Arctic Adventures - Day 2

Longyearbyen Airport

As we were staying at the hotel next door to the airport we were able to go and check-in then return for a leisurely breakfast before we left the hotel, and began the really exciting part of the trip - into the Arctic Circle.   The flight goes from Oslo to Tromso where you have to get off the 'plane and go through immigration, then back on the same 'plane (in the same seat!) to fly to Longyearbyen on Spitsbergen.
Despite the fact that they do this every day, the flight crew were very keen for us to know exactly when we flew over Heligoland (where the heligoland traps were first devised and so named) at 10.45 am, and even more exciting, when we passed into the Arctic Circle at 10.58 am. 
We had ensured that extra layers were available to put on when we landed as we had several hours free to wander around the town where the air temperature was around 6 degrees with a wind chill.   As we walked around the town we took photos of the scenery and watched snow bunting in their summer plumage, there were also Svalbard poppy and several saxifrages. 
Lots of little auks, blue morph fulmar, puffin, black guillemot, and brunnich's guillemot were flying along the harbour.  Purple sandpiper were feeding along the water's edge.

Snow Bunting

Down near the husky kennels a pair of arctic skuas had nested and had two young.   Arctic tern were annoyed by them and mobbing as the skuas flew too near to the terns nest.    The young skua were squabbling and trying to grab each other by the neck - typical skuas - but no parental control!  
There was some talk of an ivory gull, and as one of our fellow travellers was perched on the edge of the beach with a rather long camera lens we decided to investigate.   Good instinct as Roger was photographing the ivory gull, and some rather passable pictures were taken. 
Longyearbyen is a typical outpost-town, with four months of total daylight and 6 months of dark it's not suprising that it has it's own special character, the locals need to be admired for their stoic ability to put up with such a remote setting on a permanent basis.   It was soon time for us to board our home for the next 9 nights - the Antarctic Dream - this vessel is one down from an ice breaker and spends our summers in the Arctic and our winters in the Antarctic.   The sailing crew are Chilean, and the hotel side of the team are from New Zealand, Philippines and the UK, an eclectic mix.   So at 4.00 pm we wandered along the harbourside past skidoo parks (car parks for the rest of us) the church and the old coal mining company to start our cruise.

The Antarctic Dream

Once everyone had joined the ship, and we had been shown our cabins the next challenge was to find our way back to the lounge area for our safety briefing.   This involved the sounding of the muster station alarm, dashing back to our cabin to put the life jacket on then back upstairs again to the muster station and a roll call.   We also had to work out if our cabin was on port or starboard, and then which lifeboat we would go to.   We were assured that they wouldn't leave us behind if we did need to abandon ship and joined the wrong queue.   Let's hope we don't have to test them out!
After dinner most of us drifted back out on deck, with a few warm layers on.   We just couldn't resist watching the passing land- and sea-scape.   We stayed out until 10.00 pm, when a shower and bed called us.  The boat rolled around and the engine was noisy

Ivory Gull

but we went to bed tired but happy to be on the cruise at last.