Evenes to
Longyearbyen.

Fourteen nights south to north, 17 to 31 July 2027, from the Lofoten wall at 67 degrees to the edge of the pack ice above 80. Five days in Arctic Norway, a full day in the Zodiacs at Bear Island, then nine days north through Svalbard. Aboard the 85.3 metre M/Y BOLD.

A fogbow arching over open leads in the pack ice north of Svalbard
The Charter

Fourteen Nights.
Thirteen Degrees
of Latitude.

Most Svalbard charters begin with a flight to Longyearbyen and end there a week later. This one sails the whole gradient instead. It starts in the Lofoten Islands, where the mountains come straight out of the sea and there are still working fishing harbours in every sheltered bay, crosses the Barents to a bird island almost nobody sets foot on, and finishes among tidewater glaciers and pack ice at the top of the archipelago.

It works because of where the passages fall. There is one open water crossing, 246 nautical miles from Fugløya to Bear Island, and it runs overnight so the days on either side of it are spent ashore. Inside Svalbard the long runs sit on nights when there is nothing to miss, and the last of them is a short hop across the mouth of Isfjorden into Longyearbyen. Fourteen nights and 1,364 nautical miles, and every anchorage on the list gets a working day.

A tidewater glacier front above a foreground of shattered moraine ice, Svalbard
Expedition Highlights

Four Reasons
You Go.

01
Six hours in the Zodiacs at Bear Island, under several hundred metres of cliff and through arches and sea caves, beneath one of the largest seabird colonies in the North Atlantic. Very few charters go, and it is one of the finest Zodiac cruises anywhere in the world.
02
Five days in Arctic Norway before the crossing: the Lofoten wall, the beaches and deep water coves of the southern islands, a working fishing harbour at Henningsvær, and a full day on Senja between Okshornan and Segla.
03
Nine days in Svalbard, from the bird cliffs of Hornsund and the walrus haul out at Poolepynten to the whaling ruins at Smeerenburg and the glacier fronts of Krossfjorden and Kongsfjorden.
04
Two days at the top of the archipelago, held open and decided on the ice: the edge of the pack above 80 degrees where the bears and bearded seals are, or east into Hinlopen for the guillemot cliff at Alkefjellet.
Day by Day

Fourteen Nights
Aboard BOLD.

