En fis­ke­båt hav­net i alvor­lig trøb­bel i Hin­lo­pen­st­re­det nord på Sval­bard, opp­ly­ser Søk- og Red­nings­sen­tra­len i Nord-Nor­ge. Det nor­ske ski­pet «North­gui­der» send­te inn et nød­si­gnal klok­ken 13:22 lokal tid fre­d­ag, og red­ningst­je­nes­ten i Lon­gye­ar­by­en og Nord-Nor­ge ble satt i aks­jon. Snart had­de beg­ge red­nings­he­li­ko­pter­ne fra Lon­gye­ar­by­en let­tet, og den førs­te ankom åstedet klok­ken 15:15, mind­re enn 2 timer etter nød­an­ro­pet had­de nådd red­nings­sen­tra­len i Nord-Nor­ge. Samt­idig ble luftf­ar­tøy­et Ori­on sendt fra Andøya. Avhen­gig av type kan dis­se luftf­ar­tøyene bru­kes til red­nings­oppd­rag til for eks­em­pel å søke etter sav­ne­de far­tøy eller per­soner, eller til å over­våke muli­ge olje­lek­kas­jer.

Sys­sel­man­nens red­nings­he­li­ko­pte­re, her vist under en øvel­se.

Den gode nyhe­ten er at alle ser ut til å være i god behold. Manns­ka­pet på 14 var uts­tyrt i over­le­vel­ses­d­rak­ter og had­de gått til bau­gen for å bli hen­tet av red­nings­he­li­ko­pter­ne. Iføl­ge skipseie­ren er alle ved godt mot og i god fat­ning, omsten­di­ghe­te­ne tatt i betrakt­ning. Ingen ble ska­det eller til­brag­te tid i det kal­de van­net.

Ski­pet «North­gui­der» later til å ha truf­fet grun­nen på kys­ten langs Nord­aus­t­lan­det sør for Murch­in­son­fjord. Ski­pet lig­ger nå på grun­nen med en ca. 20 gra­d­ers hel­ning, men stil­lin­gen ser ut til å være sta­bil enn så len­ge. Været, som med 18 minus­gra­der og ster­ke vin­der (Beau­fort 6) sam­men med mør­ket, gjør red­nings­oppd­ra­get svært utford­ren­de, men det er ingen grunn til å tro at den nor­ske red­ningst­je­nes­tens pro­fes­jo­nel­le ikke skal få alt manns­kap av ski­pet snart.

Kalkstran­dern i Hin­lo­pen­st­re­det, sør for Murch­ison­fjord: her skal ski­pet «North­gui­der» ha grun­net et sted. For­hol­de­ne her er svært for­skjel­lig fra slik det er vist på bil­det, med mør­ke, kul­de og sterk vind.

Kyst­vak­tens skip KV Barents­hav har satt kur­sen for Hin­lo­pen­st­re­det, men er ikke for­ven­tet å nå områ­det før lør­d­ag. Polar­sys­sel, Sys­sel­man­nens tje­nes­teskip, er ikke tilg­jen­ge­lig til bruk på Sval­bard om vin­te­ren.

Opp­date­ring: Red­nings­sen­tra­len i Nord-Nor­ge har infor­mert om at alle 14 manns­ka­per har blitt frak­tet i heli­ko­pte­re til Lon­gye­ar­by­en, hvor de blir ivare­tatt. Ski­pet «North­gui­der» lig­ger fort­satt grun­net, og tar inn vann.

In 2018, again I had ple­nty of oppor­tu­ni­ties to shoot arc­tic pan­ora­mas, making the­se inte­res­t­ing and beau­tiful (well in some cases, it is inte­res­t­ing or beau­tiful) easi­ly acces­si­ble for ever­y­bo­dy. Phy­si­cal­ly, most of them are pret­ty much inac­ces­si­ble for most peo­p­le. A pan­ora­ma pho­to does not phy­si­cal­ly take you to, say, a moun­tain top on Prins Karls For­land, but it is the next best thing – it gives you the fee­ling to be in the midd­le of the land­scape, you can just turn around and enjoy the full view of the arc­tic land­scape.

