Our first two days had not only delivered incredible weather and northern lights, but also an ocean full of orcas, with the odd sprinkling of a humpback here and there. These two days even astonished the locals. We now decided to push further east in search of the large pods of humpbacks. Pods mythical in size, perhaps.

And just as daylight broke, right on cue a large pod of humpback whales surfaced nearby. At least a dozen if not more. An almost fabled and the morning had just begun. 

A young humpback whale, tired of his mother's incessant search for herring, decided to stretch his wings and let his soul fly like the large winged New Englander he was. He breached again and again! Over and over, we witnessed this youngster leap out of the water in delight, from afar, and from nearby. Video after video, photo after photo. Everyone had a chance to not only watch, but record this magnificent splendor of nature on full display.

Wild Northern Norway at its finest.

After a wonderful morning with orcas, it was time to slowly head back towards Tromsø. But we still had a few hours in our pocket to play with. And so it was decided by our intrepid expedition leader Christian Engelke, supported by his trusty assistant Beau, to make a pit stop at Finnkroken for a few hours in the early darkness before heading back to Tromsø.

After a fascinating historical talk by Jo Martin, Oyvind and Helen (the pier owner and local inhabitants in Finnkroken), right on cue, the sky started to light up. One phrase... Northern lights!

The time was only 16:30 in the afternoon when the sky began to lighten. The northern lights continued to strengthen and dance its way across the sky, until reaching its peak activity at around 18:00. The sky literally exploded! Hues of intense green were superseded by reds, pinks, and purples. Colors so intense it at times it became a white hot streak, dancing and shimmering all across the sky.

Mother nature rewards those who are patient and we got one last hurrah of color in the sky!

How would you describe life in Greenland?
You live in small communities. The largest community on the east coast has around 2000 inhabitants. The communities on the west coast are a little bigger and this is also where we find the capital Nuuk, which has around 18,800 inhabitants. The life in Greenland is family oriented, and very far from all type of consumerism and status symbols. The distances are great and the infrastructure is unlike our own – there are no road and train connections. In Greenland you are completely dependent on flight, helicopter and boat connections. To go between smaller settlements in the winder time, they use snowmobiles or dog sleds, and during the few months of the year when the ice loosens its grip, they can use smaller boats.

Greenland is an island in change, life and opportunities differ on the east and west coasts. Traditions and pride are strong among the Inuit population, while new influences and opportunities in education, work and technology, mostly on the west coast, create a developing Greenland.

What do you love most about Greenland?
I get that question a lot. The nature in Greenland is magnificent, with deep fjords filled with iceberg, high snow-capped mountains, small communities with colorful houses against a background of the world's second largest ice sheet – the Greenland Ice Sheet. But Greenland wouldn't be so special if it weren't for the amazing people who live there. Because the island is isolated and quite expensive to get to and from, large parts of its population lack the opportunity to travel outside of Greenland. Therefore, there is a great need among the population to meet and talk to visitors. All the Greenlanders I have had the privilege of meeting have been incredibly hospitable, curious and open. Amazing people from whom I have learned a lot. While they are curious about the outside world, they also cherish their own culture, traditions, and way of life. If you come as a guest to Greenland with an open and curious mind, you will be warmly welcomed.

Could you tell us about the food in Greenland?
Most of the time I have spent in Greenland I have been on the east coast, in small settlements where logistics and connections are few. In these places, hunting and fishing are large parts of everyday life to supplement the goods that can be imported. With the Greenlandic terrain and climate, it is difficult to grow fresh produce that we are used to in Europe. A supply ship visits the communities on the east coast once in the spring and once in the autumn to supply them with goods that last a long time. The vegetables and the fruit you find in the store are mostly frozen to last longer, a smaller range of fresh fruit and vegetables is flown in from Iceland, but this is both expensive and in a small scale.

The Greenlandic diet consists largely of fish and seal meat, as these are fished and hunted locally in Greenland. My diet for long periods in Greenland consisted mostly of seal meat, a dark red meat that taste best when grilled with lots of pepper and thyme. It was also a great honor for me to be offered raw seal liver during a hunting ritual on the ice. It showed that I had really been accepted into the fine Greenlandic culture and meant a lot to me personally. The liver was so fresh it oozed heat.

You talk a lot about the importance of getting the outside world to Greenland. How do you mean?
Although Greenland belongs to Denmark, it is an isolated part of the world. Employment is low, it is difficult to get an education and many of the community-supporting jobs such as police and fire brigade are held by Danes. But with tourism comes more opportunities for work and economic growth to the people of Greenland. It becomes a mutual exchange of personal meetings, experience and opportunities.

How do Svalbard and Greenland differ?
I usually say that Greenland is like a mixture of Svalbard and Northern Norway. But the fjords are deeper, the mountains are higher, the icebergs and glaciers are bigger. The small communities are like blobs of color, almost like fairytale villages. In addition, Greenland is much greener than Svalbard and has its own special culture and ancient traditions. There is not as much animal life in Greenland as in Svalbard.