01Embark
Sat 17 Jul
Evenes
Evenes
Embark · Ofotfjorden · Vestfjorden
Evenes sits on Ofotfjorden at 68 degrees north, an hour and three quarters from Oslo by air and the closest airport to the top of the Lofoten wall. Board in the afternoon. The run out is west down Ofotfjorden, under mountains that come straight off the water on both sides, and then southwest into Vestfjorden with the Lofoten chain filling the horizon ahead. There is no darkness to wait through in July, so the first evening is spent on deck watching the wall come up.
02Lofoten
Sun 18 Jul
Reine & Moskenes
Reine & the Southern Islands
Lofoten Wall · Beaches · Tenders
Wake under the Lofoten wall, a line of granite peaks that rises straight out of the sea and runs for more than a hundred kilometres. The southern islands hold the most concentrated version of it: sheer faces dropping into deep water, white sand beaches in coves that face open ocean, and villages wedged onto whatever flat ground exists. Walk ashore for the high ground and the views back down the chain, or take the tenders into the narrow arms where the yacht cannot follow.
03Lofoten
Mon 19 Jul
Henningsvær
Henningsvær & Svolvær
Fishing Harbour · Sea Eagles · Svolvær
Henningsvær is built across a scatter of islets linked by bridges, its harbour still lined with working boats and the timber racks used to dry cod through the winter. This has been one of the richest cod fisheries in the world for a thousand years and the town is organised around it. Continue north toward Svolvær and on through Vesterålen in the evening. Norway holds the largest white-tailed sea eagle population in Europe and Nordland more than a third of it, so they are usually seen from the deck rather than looked for.
04Senja
Tue 20 Jul
Senja
Senja
Okshornan · Segla · Mefjorden
Senja's outer coast is a row of blades. Okshornan runs down to the water in a line of teeth and Segla stands 640 metres above Mefjorden as a single flat face. Anchor for the morning and go ashore, or up. The island is large and almost empty away from the coast road, and the outer fjords on its north side are narrow enough to be worked by tender rather than by the yacht. A full day here, then run east in the evening.
05Clear Out
Wed 21 Jul
Tromsø
Tromsø & Fugløya
Outbound Formalities · Fugløya · North
Tromsø sits at 69 degrees 39 minutes north and was long the port that provisioned polar expeditions heading for the ice. Clear outbound formalities, take on the last fresh stores, and sail in the afternoon. Fugløya is the last land: a steep island standing alone out of the sea north of the mainland, its cliffs holding seabird colonies through the summer. The expedition team runs the briefings that matter before Svalbard, covering ice, polar bear protocol and the rules that govern landings in the archipelago. From Fugløya it is roughly 250 nautical miles of open water to Bear Island.
06Bear Island
Thu 22 Jul
Bear Island (Bjørnøya)
Bjørnøya
Six Hours in the Zodiacs · Bird Cliffs · Sea Caves
A night at sea across the Barents, which is shallow, cold and extremely productive: fin and blue whales feed along the shelf here in summer, and fulmars, kittiwakes and guillemots follow the ship for hours. Bjørnøya raises in the morning, usually out of fog. This is the day the itinerary is built around. It is the southernmost island of Svalbard, named by Willem Barentsz in 1596 after his crew met a polar bear swimming offshore, and it is a nature reserve with no harbour and no settlement beyond the manned weather station in the north. Spend six hours in the Zodiacs along the south coast. The cliffs run several hundred metres straight out of the water and are broken into stacks, arches and sea caves you can drive a tender into, and in July they carry one of the largest seabird colonies in the North Atlantic. This is, by a clear margin, one of the finest Zodiac cruises anywhere in the world. Sail north in the evening.
07Svalbard
Fri 23 Jul
Hornsund
Hornsund
Landfall · Gnålodden · Tidewater Glaciers
Round Sørkapp and enter Hornsund, the southernmost fjord in Spitsbergen and the first Svalbard landfall. Gnålodden is a bird cliff with a strip of unusually deep green tundra beneath it, fed by a thousand years of guano, and it is one of the better places in the archipelago to be put ashore under a colony. At the head of the fjord, Brepollen is ringed by tidewater glacier fronts. Polar bears work this coast.
08Wildlife
Sat 24 Jul
Poolepynten
Poolepynten or Bellsund
Walrus Haul Out · Bellsund · Either
The day runs at Poolepynten or in Bellsund. Poolepynten is a low gravel spit in Forlandsundet, the shallow sound between Prins Karls Forland and the west coast of Spitsbergen, with a walrus haul out that is used through the summer. Approach on foot, slowly, to the distance the guides set, and sit with them. Bulls come and go from the water, and the group rearranges itself constantly. The whole island is a national park. Bellsund, further south, is a two armed fjord system carrying the remains of both the whaling and the mining once worked along its shores.
