Today’s world is a fast one. We want to be everywhere as quickly as possible and often we plan even our holidays to the minute. That is why I was happy to be able to go slow this year. Not by plane to Spitsbergen as I do most of the years, but I could board my ship in the Netherlands. Slowly we made our way up, Aberdeen, Fair Isle, Jan Mayen and then the pack ice. Instead of 10 hours, it took us 10 days, many of which at sea. Nice, slow and relaxed. The further we sailed, the colder and more remote it got and the more we got into the right Polar mood.

The day we reached the ice we saw many Hooded Seals, a species we rarely see on Spitsbergen. But early in the season, somewhere off the coast of East Greenland they are quite common. We saw several animals, young and old fairly close to the ship. A nice bonus, but for me the most important was to just go slowly to the great white North.