Sailing to Jan Mayen

This summer's vacation was a three weeks long sailing expedition to Jan Mayen. Jan Mayen is a volcanic island belonging to Norway, located north of Iceland at 71 degrees north. Basically in the middle of nowhere!! Big parts of Jan Mayen are covered by glacier and at the northern part, the world's most northern active volcano, Beerenberg, is located, with a peak at 2277 meters above sea level.



Our route: Stavanger, Haugesund, Florø, Jan Mayen. Then via Shetland to Stavanger on our way home.
Almost 2000 nautical miles in 23 days.

We were four people onboard a 37 feet sailboat. It took us five days from Florø to Jan Mayen. We were extremely lucky with the weather and winds - so the trip over was actually quite pleasant!



Quite relaxed on my watch enjoying the sun rise.

I was courious of how it would be to sail in the ocean for five days, in open waters with no land or boats or anything except ourselves, some birds and maybe a whale or two. There are no helicopters or any other means of rescue that can reach us that far out in the ocean, so we were completely left to ourselves. And I loved it!



We even had some nice, warm weather half way across the ocean - which we enjoyed big time.
Not a lot of wind at that point, but quite relaxing onboard.

There are no harbours at Jan Mayen, so we were a bit nervous of how it would be to leave the boat. Due to the restrictions on the island, there are only two places you are allowed to enter; at Baatvika on the east side, or at Kvallrossbukta on the west side. We were lucky with the weather and direction of the wind and could leave the boat at Baatvika when we visited the island and did not have to move her. It would take us about six hours to get her to the other side of the island.



Our boat at anchor at Baatvika with Beerenberg in the background. Beerenberg is the world's most northern active volcano and one of Norway's peaks above 2000 meters (2277 meters above sea level).

Due to the nice winds (or lack of wind really), we could leave the boat for long hours and explore the island. Because of the restrictions, one is not allowed to stay for more than 24 hours on the island - but that gave us plenty of time to make some really nice hikes and explore the fascinating nature that this volcanic island has to offer. We used a small inflatable dinghy to take us on land.



With the dinghy on land. We often had survival suits while in the dinghy, as we sometimes had to jump into the water to get on land. And in the artic ocean, the average water temperature is around 4 dg C.

For facts about Jan Mayen, see http://www.jan-mayen.no/