Hornsund
After making very good speed from Murmansk during the previous day we had a beneficial E.T.A. for our arrival back to Svalbard. The ship was taken around the southern end of Spitsbergen Island and into Hornsund. One story of the place’s name is that the Precambrian cliffs that jut from the bay were seen by sailors who had either been to or heard of Cape Horn, which was named for a Dutch ship called the Hoorn.
The truth is lost to history, but the dramatic relief of the mountains and glaciers that define the bay are impressive no matter their name. Hornsund is a path for polar bears from east in the spring to west in search of shore fast ice and the seals that are molting there. Neither were seen today as the shore fast is gone, replaced by large calved icebergs and bergy bits streaked with geologic samples as the continuing push of ice does its erosional job on the topography. Fresh snow (a sign of the end of summer) was seen from Zodiacs and kayaks that were deployed for the last time this voyage.
This afternoon the ship was taken to the drop off west of Hornsund. The mixing “warmish” water of the North Atlantic Drift and the cold nutrient-rich water of the Arctic cause blooms of productivity that can be a host of whale’s dinner table. A few far off blows were seen, then a few closer ones. These were fin whales, the second largest on Earth. They have been reliable animals to see off the west coast of Spitsbergen the last decade or so. It was a fitting end to a wonderful voyage from Svalbard to the White Sea to Franz Joseph Land and then back to Svalbard.
