Published 19 years ago, updated 5 years ago

Vagabond is now back in Longyearbyen, after a summer on the East coast of Greenland, as a logistical base for 2 scientific projects. After over 9 months frozen in ice on the East coast of Spitsbergen, on 13 July Vagabond finally found her way out of the ice and sailed across the Greenland sea, to Ittoqqortoormiit. Not far from this small village, at the entrance of the very large Scoresby Sund fjord, a very international birdwatching crew was waiting for us.

Then we started to understand more about these fascinating little auks breeding in steep slopes and flying far off shore, above the ice pack, to get food for their chicks. While we left the birdwatches to study birds at Kap Hoegh colony, we sailed Vagabond through the ice pack, heavier than the past 6 years, to allow the scientists to use the CTD and the plankton net every few miles. Endless counting of birds. Great ice atmosphere, fog patches, sometimes sailing, sometimes drifting when too much ice; a female polar bear with her 2 cubs eating a seal. 500 miles in total, 25 plankton samples, 36 CTD casts: a job well done.

The second project brought us further north, in the National Park. The French geology crew was first welcomed by the tail of a hurricane; 45 knots of wind pushing Vagabond to fight against the waves, also moving away all the drifting ice for the next 3 weeks of the expedition. What a change from the previous weeks! Between Kong Oscar Fjord and Kejser Franz Joseph Fjord, where there are many large and deep fjords, we sailed with the geologists in constant sunny weather. After 17 stops and many walking hours, Vagabond was loaded with more than 150 kg of rock samples that will be studied in France. There was also muskox, northern lights, and a nice time with 2 members of the Sirius patrol, going all around north Greenland every spring with their dog sledges.

Seven days of sailing with a small crew, with better weather than expected at this time of the year, took us back to Spitsbergen. Damocles, a big European project about arctic oceanography, part of the International Polar Year program, will use Vagabond. Again frozen in ice on the East coast of Spitsbergen, the polar yacht will be a base camp for testing new equipment before sending it to various places in the Arctic Ocean. CTD casts and weather observations will carry on all year round. We are also happy to use our experience from the first winter, to keep on living in the Arctic, winter and summer. At least 4 dogs will join us this time, to better move around and watch for polar bears. We saw almost 90 of them last winter!

France Pinczon du Sel and Eric Brossier

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