The 36 meter steel schooner Noorderlicht celebrates her one hundredth birthday this year.  With ten double cabins for passengers, she cruises along the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean in the summer and coastal Norway in the Autumn. Her winter employment is what makes her remarkable, however.  In February, the Noorderlicht is allowed to freeze in the ice of the Tempelfjorden, a fjord on the island of Spitzberg.  Here she serves as a hotel on the ice for hearty travelers who arrive by dog sled.   The trips are organized by Base Camp Explorer.

Kevin Rushby writes about a visit to the Noorderlicht in this morning’s Guardian.    Thanks to Tom Russell of the Traditional Sail Professionals Linked-In group for pointing out the article.

A hotel like no other in Arctic Norway

A trek to a ship-hotel frozen into the ice in the middle of the Arctic wastes makes for the trip of a lifetime – as long you can keep your feet warm

Far away across the fjord we can see our destination, the ship, but first we pass a glacier, getting off the skidoo to admire the blue ice and spot some large footprints. “Polar bear,” confirms Martin. Sadly the animal does not reappear and we skidoo the last mile to the ship. The light has faded to a pearly blue and the huskies who sleep around the ship are being fed. Without losing a second, we park and clump up the gangplank to the antechamber for partial undressing. Then finally we’re inside that boat.

Instantly we are transported to a world of warmth, steaming mugs, tots of brandy, mahogany and brass, the smells of cooking, books and charts, smiles. Ted van Broeckhuysen is the captain of our immovable ship, the Noorderlicht, and he tells me how it can take a month of delicate manoeuvres before they finally get properly stuck. The ship was built in 1910 and has been through numerous incarnations: a lightship, a hostel for construction workers, a clubhouse and an empty hulk until Ted and colleagues fully restored it.