Start of the Polar Bear Expedition with Oceanwide Expeditions in Svalbard. The weather was magnificent and clear blue skies when we left Longyearbyen. We traveled north and planed to proceed to the sea ice to look for polar bears. Once we reached the pack ice it was much thicker and dense as expected and even with the ice rated ship we could not proceed through the ice as planed. Even the fjords were still closed with fast ice and we could not even get into any of them in the north. The expedition leader then decided to go south and I will report further in the next post. But we passed the 80th parallel north and that was the furthest north I have been. Great to be in the ice and stunning landscapes.