A day of housekeeping interspersed with being on deck to watch us go around Bear Island. Bear Island has no bears, only 8 people living on it. They were very excited to see us - it was the first sunny day since April (it's usually shrouded in fog). They let off a flare by way of greeting us. We spent 3 1/2 hours sailing around 3 sides of the island. Tom went to an enrichment lecture on historic ships and we met up at the Golden Lion pub at 12 noon for the triv...

Today we slept in until next door's alarm went off at 6.50am!! We had breakfast in the Lido, then the Captain announced that Longyearbyen was expecting snow storms with 50 knot winds, making anchoring, and therefore tendering, impossible. So we motored up to their harbour, turned around and left!! We motored out really slowly so we could enjoy the stunning and desolate views. Whilst we were on deck a man offered to take our photo - he turned out to be the harp...