Oceanwide Expeditions positioned Hondius and Plancius deep inside Scoresby Sund in Northeast Greenland on August 12th, 2026, placing both expedition vessels within the path of totality for the total solar eclipse. The event was the centrepiece of two specially planned Northeast Greenland Solar Eclipse Explorer voyages.
The ships entered Øfjord, one of the major branches of the Scoresby Sund fjord system, as part of itineraries designed specifically around the eclipse track. Oceanwide Expeditions' published voyage information identifies the eclipse observation point at ~70.878°N, 27.286°W in Øfjord and gives the total duration of the event at about two hours.
Passengers were provided with solar-viewing glasses ahead of the event, while the decks became observation areas for cameras, tripods and other equipment. The eclipse began at ~04:30 p.m. local time, with totality occurring at ~05:35 p.m. The full event lasted roughly two hours.
The two voyages attracted passengers with interests ranging from astronomy and photography to Arctic wildlife and expedition travel. Astronomer and former University of Redlands professor Tyler Nordgren was among those aboard Hondius, where he also contributed to the expedition programme with a lecture on the eclipse.
Nordgren described the event as a successful combination of astronomical observation and expedition travel, noting that the clear conditions allowed passengers to observe totality from the remote Greenland setting for which the voyages had been planned.
Scoresby Sund is a major component of Oceanwide Expeditions' late-season Greenland programme. The company operates itineraries in the region that combine navigation through the fjord system with shore landings and extended hiking excursions. Its published programme describes Scoresby Sund as the world's largest and deepest fjord system and highlights the area's icebergs and Arctic wildlife.
The eclipse voyages demonstrate the increasingly specialised nature of expedition cruising, in which ship positioning and itinerary design are built around specific natural phenomena rather than conventional port sequences. In this case, the navigation of Hondius and Plancius into Øfjord was planned around the geographical position of the eclipse's totality track, combining an astronomical event with an expedition programme in one of Greenland's most remote cruising areas.