Sailing Polarisvideo
#80 | Expedition Svalbard: Our First Anchorage in the Ice
17 December 2025 · 30 min · 3K views · Svalbard
What this video covers
Sailing Polaris departs Bjørnøya at 0500 on a 165-nautical-mile passage to Hornsund, Svalbard, covering the full transit and first anchorage in Arctic waters.▶ 0:18 Temperatures stay near 2°C throughout; a cockpit enclosure keeps the crew functional during watches.▶ 1:37 Wind shifts 40 degrees repeatedly and backs southeast mid-passage, forcing a jibe and dropping VMG to 2 knots at times before stabilizing at 10–14 knots from the east.▶ 3:15 Approaching Spitsbergen, Daniel and crew stay west of the coastline to avoid floating ice drifting off the eastern shore.▶ 4:58 Before entering Hornsund, they contact the Polish research station by VHF; staff report growlers — car-to-truck-sized ice chunks sitting half a meter above the surface — and clear the boat to enter.▶ 12:08 Ice conditions are tracked on the barentswatch.no app, which shows open water with up to 10% ice cover in the fjord.▶ 14:15 The anchorage, Isbjørnhamna, holds smaller, nearly invisible ice fragments — 20–50 kg, barely breaking the surface — that Daniel identifies as the greater hull hazard.▶ 17:23 Overnight, ice drifts toward Polaris on a 4-knot wind, forcing departure.▶ 20:58 Ashore at Gåshamna, the crew practices polar bear deterrence: a signal gun with flash-bang rounds and a shotgun loaded with one-ounce slugs, with the required two hits in three seconds to the chest as the target standard.▶ 8:03 Invisible bergy bits pose more collision risk than visible growlers.
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