Sailing Polarisvideo
#83 Expedition Svalbard | High Arctic Sailing, Icebergs & Polar History
March 1, 2026 · 21 min · 3K views · Personhamna, Kongsfjorden, Svalbard
Sailboat Polaris glides past glacier in Arctic waters
What this video covers
Sailing Polaris — the sailboat Polaris crewed by Daniel and Kathrin — navigates Kongsfjorden in Svalbard, approaching the Kronebreen glacier while monitoring an uncharted, shoaling seabed and managing drifting calved ice.1:20 Daniel estimates visible bergs at 2–3 meters above water, projecting roughly 25 meters of draft below, explaining why several strand on a shallow bar.3:07 Anchored in Personhamna at 5.5 meters depth with 30 meters of chain, the crew spends the night fending off drifting bergy bits as wind shifts unpredictably between east and south.3:42 Ashore at Personhamna, they walk the ruins of Camp Mansfield — a marble-mining settlement established in 1911 by Ernest Mansfield and the Northern Exploration Company — where rusting cranes, a steam locomobile, and railway tracks remain.9:00 A guided tour of Ny-Ålesund covers its history as a 1917 coal-mining town now run by the Kings Bay Company as an international research station hosting 30–40 winter residents and over 100 in summer.12:49 The crew also anchors in Bjørnahamna below Temple Mountain in Tempelfjorden, re-anchoring once after gusts swing from zero to 30 knots in five seconds.17:51 A dinghy launch near Van Post Glacier and Tunabreen allows photography of Polaris against the glacier fronts.19:20 The episode closes with a preview of the 560-nautical-mile return passage to Tromsø.21:26
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