09History
Sun 25 Jul
NW Spitsbergen
Magdalenefjorden & Smeerenburg
Gravneset · Blubber Ovens · Danskøya
Magdalenefjorden is short, steep and full of ice. At Gravneset, on the spit inside the entrance, are about 130 whalers' graves, dug between the early 1600s and the late 1700s. Continue to Smeerenburg on Amsterdamøya, the Dutch whaling station whose name means Blubber Town, where the fused remains of the try works are still visible in the gravel. Walrus often haul out on the same beach. Danskøya, next door, is where Andrée launched his balloon for the pole in 1897 and was not seen again for thirty three years.
10The Ice
Mon 26 Jul
The Ice Edge
North Past 80 Degrees
Pack Ice · Above 80°N · Ice Watch
Turn north out of the fjords and run until you meet the ice. In July the edge of the pack usually sits somewhere north of 80 degrees, and its exact position changes with the season and the wind, so the day is navigated rather than scheduled. Work along the edge in open water where the floes loosen, which is where the hunting is and where bears, bearded seals and ivory gulls are most often found. Twenty four hour daylight means there is no wrong time to be on deck.
11The Ice
Tue 27 Jul
Alkefjellet
North Hinlopen
Alkefjellet · Guillemot Cliff · Ice Dependent
The second day at the top of the archipelago is held open and decided on the ice. If the pack is still close and working well, stay at the edge. If it has pulled back, turn east instead into the northern approaches of Hinlopenstretet, the strait that separates Spitsbergen from Nordaustlandet. Alkefjellet stands on its western side, a wall of dolerite columns where Brünnich's guillemots nest in tens of thousands on the ledges, with Arctic foxes working the scree beneath them. Run west along the north coast overnight.
12Kayak
Wed 28 Jul
Krossfjorden
Krossfjorden
Lilliehöökbreen · Signehamna · Kayaking
Krossfjorden runs in beside Kongsfjorden and is the quieter of the two. Lilliehöökbreen closes the head of it with a glacier front several kilometres wide that curves away on both sides. Launch the kayaks here if the ice allows, which is the right way to register the scale of a calving face, and go ashore at Signehamna, where the remains of a German wartime weather station sit in the moss.
13Glaciers
Thu 29 Jul
Kongsfjorden & Ny-Ålesund
Kongsfjorden
Kongsbreen · Ossian Sarsfjellet · Airship Mast
The Tre Kroner peaks stand at the head of Kongsfjorden above the fronts of Kongsbreen and Kronebreen. Ny-Ålesund, near the mouth, is the northernmost permanent settlement in the world and now an international research station. The mooring mast used by Amundsen and Nobile to launch the airship Norge over the pole in 1926 still stands on the tundra behind the huts. Land at Ossian Sarsfjellet for the tundra and the view back down the fjord.
14Isfjorden
Fri 30 Jul
Alkhornet
Isfjorden
Alkhornet · Tundra · Glacier Fronts
Come south into Isfjorden, the largest fjord system on the west coast and the one Longyearbyen sits inside. Alkhornet stands over the northern side of the entrance, a horn of rock carrying a seabird colony on its faces and a strip of deep green tundra beneath it, fed by the birds above. Svalbard reindeer graze it and Arctic foxes work the base of the cliff. The inner arms hold tidewater glacier fronts, and at the head of Billefjorden the abandoned Soviet mining town at Pyramiden still stands if the day runs that way. Longyearbyen is a short run from here.
15Disembark
Sat 31 Jul
Longyearbyen
Longyearbyen
Disembark · Flights via Oslo or Tromsø
Come alongside at Longyearbyen in the morning, at 78 degrees 13 minutes north the largest settlement in Svalbard and the northernmost town in the world with scheduled flights. Disembark after breakfast. Longyearbyen connects to Oslo and Tromsø, and there is enough in the town, from the Svalbard Museum to the old mine workings on the hillsides, to justify staying a night at the end.
A polar bear walking a dark shoreline below snow streaked mountains, Svalbard
A walrus lifting its head and tusks clear of the water, Svalbard
Two puffins standing on a moss covered rock
The fluke of a large whale raised above flat water off Svalbard
A white tailed sea eagle flying low over the water, Arctic Norway
Columnar basalt bird cliffs with clouds of seabirds and a flat topped mountain behind, Svalbard
Three kayaks small against a wide glacier front, Svalbard
White mountain avens flowering on Arctic tundra above a fjord
A guest photographing a Svalbard reindeer grazing close by on the tundra
Walking the crevassed surface of a glacier under a low Arctic sun
The Route