Is there a chance of seeing any wild animals?
The extent of wildlife depends on which part of Greenland you are in, but generally you can spot humpback whales, seals, reindeer, arctic foxes, and musk oxen.

What are the chances of seeing a polar bear?
On Svalbard there is a relatively high concentration of polar bears in a small area. Greenland is so much bigger, so the chance that you will see a polar bear on our Greenland trips is very small. But at the same time, we carry weapons when we go ashore on the east side, because you never know. There are also musk oxen that you must respect.

What type of traveler will get the most out of a trip to Greenland with PolarQuest?
A person who is genuinely interested in nature and would like to experience a stunning landscape. Greenland is also for the one that has a curiosity for new cultural impressions and openness to communicate and learn from people from a culture very different from our own. If you are curious and open-minded, there is a good chance that you will be invited for coffee when we visit isolated Inuit communities. The Inuit will want to share everything with their big, almost toothless smiles and try to communicate in any way they can. We will do some disembarkation with hikes and the terrain is not always super easy.

What will the weather be like?
In summer, the weather is stable with a temperature of between 10 and 20 degrees. The large ice cap provide constant high pressure.

Can you tell us about the different trips?
We travel with the luxurious expedition ship M/S Balto. She carries only 12-passengers just like two of the ship we operate in Svalbard, M/S Sjøveien and M/S Stockholm. The first trip of the season is in June and we start in Ilulissat on the west coast. In mid-July we will do a life-affirming adventure of 26 days as we travel from Ilulissat on the west coast to Scoresby Sound on the east coast. In August, we will do 3 expeditions in the northeast Greenland.

What characterizes West Greenland?
The Disko Bay area is known for its diverse and astonishing landscape, including unique geological formations, deep fjords, springs and caves, magnificent towering icebergs, and impressive glacier faces. The ocean is home to humpback, minke and pilot whales and ashore we might meet reindeer and Arctic foxes. There are significantly more people living here than on the east coast.

What characterizes East Greenland?
A wonderful and dramatic nature and the feeling of being at the end of the world, in the most positive sense. The communities are extremely isolated here and the silence unreal. The chance of seeing polar bears and musk oxen is greater than on the west coast. The east coast of Greenland is to me the most beautiful place in the world.

What do you think the guests will take with them from the trips?
An almost religious feeling of the magnificence of nature, fond memories of the atmosphere on board and warm meetings with local people. A greater understanding of how to protect one of the last unspoiled wildernesses in the world!

These were the words of Henrik the day that he got off M/S Quest in Longyearbyen, Svalbard:

"I have been a part of planning this rescue exercise for four years. A total of four days of exercises and lectures. Today was the Grand Final with Mass Rescue Operation from one of our ships. A large-scale, realistic and very instructive exercise that took place both in Svalbard, at the PolarQuest office in Gothenburg, the rescue center in Bodø and the Arctic Explorer office in Tromsø."

Henrik, who attended this event on M/S Quest?
ARCSAR is an EU-funded network with many members. Involved in this project were 20 different organizations from 12 different countries, most of which had at least one representative on board M/S Quest. We were a total of approximately 50 people on board including a journalist and a film crew. In addition to that, the ship's crew, myself and four guides from PolarQuest participated. Overall, it was an impressive collection of knowledge in Arctic maritime safety.

Read more about the organizations that participated:
https://arcsar.eu/project-consortium/

Which guides from PolarQuest were on board during this trip?
Martin Berg was the expedition leader, and the guides were Zet Freiburghaus, Johan Carlsson, Miriam Vermeij.

Read more about our guides here!

How come PolarQuest was involved in this project?
About four years ago, the organization AECO contacted our CEO, Marie, and told her about this project and that they needed someone to organize the whole event. PolarQuest was naturally interested in doing so and Marie then gave me the responsibility to be charge of this project.

What is AECO?
Back in 2003, PolarQuest co-founded the organization AECO (The Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators) to regulate tourism on Svalbard and promote sustainable, safe and environmentally friendly tourism in the area. Today, the organization is a prominent representative of the expedition cruise industry in the Arctic and a beacon for those who want to work with sustainable tourism. PolarQuest CEO Marie sits on the board at AECO, where she previously also was the chairman.

Learn more about AECO here:
https://www.aeco.no/

What was your task in the project?
In this project, I had a role as coordinator, meaning that I got a core position in everything that had to do with the practicalities – planning the trip, organizing the activities on board and keeping in touch with the ship M/S Quest. You could say that PolarQuest hosted the event and that I had a very central role which meant that I was involved in most things regarding this project.

During the planning stage of the project, what kind of questions could you get?
It could be all sorts of questions, e.g. Is it doable to set up cameras on board? Is it possible to fill the ship with smoke? Would it be okay to use the ship's lifeboats? It was a big variation of very fun and different questions and challenges that were interesting to solve.

