Watching the solar eclipse Mar 20 2015

Today I would have loved to be either in Longyearbyen on Svalbard or on the Føroyar, the Faroe Islands. Then I could have seen the first total solar eclipse in my life. But at least we had fantastic weather with clear blue sky and I could watch the partial solar eclipse.

OK, the eclipse photo first. As a matter of fact it’s a composition of two images. The sun itself, that I photoed with a so called “big stopper” that takes away 99.9% of the visible light. Also a good eye protection, even through the tele lens. But the sky is pitch black on this filtered photo, that’s why I made a shot of the blue sky and merged both images in Photoshop.

Even if it’s quite fascinating to watch the solar eclipse I want to mention the surrounding as well: I stood on the thick ice at the rocky shore of the Baltic sea. Water is open, most ice floes are away, but the shore is still covered with thick ice that is underpinned by large rocks. Therefore the ice is hovering above the sea water and the tiny waves created funny-looking icicles underneath the ice.

Back to the solar eclipse. I never saw a total solar eclipse in my whole life and I’m really longing to see one. I had checked the next total solar eclipses, to check where I can see one.

March 9, 2016 – Indonesia, Micronesia, Marshall Islands – nope, I want to have it way up north
August 21, 2017 – USA. Come on, what did I say?
July 2, 2019 – Argentina and Chile … – That’s not north at all, but at least it’s winter in South America
December 14, 2020 – Southern Chile and Argentina … – Again? What about Europe or Canada or Siberia?
December 4, 2021 – Antarctica – I know, it’s hard to find a place on earth that’s even still less way up north, but for Antarctica I’m willing to make an exception. It would be great to see a total solar eclipse in Antarctica.

I have to check if there’re any opportunities to travel to Antarctica to see this eclipse. But I guess, it’s coming to be expensive! Are there any rich people out there? Who is willing to sponsor me a trip to Antarctica in December 2021? Or parts of it? Please contact me, I have a warm jacket.

The best open air cinema ever Mar 18 2015

That was my place – “high in the bleachers” this night. After taking some photos I unrolled my camping mat and sleeping bag on the boat bridge and laid down to sleep. I didn’t got much of it with the ice cracking under the boat bridge and the fascinating aurora illuminating the whole sky.

Half past three the aurora was still very active, but I decided that it would be nice to continue sleeping in a real bed, where I can twist and turn around.

I never saw the Northern Lights in so many variations in a single night. Sometimes there were some small, but very bright Northern Lights in several directions. It looked like a photo exhibition. Sometimes huge green and violet garlands and vortexes covered the sky. Sometimes the whole sky was filled with faint Northern Lights flickering and whizzing around as I never watched it before. Most time lapse videos are lame in comparison. And when I woke up round half past three a bright crystal star of Northern Light gleamed right above me in the zenith sending its beams over the whole sky. Just amazing!

These photos are really nothing compared to reality.

Yesterday I had a longing to the Arctic. I yearned for being on Greenland, Svalbard or somewhere in Nunavut. Tonight I was comforted a bit – it’s fantastic to be able to see them just round the corner of my home.

A great night but now I had to catch some sleep, I’m working tomorrow.

High+++ Mar 17 2015

… that was the short term Aurora Forecast of Alaska before the server broke down. I never saw such a high level in a forecast before.

Even an hour after sundown the Northern Lights were visible on the blue sky. After a rehearsal with the chamber choir I drove to Harrbäckssand, a small beach near Ursviken. The whole sky was covered with the Aurora, as I never saw it before at home. Unfortunately it was not too bright and faded down while I tried to make some photos.

Therefore just two photos for now:

(But the aurora continued the whole night …)

Opening the kayak season Mar 15 2015

“4:45” showed the clock when I woke up this sunday. Seventy minutes later I stood at the shore – just on time to see the sunrise. My kayak still was fixed on its cart with paddle, camera and dry suit inside.

I put on the dry suit, pushed the kayak into the water and started the tour. When I left home it was -6 °C and parts of the sea where covered with thin new ice. Thin enough to melt under the day but thick enough to give me a hard time to break through with the kayak.

I’m always a bit nervous when I stick my paddle into the ice. Will it break one day? But until now it went well. Sometimes it was easier to take the hand and pull the kayak ahead. And sometimes, when the ice got really thick I used the paddle to hack small holes into the ice that I used as handles for pulling me forward.

But after a time I reached open water and paddled along some old ice floes that were much, much thicker.

And a bit later I came to the huge icy surface, that lays between the mainland and the islands Norrskär and Bredskär. I got out and stepped onto the ice. I think, this is the first time that I stepped onto the sea ice from my kayak. I wasn’t nervous, first of all is this old ice really thick, I should guess at least 30 centimetres, probably more. Then I always wear my completely waterproof immersion suit when I make a kayak trip in winter.

After a short break I continued the tour and headed to the island Gåsören. On the outer shore there were some impressive ice floes left.

