The lovely Sea Spirit gracefully conveys us back to Longyearbyen, a 2-day journey across the open sea between FJL and Spitzbergen, no land in sight. On deck this morning, overcast, with sun filtering through to light up the grey sea, flurries of snow. Wonderful!

People are beginning to mutter about when will we get wifi again. We have been 10 days with absolutely no connectivity at all. No wifi, no phone reception, no radio, no TV, no news, no nothing. Have I missed it? Not for a second! Will I be online at the first opportunity? Hmmm, we’ll see. It will be busy in Longyearbyen and there will be other things to do so I’ll probably save it for when I’m safely ensconced on my Hurtigruten ferry, the Nordlys, on Monday night.

Superb lecture this morning on light phenomena, most of the team have specialties and give lectures – all interesting, well presented, accessible, we had one on ice the other day – again, wonderful!

And it turns out we were even further north than our announced Farthest North: 81⁰ and 12’ which has delighted everyone.