To the North Pole on the Yamal (1998)

By Rich and Fran Juro

For some unknown reason, we decided to head to the North Pole at the top of the world. There were no nations there, but we found an “expedition ship”. Not exactly a cruise ship, but the Yamal was a Russian nuclear icebreaker that promised to get us to and back from the North Pole in two weeks. 

We flew to Longyearbyen, the capital of Svalbard, Norway. Svalbard is an archipelago in the far north of Norway in the Arctic Ocean. Because of the few people and the far northern climate, Svalbard was chosen as the repository of the seeds of the world. But Norway doesn’t allow nuclear ships in its coastal areas, so we were supposed to take a helicopter from Svalbard to the Yamal. 

Obviously, the icebreaker was big enough to land a big helicopter.

Stormy weather prevented the chopper from flying,  so the company chartered a large fishing boat. Most people got seasick in the turbulent waves, but for those  who weren’t, they plied us with alcoholic drinks. In either case, the 100 or so tourists got to the Yamal.  

For those who pictured in their mind how the icebreaker chewed the ice of the Arctic Ocean, the Yamal has enormous jagged teeth (see picture) painted on its bow. For 10 months a year, the Yamal works as a conventional icebreaker. It cleared the way north of Russia in the Arctic Ocean to open a sea lane for merchant ships. In July, there’s a month of nuclear reactivation and general maintenance. Then there’s August, when the ice north of Russia mostly is melted.  So the crew change from single rooms to doubles, to make 50 rooms for the 100 tourists who clamber on board. The Yamal makes two 2-week journeys to the North Pole in August. 

The food was good; not like a regular cruise ship, but we didn’t expect it to be. Not surprisingly, the borscht made by the Russian cook was excellent. The souvenirs were made and sold by the crew, except for the T-shirts. We bought a couple. Because we were so far north, we never saw darkness in those two weeks. It was very strange.

The only mammals we saw were polar bears. One day, we saw a mother bear and her cub in the distance. She wasn’t going to endanger her little one, so the two moved off and vanished. One night (it was 3 AM but it was very bright) a young male polar bear (below) was curious about the ship. Adult polar bears are not threatened by any other animals (except humans) and this adolescent came right up to the ship. The crew kept feeding him so he’d stay close. It was a Kodak moment that lasted over an hour. We saw no seals, walruses, foxes, or other animals. except for a few birds when we were close to land.  Frankly, it was sort of boring most days, but it was interesting watching the ever-changing ice too. They didn’t have lectures, so we read a lot of books.

It was the only ship we’ve taken where the single men outnumbered the women, probably because the far North appealed to males rather than females. The Yamal furnished us parkas; they were warm but not stylish. We made friends with one middle-aged single woman named Lily from New York City. When Lily saw Fran’s polka-dot rubber high boots, she said: “My goodness! Fran is now the fashion police!”

As I mentioned, there was a big helicopter on the Yamal. One day we took a ride in it to view the ice. It didn’t land on the ice because the ice was so thin in spots that the helicopter would have sunk into the Arctic Ocean. It was thrilling when we took off, and landed, but there was nothing to see but ice. And the Russian helicopter was very noisy too.

One of the passengers, Charles Veley, was “The Most Traveled Man in the World”. Charles had been to the 195 nations in the world (which was our goal) and was done with the Century Club list of 330 destinations. He had compiled a list of 949 territories, enclaves, isolated islands, etc. No one had completed it but Charles was ahead.  As a young man Charles founded a technology company, sold it, and now devoted his life to travel to obscure places. He left his pregnant wife to travel to another of the places on our itinerary. Charles said: “The only easy way to get to Franz Josef Land was on the Yamal”. Franz Joseph Land was a group of islands north of Russia that we were supposed to stop at on the way back from the North Pole.

In the 20 years that the Yamal had been an icebreaker, this was the first time that the August ice was pretty solid from Svalbard northward. There were Japanese passengers who had GPS devices that showed them exactly where they were, so there was no fooling them. The goal was the North Pole, 90 degrees latitude. Eventually the ship had to stop at the latitude 88 degrees and 25 minutes, short of the goal of the actual North Pole. The captain explained to us: “The Yamal could make it [it was a nuclear icebreaker] but not in the two weeks allotted to it. There was another group of passengers awaiting at Svalbard to board the next trip.” So we didn’t make it to the North Pole. But everybody disembarked the ship and a gala “North Pole Party” was held on the ice. (Pictures below.)

We didn’t have time to stop at Franz Josef Land on the way back so the Most Traveled Man in the World was disappointed twice. But Fran and I weren’t.