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Video | Arctic sailing gets tourists up close with nature and melting glaciers between Norway and the North Pole

Welcome to no-man’s-land. The world’s northernmost township with a permanent population, Longyearbyen in the Svalbard archipelago, is gaining in popularity as a gateway to the icy north for sailing tours

Robert Wolting, first mate of the Arctic expedition sailing ship Noorderlicht, returns in a Zodiac boat from reconnoitring a landing on Alkhornet mountain in Spitsbergen, Norway. Photo: Tessa Chan
Tessa Chanin Bristol

The tiny, iced-over pier at Longyearbyen, in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, is so slippery when I get out of the taxi that I can barely stand, let alone walk to the gangplank with my two heavy rucksacks. The packing list for a week-long sailing trip in the Arctic is, unsurprisingly, long.

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A mining outpost at latitude 78 degrees north, halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole, Longyearbyen is the world’s northernmost town with a permanent population – just over 2,000 inhabitants.

Long considered a no-man’s land, any nationality can live and work visa-free here (Thais are the second largest ethnic group after Swedes, for example). Taxes are low, as is social support. You can neither be born nor buried here – the permafrost pushes everything back up, out of the earth.

The all-Dutch, five-person crew aboard the Noorderlicht, a 20-person traditional sailing ship, is busy preparing for a late afternoon departure as the guests begin to appear. Though dwarfed by a couple of larger ships in the harbour, the former lighthouse vessel, built in 1910, stands out red against the overcast sky and stark landscape the snowy mountains on the other side of the fjord are hidden under a blanket of fog.

A reindeer grazes in Longyearbyen, a mining town in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, halfway between Norway and the North Pole. Photo: Tessa Chan
A reindeer grazes in Longyearbyen, a mining town in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, halfway between Norway and the North Pole. Photo: Tessa Chan

Spirits are high as we sail towards our first stop, the bay of Borebukta in northwestern Isfjorden, as are the temperatures by Arctic standards – a balmy minus 4 degrees Celsius (25 Fahrenheit). It’s spring, and the first birds are arriving in the archipelago.

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Expedition leader for World Expeditions Sarah Gerats tells us a freakishly warm February has caused fjord ice to melt, so our itinerary – exploring the North Spitsbergen archipelago – will be decided daily.

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