Evenes to Longyearbyen.
1,364 Nautical Miles,
67°N to 80°N.

“Nowhere on the planet can a yacht sail closer to a pole than in Svalbard.”
– EYOS Expeditions
Vast sea stacks and cliffs rising out of fog at Bjørnøya with a Zodiac small at their base
Day 7 · Bjørnøya, Svalbard · 74°30′N

Bear Island

6
Hours in the Zodiacs
536m
Miseryfjellet, the High Point
Nature Reserve
No Harbour, No Settlement
A large raft of seabirds on calm water below sea stacks at Bjørnøya
The Day It Is Built Around

One of the Best
Zodiac Cruises
in the World.

Bjørnøya lies alone in the Barents Sea, roughly halfway between Norway and Spitsbergen. Willem Barentsz named it in 1596 after his crew met a polar bear swimming offshore. It is the southernmost island of Svalbard, it is a nature reserve, and apart from the manned meteorological station on the north coast there is nothing on it.

The south coast is the reason to come. Cliffs run several hundred metres straight out of deep water and the sea has cut them into stacks, arches, tunnels and caves large enough to take a tender into. In July the ledges carry one of the largest seabird colonies in the North Atlantic: Brünnich's and common guillemots, kittiwakes, fulmars, little auks and puffins, in numbers that are audible before they are visible. A wrecked hull sits against the rock with the birds wheeling around it.

You do it from the Zodiacs, for about six hours, because there is no other way to see it and nowhere to land. Bjørnøya is frequently fogbound, which is part of the character of the place rather than a problem with it. Very few charters ever come here.

A Zodiac inside a sea cave at Bjørnøya with turquoise water and daylight beyond
Looking out from inside a sea cave at Bjørnøya through twin rock arches to a Zodiac
A rusting wreck against the cliff at Bjørnøya with hundreds of kittiwakes in flight
A large sea arch at Bjørnøya with a waterfall falling through it into the sea
Sea stacks and an arch at Bjørnøya standing in mist
A Zodiac at the base of towering fogbound cliffs at Bjørnøya
The wreck at Bjørnøya seen wide against the cliff face and gathered seabirds
Aerial of the green clifftops and turquoise bays of Bjørnøya
The Vessel

M/Y BOLD

BOLD is an 85.3 metre expedition superyacht built in 2019, carrying 16 guests in 8 staterooms with 24 crew. She has floor to ceiling glass on three sides, a climate controlled wintergarden that seats all 16, and a helicopter garage for two aircraft. The glass is the point on this route. In July at these latitudes the light never goes, and most of what you come for happens outside the hull, so the wintergarden and the side glass are where the day is spent between landings.

Year Built
2019
Classification
Lloyd’s Register
Length
85.3m (279’10″)
Beam
11.0m (36’1″)
Draft
2.8m (9’2″)
Gross Tonnage
1,551 GT
Guests
16 Guests (8 Staterooms)
Crew
24 (+ EYOS Expedition Team)
Max Speed
23 Knots
Helicopter
Garage for Two Aircraft
Climate-controlled wintergarden seating 16
Floor to ceiling windows on three sides
Outdoor cinema and 6×3m media wall in the main salon
Teppanyaki and BBQ facility on the aft deck
Leonardo AW109 Grand available at additional cost
Aboard BOLD

Sixteen Guests.
Eight Staterooms.
Twenty-Four Crew.

Main Salon aboard M/Y BOLD
Main Salon
Floor to Ceiling Glass
Wintergarden aboard M/Y BOLD
Wintergarden
Climate Controlled · Seats 16
Owner’s Suite aboard M/Y BOLD
Owner’s Suite
Full Beam
Guest Stateroom aboard M/Y BOLD
Guest Stateroom
One of Eight
The Bridge aboard M/Y BOLD
The Bridge
Night Watch
Foredeck aboard M/Y BOLD
Foredeck
Helicopter Deck Forward
A small group ashore on a tundra ridge above a Svalbard bay
Operating It

What EYOS
Does on This
Charter.

Svalbard is a regulated archipelago. Cruise notification and insurance go to the Governor of Svalbard in advance, most of the coastline sits inside protected areas with their own landing rules, and Bjørnøya is a nature reserve. EYOS files the permits, plans the route against them, and holds the relationships that make a late change workable rather than a cancelled day.

An EYOS expedition team sails with the yacht: an expedition leader who sets the daily programme with the Captain, Zodiac drivers, and naturalists who know these particular coasts. Polar bear watch and firearms cover for every landing are theirs. Ice routing and the decision about how far north to run on the ice edge day are made on the day, from the bridge, with current ice charts.

Ice and weather set the order of the days. The itinerary here is the plan, not a promise about a specific bay on a specific morning, and it is written to be reordered without losing anything.

To Discuss This Charter

Evenes to
Longyearbyen.

Fourteen nights aboard M/Y BOLD, 17 to 31 July 2027, from Evenes through the Lofoten Islands and Senja to Tromsø, across the Barents Sea to Bear Island, and north through Svalbard to the edge of the pack ice before disembarking at Longyearbyen. Rate on application.

Enquiries
EYOS Expeditions
info@eyos.com
Online
EYOS
EYOS.COM
Follow Us
@EYOSExpeditions
@EYOS
Download PDF