The oast of Gåsören is still ice covered

It took a while until I could go ashore, because I had to cross another field of new ice. I took a longer rest and took of the dry suit. Ugh! Like always I sweated in the thick neoprene suit and now I smelled like a dead Puma. I took on some other clothes and first it was quite chilly. The spring sun however had enough power to warm me up and soon I took of my gloves and cap.

Most snow has melted and beside of the ice covered rocks at the eastern bank Gåsören almost looked like spring was here.

After a while I dressed for paddling again, entered the kayak and returned to the starting place. With the last ice behind I had a beautiful view of the islands Klubben, Flottgrundet, Gråsidan and Nygrundet. With the blue sky and the blue sea I had the feeling of leaving the winter behind me and paddle into the spring.

When I was home again the thermometer showed +7.3 °C. Almost spring!

Home in Skelleftehamn Mar 13 2015

I’ve been home again for some days. The weather in Skelleftehamn is between winter and spring. The sky is clear and the nights are cool (last night for example -7 °C) but as sun the sun comes out the temperatures rise soon to degrees above zero.

Parts of the ground are covered with hard snow – in my backyard i measured 45 cm – but other parts are completely free of snow and I’m waiting for the first flowers to come out and blossom.

The Baltic sea is mostly free of ice, but near the shore and in some sheltered harbours there is still a thick layer of ice covering the water. And since the night was quite cold, parts of the near harbour that was completely open yesterday was covered with thin new ice this morning.

Two photos that I made near the small boat harbour Tjuvkistan this morning:

I could walk over the ice to some islands that still are connected to the mainland or I could take the kayak and paddle to some islands, too. But to be honest – I’m quite lazy after the long journey and I guess I stay home today and take it easy.

Just testing the travel computer Jan 14 2015

I just have to test the computer I take with my on my journey before I leave tomorrow.

Copying images to Lightroom: CHECK
Finalising in Photoshop: CHECK
Uploading photos to the blog: CHECK

And here’s the test photo from today: The fence in my back garden.

I’m almost a bit sad to leave this fine place but the pleasant anticipation prevails.

Oh yes.

Publishing a blog article: CHECK

T minus 35 hours Jan 13 2015

Now I’ve made up my decision: I’ll start my journey on Thursday round 11 o’clock. That’s only 35 hours left! I’ll have to work all day tomorrow to manage my departure in time. Mostly it’s packing the zillion things I’ll want to take with me, but I have to continue and finish the installation of my travelling computer (my old MacBook Pro) and we all know: Working with computers always takes more time than planned and excepted.

Anyway, I managed to take a photo of the cement carrier Sunnanvik that regularly goes ashore in the bay nearby. Look how ice-covered the foredeck is! I would have preferred a wide angle lens shot from a lesser distance, but the whole bay was clear of ice some days ago and the new ice is much too weak to bear me.

That’s probably my last photo made in Skelleftehamn for long. When I’ll write the next blog post, I’m probably in the midst of Swedish Lapland already.

The magic ice world Jan 12 2015

Today I was in another universe. At least it looked a bit like it.

After my adventure on the “ice shelf” last night I longed to see the place by daylight. Breakfast was late but so was sunrise and right after I’ve eaten I drove to Näsgrundet again. We had -17 °C (more or less the whole day by the way) and some snow crystal fluttered out of the grey stratus clouds. I put on my grödels – simple crampons – to be able to go on the ice slope. Soon I stood at the rim and looked down into the calmed down sea. The view was quite impressive …

… but …

it would be great to see the ice walls with its icicles from the seaside. It’s not, that I didn’t think about it before, that’s why I had both my waterproof camera and my waterproof survival suit with me. I undressed a bit (not the funniest thing when it’s -17 °C outside) and slipped into the red suit. Then I took the camera and glided into the water. And that’s where I entered another universe. But enough words, the photos! Here they are:

I really loved to paddle in the ice water and to look at the ice walls that where decorated so beautifully wich icicles. Since the attached rubber gloves are waterproof, but not warm at all, my right hand index finger didn’t like the adventure as much as I did and got a bit of frostbite (it still hurts a bit but nothing serious, fortunately). And that’s how I looked like today when I took all these photos:

Winter intensifies Jan 12 2015

Did I write about the “just normal” winter two days before? Well that changed a bit. Right after I wrote the last article the snowfall intensified and brought 10 cm new snow within 16 hours. It got both windier and colder and still snowed a lot.

Today¹ I took a walk round the small lake Rudtjärnen. Snow fell in thick, heavy flakes and made it impossible to look farther than 100 meters. The squalls whirled up the snow morphing the view into a grey-white nothing. And it was even windier on the slope by the lake. The trees on the 2nd photo were hardly 50 metres away!

That was a nice and not so long walk (which was intended since I don’t want to overstrain myself right after the infection), but it wasn’t enough. I wanted to go out again. And so I did. This time with food and drink, (of course) my camera, my new flashlight and my new down clothes for some testing. I already guessed that I couldn’t drive to the small boat harbour because the way wasn’t ploughed and snow was too deep for my car. So I decided to continue to the peninsula Näsgrundet. What a piece of luck!

