The captain is reporting: 20:11 Anchorage near Polish Polar Station. 'Oceania' sailed from Tromsoe to Honsund 2068Nm. Expected Time of Departure = ETD Hornsund today 16:00, Expected Time of Arrival = ETA Longyearbyen 6th July early morning.

From Ilona:

Yesterday, after two weeks of sailing we finally saw a land - an island in fact. There were steep and sinister mountains of the South Spitsbergen. We reached the Hornsund Fjord in the night time and were anchoring there for some hours. Two persons are going on the shore to stay in the 'Polish Polar Station' and continue measurements in front of the Hans Glacier according to the AWAKE Project (ocean, climate and cryosphere interactions). Rest of the crew is heading for the Longyearbyen – the largest settlement of the Svalbard Archipelago. After that northern part of our measurements will be continue.

Last days bring us more work – we deployed our shallow water mooring system (some instruments which are seated on the bottom) regardless of the floating sea-ice near the planned destination. Beautiful color of ice pieces – blue, white and turquoise and moreover soft sun light filtered by the Arctic fog made whole operation nice and unforgettable. We finished with all sections south of the 76°30’N parallel. Also biology group successfully obtained next zooplankton samples collected with the net from the several layers of the water column.

So, there is a time for short break in civilization and then we will come back to our sea-work.