 (44.1 sq mi) around the Beerenberg volcano). It has two parts: larger northeast Nord-Jan and smaller Sør-Jan, linked by a 2.5 km (1.6 mi) wide isthmus. It lies 600 km (370 mi) northeast of Iceland (495 km [305 mi] NE of Kolbeinsey), 500 km (310 mi) east of central Greenland, and 900 km (560 mi) northwest of Vesterålen, Norway.

The island is mountainous, the highest summit being the Beerenberg volcano in the north. The isthmus is the location of the two largest lakes of the island, Sørlaguna (South Lagoon) and Nordlaguna (North Lagoon). A third lake is called Ullerenglaguna (Ullereng Lagoon). Jan Mayen was formed by the Jan Mayen hotspot and is defined by geologists as a microcontinent.[2]

Although administered separately, in the ISO 3166-1 standard, Jan Mayen and Svalbard are collectively designated as Svalbard and Jan Mayen, with the two-letter country code “SJ”. It was also given the web domain of .sj. However, the domain is not in use and Norway’s .no is used in its place.

Jan Mayen is home to Beerenberg, which is the northernmost subaerial active volcano in the world.[3][4]

And one more factoid (two, actually; bolding is m):

Jan Mayen Island has one exploitable natural resource, gravel, from a site located at Trongskaret. Other than this, economic activity is limited to providing services for employees of Norway’s radio communications and meteorological stations located on the island.

GRAVEL!

And, as Poseidon Adventures notes:

Though it is an integral part of the Kingdom of Norway and there are people living on the island year round, there is no way for a tourist to get to Jan Mayen other than by cruise ship or yacht. Though the island’s stunning scenery and abundant birdlife would easily place it among the world’s top wilderness tourism destinations, only a few hundred people make it to the island each year because of the infrequency of cruises.

We are 180 of those lucky people.  Here are some photos of the Beerenberg Volcano taken from the ship a few minutes ago. We are approaching from the north. Since I have better internet now, the resolution is higher (I had to degrade them by only about 55%). The volcanos arose because the island sites on a number of intersecting fault lines and on the mid-Atlantic ridge.

From inside the ship:

And on the ship’s bridge navigation pane, which is duplicated in the lounge. The position of the ship is the circle, and Jan Mayen is to the south:

Closer in as we pass down the west side of the island to the landing harbor. Note the snow cloud blowing off the peak:

A close-up of the peak and its blowing snow:

. . . and the view from my cabin. I can’t nap when there’s something like this right out the window.

More, of course, after we land and when I get a chance to put in proper photos. What kind of plants and animals will we encounter after our landing. Will I see a puffin? What’s in the gift shop? There are many lingering questions.

Sweets at sea

July 14, 2025 • 9:49 am

We finally emerged from the Great Northern Zone of No Internet, and I finally attained email, which isn’t necessarily a boon. I’m pretty sure I can post more regularly now, and larger photos, too. But I won’t tempt fate.

And, as it’s late in the day (we land at Jan Mayen tomorrow after two days at sea), I’ll just put up the desserts I had in the last day. I swear, the food is very good here, and I try to eat fairly healthy main courses (always with a salad), but the desserts, which are copious and scrumptious, will be the death of me. It’s a good thing the voyage and its meals are time-limited.

Here, enjoy, and of course I’ll have a full account of the trip later, complete with photos. Remember, I limit myself to three small dessert items out of a selection of seven or eight. I will call that “abstemious.”

Dessert at yesterday’s lunch: some kind of trifle with fruit (a BIG dessert) and a small thick vanilla custard with cherries:

Dessert at yesterday’s dinner: a different kind of trifle with raspberry, peach, and cranberry layers, along with tarte citron with a candied lemon slice on top:

On sea days they have teatime in the bistro at 4 pm, and since I deliberately skipped lunch today (yes, food fatigue can set in), I went for tea. Along with the pastry selection, there were cucumber sandwiches, and tuna sandwiches. I had the latter, along with a small piece of pineapple cake and a rather large bowl of chocolate ice cream topped with warm cherries jubilee.

You will be banned for food-shaming, as I always say when I travel. I never eat like this at home, having a latte in the morning, no lunch, a moderate dinner, and NO dessert.

Note: they don’t have desserts at breakfast, but you can still get your load of fat and sugar there should you so desire.

p.s. I repeat: NO FOOD SHAMING!

 

Sea day

July 13, 2025 • 7:15 am

First, If you’re trying to email me, hold on for about five days until we get to Iceland, as I cannot access my email from the ship.

