We woke up this morning with a lot of trepidation to find the island completely lost in fog. We had been planning and studying the weather for days to see if we might get a chance to land.
Jan Mayen is a remote volcanic island 500km of the east coast of Greenland administered by Norway. It is the site of the most northern sub aerial volcano in the world which sits on the north end of the island at over 2000 metres called Beerenberg. It also has a long history from Dutch and British whaling, Norwegian hunting, volcanic eruptions to the weather war of World War Two.
Today it is the site of a weather station and Norwegian military base. The island is a natural fortress with no safe harbour on any side. The coast is open to large ocean swells on all sides making it impossible to access in anything other than perfect weather from the right direction. There is only a gravel airstrip but it’s strictly for military use only and the odd allowed private charter. So arrival by expedition vessel is pretty much the only way to visit. Only 3000 arrive per year and many of them don’t land due to unsuitable conditions on the beaches.
So today I was chosen to be one of the first drivers to attempt to land on the island. Conditions appeared to be very good apart from the lack of visibility. The first zodiac loaded up with some of the team and disappeared into the fog. I picked up the last of the team and set off after them. Navigating by waypoint hoping to spot land. The fog was really thick and it was difficult to imagine the bay we were driving into. Then finally something appeared out of the grey. It was a small sailing vessel anchored in the harbour, and as we got closer the cliff face finally loomed into view.
Suddenly it was like we just stepped out of the fog there was the beach looking perfect. The Norwegian Base Commander was waiting for us there. We approached the shore and saw our luck had come there was barely a ripple on the shore. I dropped my passengers and the remaining gear off at the beach and started navigating back through the fog to the ship. Now we just needed the conditions at the beach to hold during our activities.
I arrived back at the ship via gps picked up two more drivers. We then loaded the passengers and started shuttling them to the shore. Just under 100 guests safely brought to this once in a lifetime spot. As we were shuttling the sun came out and the fog started to lift. Soon we could see the ship. As we finished with guests, I loaded my zodiac back onto the ship and got a ride back to the beach.
Met the commander, he was very welcoming and delighted to talk to us. He even has some T-shirts and hats to sell for the islands crew welfare fund. Rare items that our guests were delighted to purchase.
I started out supervising visits to the old 17th century whaling station then hiked 3km over the hillside for the vista on the other side of island. The island is made up of volcanic ash from the eruptions. The last of which was in 1985. The ground is soft and sandy making hiking a bit tougher. A colony of little auks nest on the island and the island is now considered a nature reserve. The slopes are green from hardy plants and mosses. It’s somehow barren and beautiful at the same time. We couldn’t quite see the volcano it was still covered in cloud. The guests were lucky as a huge pod of beluga whales swam by the little auk colony. The sun was shining hard and we had a wonderful 6 hours exploring the public sections of the island. Soon it was time to go home. We said our good byes to the commander, the last of the guests had already taken themselves home in the shuttles. Then we took the zodiacs back to the ship and started to sail away. Visibility far better than we had earlier that day. As we sailed past the Beerenburg we had one more suprise. A blue whale crossed our path. We stopped to watch it and to our delight it swam right up to us. An incredible sight for all and a very special moment. Finally we set off on our way to the Greenland ice edge. Tomorrow we start searching the wildlife in the ice. Best day ever!
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