Over 5 years now, the by far lar­gest digi­tal muse­um of Spits­ber­gen (Sval­bard) has thus come into exis­tance. And it keeps gro­wing. It takes quite some time and effort to turn the 18 RAW files (35, in some cases) into one pan­ora­ma and to make that part of a dedi­ca­ted litt­le web­site or even to turn many pan­ora­mas into one vir­tu­al tour, such as the school / kin­der­gar­ten in Pyra­mi­den. In many cases it has taken years for mate­ri­al to pro­gress on the list to the point whe­re it actual­ly appears on the web­site.

New Spits­ber­gen pan­ora­mas: the round view from Per­sis­kam­men, in the sou­thern part of Prins Karls For­land, is just one out of many
(this here is just a screen­shot wit­hout pan­ora­ma func­tion).

Here is a choice of new Spits­ber­gen pan­ora­mas that we have made during the last cou­ple of months and weeks – a litt­le Christ­mas-/New Years’s pre­sent for the Spits­ber­gen com­mu­ni­ty:

• Pyra­mi­den: School / Kin­der­gar­ten. In Octo­ber the who­le coll­ec­tion of Pyra­mi­den pan­ora­mas had moved to a dedi­ca­ted litt­le map so you can find your way around as you take a litt­le walk through the old ghost town, pos­si­bly visi­ting a buil­ding here and the­re. And we added some new pan­ora­mas, inclu­ding the school / kin­der­gar­ten, which is our lar­gest sin­gle vir­tu­al tour so far – the buil­ding has 3 flo­ors! Other new ones include the old mines.
• Barents­burg: also here we did not just add new mate­ri­al, but we sor­ted the panos on a dedi­ca­ted map, so you know whe­re you are. New pan­ora­mas include the bre­wery, Lenin, the cha­pel, …
• And while we were at it, of cour­se also Ny-Åle­sund had to get its own map to make the who­le thing pro­per. And also here we took the oppor­tu­ni­ty to add some new pan­ora­mas, inclu­ding Amund­sen, the Kongsfjord­bu­tik­ken, the muse­um, the Green House, the air­ship­mast, …
• Let’s get out of the sett­le­ments and into the wil­der­ness. Mur­ray­pyn­ten is a point on Prins Karls For­land with some fine views.
• Ano­ther one on Prins Karls For­land. Nesun­gen is on the outer side of the island, which is expo­sed and rare­ly visi­ted.
• Last but defi­ni­te­ly not least from Prins Karls For­land. The view on Per­sis­kam­men, this lone­so­me moun­tain in the south of the island, is just stun­ning!
• Elfen­bein­breen in Agardhda­len, not far from the east coast.
• Buch­holz­buk­ta is not far from Heley­sund, as far east on the main island of Spits­ber­gen as you will get.
• Pol­hem in Mos­sel­buk­ta was Nordenskiöld’s base during his 1872-73 win­tering.
• Fox­fon­na is a litt­le ice cap clo­se to mine 7. Ama­zing win­ter views in cen­tral Nor­dens­ki­öld Land.
• Rijps­burg on Bohem­an­flya is not just the site whe­re the first com­mer­cial coal mining took place in Spits­ber­gen. It is also a beau­tiful place.
• Final­ly back again to civi­li­sa­ti­on. The taub­a­ne­sen­tra­le (coal cable­way cent­re) is one of Longyearbyen’s eye cat­chers. Nor­mal­ly it is clo­sed, but here and now … – wel­co­me in!
• One of Spitsbergen’s most dif­fi­cult-to-get-to places is the famous Glo­bal Seed Vault). Once again: wel­co­me in!

Enjoy – and hap­py new year!