Ice and geography herd cruising yachts headed to Svalbard into Tromso this time of year. It is always interesting to meet the folks headed for adventure and exchange visits. Allain, the owner of the yacht above, was our dock mate for a few days. He has covered the same territory in Greenland, Labrador, and Newfoundland as we have.

Most of the yachts headed to the ice are of metal construction.

Aluminum and steel seem to be about evenly balanced. There are a few fiberglass hulls as well, but they are in the minority. All are sail except for Wind Horse.

There is a training ship moored nearby and today they are conducting immersion suit drills.

As well as life raft usage and in this case, righting a flipped raft.

Note the instructor in green to the left making sure the flipper is not trapped below the righting raft.

We’ll be going through our immersion suit practice tonight.

Tromso is known as the Paris of the North as previously reported. Must be the shoe fashions.

Or maybe it is the sculptures?