Why did it take four years to plan this project?
It didn't. The plan was that we would carry out the event in 2020, but the pandemic put a spanner in the works and caused all trips to Svalbard to be cancelled, for two full seasons. Finally, in the season of 2022 and for the first time since the pandemic, we were able to return to Svalbard and complete the project.

Could you explain a little bit about how the schedule was set up during your days on board?
We spent three full days out at sea and the last day we spent ashore in Longyearbyen. The guides along with the ship's crew had their usual role as always in any expedition cruise with PolarQuest. The expedition started as a regular trip with PolarQuest, we had a safety briefing and made landings at New London, among other places. However, the guides' lectures on board were exchanged for lectures given by the various participants within ARCSAR's network. On the third day, the great disaster exercise was carried out, which went on throughout the day. At the last day ashore in Longyearbyen we went through the entire exercise step by step, we also divided ourselves into groups and dug deeper into different concerns and problems..

Where on Svalbard was the ship located during the disaster exercise?
For logistical and security reasons, we could not place the M/S Quest in the remote location of the scenario in the exercise, but we had a simulated position and an actual position. The simulated position was outside off Phippsøya while the actual position was in the Sassenfjord, not too far from Longyearbyen. As there is no form of contact with the mobile network at Phippsøya, this was not a method of communication that we were allowed to use in the exercise. All communication included in the exercise was via VHF radio or over satellite phone.

Could you tell us more about the disaster exercise itself?
The entire exercise was based on a Mass Rescue Operation (MRO), i.e., a rescue operation involving many people. In our case, we had 50 passengers on board plus guides and crew, a total of almost 80 people. In an area like Svalbard the first one on scene, in case of an emergency, would most likely be another ship followed by a helicopter. Therefore, we practiced so-called ship-to-ship rescue.

The scenario was that at eight o'clock in the morning, the fire alarm went off because of a fire that had broken out in the engine room on board the M/S Quest. To make the exercise feel all as lifelike as possible, everyone on board had a specific role to play- as a panicked passenger or a person who suffered an injury for example. To make things even more authentic, they had theatrical make up put on.

M/S Quest's regular crew was also involved in various ways. We wanted to test everything from the rescue operation, new technology and the human factor. We had a gathering up in the lounge and we launched M/S Quest's own lifeboats. The passengers on M/S Quest were all to be evacuated and this was done by lifeboats and life rafts to the Coast Guard's ship as well as through a helicopter. Smoke divers from the Coast Guard also came on board to reinforce the smoke diving actions made by the ship's own crew. A lot of new technologies were also tested such as thermal imaging cameras from drones, sending distress signals from small handheld tracking devices to satellites and using mobile signals to count and track people.

What task did you have during the exercise itself?
I was not involved in the actual exercise, but I drove one of the "real" Zodiac boats. We had to be prepared for different scenarios in case something would go wrong in real life, and a person would fall into the water for example.

The staff here at the PolarQuest head office in Gothenburg were also involved on this day, can you explain how?
The office in Gothenburg was contacted by phone by various parties when the alarm went off, the rescue center in Bodø were the first ones to call. After that phone call, the exercise was in full swing even in the office where various calls came in from shipowners and even an inquisitive journalist. The staff at the office devoted the whole day to this exercise to see through our routines, preparedness and actions. This was a very useful and instructive exercise, both for our staff in here Gothenburg and for the staff out in the field.

Why was this project carried out?
A big reason was to increase the cooperation between all parties and to build trust between tourist ships, rescue stations, etc. We wanted to examine how we work, how do we collaborate, how are we organized and what common resources are there. We also wanted to test new technology for search, alarm and rescue.

Was the project successful and did you feel that you learned a lot from it?
It was all very successful. I was a little nervous before, because I knew that there were many components that would work together and unite, but the weather was on our side and all the collaborations worked excellently. I learned a lot more than I could have imagined.

Do you know if there are any plans for another project like this in the future?
I know that there is a strong will to continue with such collaborative exercises in the Arctic, but there are no concrete plans yet. After all, the first step is to show the usefulness of this exercise and then try to arrange funding for continuation. Maybe it will then be in some other place than Svalbard, Arctic Canada, Iceland, the Faroe Islands or Greenland for example?

Learn more about M/S Quest.

Learn more about ARCSAR:
https://arcsar.eu/

Articles on ARCSAR disaster exercise:

Video from Sjøforsvaret about ARCSAR disaster exercise:
https://www.facebook.com/Sjoforsvaret/videos/1194383081125806

The main rescue center in Bodø:
https://www.hovedredningssentralen.no/trente-pa-evakuering-fra-cruiseskip

Norwegian Defense:
https://www.forsvaret.no/aktuelt-og-presse/aktuelt/slik-trener-de-sammen-pa-arktisk-beredskap

Highnorth news:
https://www.highnorthnews.com/en/innovative-catastrophe-exercise-be-held-svalbard

Smith and Myers:
https://www.smithmyers.com/arctic-rescue-exercise

HeliHub:
https://helihub.com/2022/09/21/artemis-plays-key-role-in-arcsar-rescue-exercise/