Day 6

At 23:00 we set off from the port of Longyearbyen towards the north through the open Arctic Ocean, between the land of Prince Charles, and the largest island of the archipelago – Spitsbergen.
The first watch of Mutek and Bartosz to the height of Barensburg. The next is Tomek and me.

fot. Michał Mutek Zieliński
Started. Very long and high wave. Tomek, we finally sail through open Ocean for the first time. Domino’s effect on Tomek began Bartosz, later on downhill – the Gourmet culinary festival continues. I am an observer. With one leg I hold Bart so that he does not fall overboard. Put a bucket on the water line at 7 nodes to collect the on-board cleaning cloth. More and more new characters on the stage of the first Polish Splitboard Expedition to Spitsbergen. Waves increase and adopt more and more irregular forms. Horizon is lost for more and more as if it disappeared in the valleys. It is difficult to catch a glimpse of something

immobile to move away the seasickness. We are sailing stubbornly because the road to the new probably is rarely simple and easy.

fot. Michał Mutek Zieliński

The sailing has been going on for over 22 hours … still. We should make it. Because we really decided on this northern jump in a rather risky release. We set off at the end of one storm in this area, having a conventional day to reach the 170-mile bay, which is able to give us shelter from the next south, which should launch a storm larger than the previous one in these waters 20 hours after our departure . Time, however, we believe in the success of this decision. We must try to be able to reach the freeride-interested regions during the time of the weather breakdown. Uncertainty mixed up with fear as if it were not. I do not have much to be a sailor and experience at sea, but I have not seen such large and irregular waves yet. When everyone came down under the deck for reasons … because they had to. A man stays alone with the vastness of the ocean, he does not know the boat, but this one gives the impression that he is heading completely differently from the one leading it.

fot. Michał Mutek Zieliński

The morale of the crew jumped only after passing through the strait which fortunately proved to be unobstructed. There was a risk that the few meters that we need will be covered with ice or crammed with migratory country, then after 15h of sailing there would have to be a retreat to Berentsburg directly under the stern of the storm. However, fart. The land of Prince Charles is enveloped in seas that defacto look like boulders. If it were not for the curiosity of two males with huge daggers, we would probably overlook them.
This time in the ocean is a test of determination of our mountain freeride fantasies. How much can we give for snow, for … passions.

fot. Michał Mutek Zieliński