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In the afternoon, we decided to sail north into the pack ice.
As the ice increased, we had to motor slowly with lookouts up in the crow’s
nest. This lofty perch on Adèle is like a lift; with the help of a captive
winch controlled from the nest, it runs 130 feet up the forward part of the
mainmast to just below the top end of the inner forestay. The view is fantastic
and it was easy to spot the ice flows and bergs—although the crow’s nest was
designed more for spotting coral reefs in tropical waters.Finally, at 81 degrees 10 minutes north latitude, we were
wedged in with ice towering all around us. Our jet-driven tender was launched
and we all took a walk on the pack ice. At this, our most northerly point, we
decided a glass of bubbly was in order—for which the champagne chiller was
unnecessary!
 One of the three tenders carried aboard is launched for some near-shore exploration at Svalbard. Photograph by Jan-Eric Österlund. (Click image to enlarge)
In the evening, we returned to Phippsöya and paid another visit
to the walruses, this time staying in the dinghy to see if they wanted to
approach us. As expected, their curiosity got the better of them, and when we
turned off the engine they swam closer and closer until some of them were
brushing our tender with their whiskers. One of my guests told us a story of how her zodiac had been
punctured by walrus tusks the previous year, so I felt perhaps we had better
start the engine. Unfortunately, our engine chose this moment not to turn over.
The situation became more desperate as some of the walruses tried in their
weighty and clumsy manner to climb up onto our dinghy’s aft platform.
 Adèle anchored at this ancient church in
Nærøyfjord. (Click image to enlarge)
I radioed Adèle to get a second tender in the water to
"rescue" us. I said, "We are surrounded by walruses and feeling quite
vulnerable." But the crewman who received the call thought I said,
"…feeling quite wonderful," so he answered, "Excellent, Adèle over and out!"
Confusion reigned for a while, but soon another tender was launched and,
eventually, our engineer was able to fix the capricious solenoid that prolonged
our walrus encounter. The northwesterly wind was increasing, pushing the polar cap
closer to us and threatening to close the passage back around the northwest
corner of Spitsbergen. Aboard Adèle, we decided to turn back and motor-sail as
fast as we could toward the protected islands at Spitsbergen’s northwest corner.
 Hanging out with the walruses in Seven
Islands, north of Svalbard. Photograph by Jan-Eric Österlund. (Click image to enlarge)
The next morning found us at anchor and protected from pack ice. Snowflakes
covered the deck, making our Cayman Islands flag look somewhat out of place. We
continued south with just main and mizzen doing 11 knots; once the genoa was
set, our speed increased to 14 knots. When the wind abated a little after
lunch, we set the mizzen staysail, logging a similar speed.
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