Today are making our way from Svalbard to Jan Mayen island, a mostly uninhabited island between Svalbard and Iceland. We were informed soon before the trip that this island was no longer on the schedule, as the Base Commander (there’s a base) had canceled all tourist ship landings.

Fortunately, our expedition leader managed to secure permission for us to land, and since I can’t look it up on the Internet (it’s all I can do to post), I can’t see what is there. Readers are invited to look it up themselves and then tell me what I can see. Today I rest (insomnia is still with me), go to a few talks, read (the ship has an excellent library of polar-related books), and, of course, eat, though downing three meals a day is sapping my desire for food.

Here is a mother polar bear and cub taken from the ship yesterday, sleeping on a patch of snow. No, they are not dead. Yes, it was taken from a long way away, but 1.5 polar bears are better than none:

 

82 degrees north

July 12, 2025 • 8:30 am

As I mentioned yesterday, the captain and expedition leader decided to do something unusual: take the ship as far north as it could go before hitting the Arctic icepack.  We made it to 82° 00′ 00″, and there we stopped and had a celebration. For this was not only as far north that this ship had ever gone, but as far north as anybody on board, including the naturalists and sailors, had ever gone. I’m told it’s rare, even in the summer season, to get this high.  In winter, of course, this is impossible, as the ice is frozen solid as far south as Svalbard.

There was a celebration on the top (helicopter) deck with champagne, a group photo (including one with a drone, as we’re outside the Svalbard waters where drones are prohibited), and some of the guides dressed as seals, walruses, and polar bears.

Well, here’s yours truly as far north as I’ll ever go (click photos to enlarge, though I’ve degraded them by 85%).  We’re still several hundred km, I think, from the North Pole (I ask a diligent reader to calculate the distance).

. . . and the sea ice at that latitude. Good for polar bears, which can swim over 100 km, leap from floe to floe, and look for seals (or, on rare occasions, whale carcasses).  A blue whale passed by the ship during breakfast, but I could see only the ripples on the surface; it did not breathe while we passed.

Pictures of the day

July 11, 2025 • 10:15 am

I will try posting at least one photo today as I experiment with degrading their quality to enable posting.

This is from Walrus Day: yesterday. We took Zodiacs to the shore where there was a huge pile o’ walruses sleeping. Apparently they do not do this to keep warm, as they’re already too warm (the pink skin in the second photograph was explained as the animals having pumped blood to the skin to cool off). No, they are thigmotropic: they like to touch other individuals. This was my first sight of a walrus, just as the previous photo of a polar bear represented my first view of a bear—any bear—in the wild. Our ship, the Ultramarine, is the in the background of the first photo.

Here goes:

 

 

I am in the high (sort of) Arctic

July 11, 2025 • 7:00 am

Our expedition leader decided to turn the ship as north as it could go: up to the high floating ice that extends up to the North Pole. We are currently at about 81° north latitude, with the ice rearing up out of the ocean.  A dead sperm whale carcass is on our starboard bow, and three polar bears, which I cannot see (but those with good vision can make out), are resting on the adjacent ice floe, delighted to find a Big Meat Buffet.

There is very weak Internet here so I can’t read email, but if you wish to say something put it in the comments.

The trip has been fantastic so far, and I’ve taken tons of photos, but I ask for your patience until I get to a place where we can actually post them. Tons of birds, bearded and ringed seals, and a big pile o’ 30-50 walruses have been encountered, pondered, and photographed.  I had hoped to post photos as we go along, but in this Internet-poor zone this is simply impossible.

I am not sure even this can be posted, but I’ll try. In the meantime, Matthew will put up Hili dialogues as he can.

UPDATE: I’ll try to embed one much-reduced photo.  The fog lifted and, with my Panasonic Lumix lens fully extended, to took a bunch of photos of the lucky bear with more meat than it could possibly eat. If no photo is below, it’s because it wouldn’t embed. Have patience. .

Travel note

July 9, 2025 • 6:45 am

Hi all,

We are traveling around Svalbard and are scheduled to have two Zodiac trips today, one a cruise along the glaciers where we are, and another after lunch to see WALRUSES (walri).

This far north we have very poor ship internet, and it’s very slow. I am unable to post photos, which is a bummer. But I am taking as many as usual, and will reprise our trip photographically either when I get to Iceland or back to Chicago.

It’s a wonderful ship with, I think, only about 140 passengers (it holds 200) and many amenities. The food is good, the crew is friendly and, at this latitude we have encountered zero turbulence.

Matthew is in charge of posting Hili dialogues for a while as I cannot send photos.

On to the glaciers and walri!