Longyearben

What a wonderful day.

It began with a good sight of the midnight sun. By the time dinner was over (on Friday night), the sun was shining brightly, and just before and after 00.01, we were able to get some beautiful shots of an up-in-the-sky sun. There was a mist rolling in, however, and some of the pictures were a little obscured.

During the day, we tied up in Longyearben, capital of the Svalbard group of islands. I could have spent days here. I have shown a panorama of the place, and a shot of the snowmobiles, parked for a couple of months on gravel - awaiting the snow. I have not shown the shop-sign forbidding the bringing in of firearms; or Mrs jml driving a team of huskies; or of us having yet another swim in the ship's pool under the gaze of snow-covered peaks.

I spent quite some time in the airship museum which commemorates some of the efforts to reach the North Pole. Amundsen succeeded (by airship), but was killed in a later search for the crew of an airship which crashed. Did you know that Sean Connery starred in an Italian film, called 'The Red Tent', about this incident?

By midnight, we were back at sea once again, and this time the sun was in a cloudless sky. After the disappointments of poor visibility earlier in the week, we could not have asked for better weather than this.

A long and eventful day. Then we are due up at 6am to mark our furthest North (10 degrees from the Pole). After that, it is all downhill!!!