Hornsund: Ice Cruise in Burgerbukta

Wednesday, 6 July (Part II)

Located as it is at the southern end of Spitsbergen, it’s no surprise that the 18.5-mile (30 km) long Hornsund was one of the first fjords to be discovered by the British and Dutch whalers that came to the area in the early 17th century. The fjord was named in 1610 by Jonas Poole, an English whaler. His inspiration for the name — a reindeer antler that was found here. The “sund” portion of the name is a misnomer since Hornsund is not a strait that cuts through to the east side of Spitsbergen as Poole presumed. The fjord was charted in 1872 by an Austrian expedition led by Count Wilczek. Many of the geographic features within Hornsund were, in fact, named at that time.

Our afternoon zodiac cruise will take us to the glacier ahead.

Of the several bukter (bays) in Hornsund, Silver Explorer anchored in Burgerbukta at the head of the fjord, thus affording us an opportunity to see a great deal of the landscape on all sides. But we weren’t satisfied with just viewing the scenery from the ship. Following our unplanned early morning zodiac outing (post here), we headed out for a second zodiac cruise around 9:00a to get up close and personal with … you guessed it … ICE! Ice in the form of bergy bits. Ice in the form of icebergs. Ice in the form of a 1.2-mile (2 km) wide glacier terminus! Pops, crackles, and snaps — the bergs spoke to us in a unique language as our boat navigated the ice-choked water near the glacier. We hoped the giant river of ice would calve and drop more ice into the water, but it wasn’t to be.

No need to use words to describe the fantastic landscape we found ourselves in … just enjoy the images. And yes; a great deal of the ice we saw was that blue! (The ice absorbs all spectrums of light, except for the blue. The older the ice, the more compacted and the bluer it is.)

I love how this berg mimics the shape of the mountain behind it.

Black-Legged Kittiwakes roost on ice that has calved off the glacier.

Before we left the glacier behind, Uli (oceanographer/zodiac driver) fished out a piece of clear ice to bring aboard the zodiac. “Hmmm, that’s fresh, cold water,” he proclaimed after sucking off the exterior saltiness. We let him be the sole taster, but did pass the chunk around to give everyone aboard our zodiac an opportunity to touch a fragment of thousands of years old ice.

I have to tell you … it was awfully difficult to return to the ship when our allotted time at the glacier was up. I could have easily stayed aboard the zodiac all day, exploring all the bits of ice, both big and small.

That’s a pretty big chunk of ice next to the ship!

All wasn’t lost, however. Aboard the Silver Explorer, we had opportunities to watch chunks of beautiful ice floating by on their way out to sea. Here now … gone tomorrow.

A most excellent outing!