We sailed from Danco Island in the morning and arrived at Paradise Bay on the Antarctic Peninsula in the early afternoon. Paradise Harbour/Bay is one of only two usable Harbours for passenger boats in Antarctica. The bay is surrounded by sharply-edged and heavily glaciated mountainous peaks and massive domes of snow covering the whole landscape…

Breakfast in the buffet restaurant, lots of smoked salmon on offer so smoked salmon, plain yogurt and fresh fruit will be how I start my days on this trip; can’t imagine anything better. As long as there is smoked salmon on offer I will never starve and in fact I will be able to get it at all three meals so intend to put the theory to the test.

Ship docked this morning in Ny Alesund, the most northerly settlement on Spitsbergen at 78,50 N latitude. One small, unpaved road leading from the dock which forms the main street of the town and which, much like Longyearbyen, is mainly composed of research scientists and fisher people....

Up at 5:45 and down to breakfast at 6:30. We are leaving at 7:30 for the airport and because of the limitations on luggage, both checked and carry-on I have been a little concerned that I’d be paying overweight charges, given that we are allowed one carry-on weighing 8 kilos and I have three filled with cameras and electronics weighing 15 kilos. However in the scramble to load 180 of us on two planes, that seemed a trivial matter compared with checking us all in and loading us so, all was fine.

2.5 hour flight to Longyearbyen on Spitsbergen, the largest island in the Svalbard Archipelago where we pick up the ship at 78 degrees longditude....