I dressed up for cold weather, lit my new strong flashlight and went to the rocky beach. Normally the shore descends to the open sea but not tonight where – I couldn’t believe my eyes – the shore was an ice shelf rising up at least one meter before dropping into a black nothing. I could hear the sea behind but I couldn’t see it. Where am I? What happened? Then I heard a rolling wave and – SPLAT! – I could see water and foam rising high up behind the brink and clashing onto the ice shelf! It took a moment or two until I realised what happened: The brisk northern wind presses the waves ashore where they rocket up into the air several meters. I guess that the water and foam first landed on the rocks where it probably froze almost instantly – remember, it’s -15 °C out there. The rocks became more and more ice covered until they vanished under a growing layer of ice. When I came to this place this evening some parts of the ice were already two meters above sea level! And still some of the waves managed to toss a lot of water onto the ice where it froze and enlarged the ice shelf. What a fantastic experience!

I was both happy to be out there and a bit disappointed that I couldn’t share this moment. If I at least could take a photo, but how to take pictures of waves when it’s so dark. Wait a moment – dark? – My new flashlight was described as extremely bright – Let’s test. I switched the flashlight to the brightest mode, laid it onto my backpack and adjusted the beam to the waves. Then I took tripod and camera and started to experiment. And that’s the result:

I’m impressed. The new Flashlight is really bright. So bright that I can take such pictures at night time. (For the photo freaks: 1/20 sec at f / 4.5, ISO 1600. 35mm)

OK. The flashlight succeeded the test. But what’s with the rest? I was curious how warm the new bought down parka and down pant would be. I just wore a single layer of woollen underwear and my thin but windproof Norrøna-jacket, mostly to test the fur under the down clothes, that was all. (Not mentioning boots and gloves, of course). I’ve been out more than an hour, first taking pictures, then measuring wind and temperature, than taking my frugal evening meal. And yes – the Marmot down combination is as warm, snugly and cozy as it looks like. Almost too warm when sitting although we had an average wind speed of 10 m/s resulting in a wind chill of -27 C. That’s good to know.

Now I’m longing to sunrise. I want to visit the spot again and take some daylight pictures. That’s perhaps evan a reason to postpone my journey another day. I’m not in a hurry. But tomorrow, when I’ll visit the place again I’ll wear something less water-sensitive than down, because tonight I always expected a huge monster wave would flood half the shelf and soak me completely.

Finally just two selfies from today, one when I walked round the lake, the other when I sat outside after the evening meal.

Foot note:

¹ As a matter of fact: Yesterday. It will already be Monday when I publish this article.

Some vocabularies for my German readers:

squall – Windböe
down – (hier) Daune
foam – (hier) Gischt
flashlight – Taschenlampe
fur – Pelz

For equipment nerds:

Flashlight: Nitecore EA41 Pioneer
Down clothes: Marmot 8000M Parka, Marmot 8000M Pant. Older (or simpler) models.

Just for the archives:

Friday 2015-01-09 21:45	ca. 30 cm	-4.6 °C
Saturday 2015-01-10 13:40	ca. 40 cm	-7.1 °C
Sunday 2015-01-09 09:15	ca. 45 cm	-8.6 °C
Sunday 2015-01-09 16:55	ca. 52 cm (47 cm backyard, 57 cm front yard)	-15.0 °C

Just a normal winter Jan 9 2015

Living at the coast of the Bothnian Bay, the most northern part of the Baltic Sea can be a bit surprising, when it comes to weather. Let’s take the weather one year ago, for example. January started with rain falling on the frozen ground and the roads where so slippery that you hardly could use the car, even with spiked tyres on it. (German article: “Eisflächen”). One week later we had a lake effect in Skelleftehamn and got 83 cm of snow on bare ground within 24 hours! The city Skellefteå, hardly 20 kilometres away got a millimetre! (German articles: “Schneekanonen 2014”).

Just now we have winter. Just winter. It’s -5 °C – not too warm, not too cold. There a 30 cm of snow in the backyard – not very much but not very little neither. And it has been snowing for almost two days, not much, but anyway. That’s what the Swedes call lagom, a word that’s perhaps translated best with “just the right amount”.

The high water mark of the Baltic Sea sank from +104 cm to +40 cm within the last days, leaving the beach of Storgrundet covered with ice and fresh fallen snow making the high water completely invisible.

The lake Snesviken is covered with ice and snow, too and parts of the old boat that I photographed two month ago have been vanished in snow as well. The sky is grey and the trees on the other side of the lake look a bit blurred since it is still snowing. Not much, just lagom.

I’ve been ill since sunday but today is the first day where I feel better. Tomorrow I’ll start with the last preparations for the tour and I planned to depart on next Wednesday, the 14th. I’m really looking forward to travel way up north and will hopefully provide you with many articles and photos – as long as my laptop doesn’t freeze do death.