ABSTRACT
In the present paper we focus on narrow straits Akselsundet and Heleysundet, the parts of tourist and industrial routes. The Akselsundet Strait was used by coal boats on the way from the open sea to the coal quay Kapp Amsterdam located at the head of the Van Mijen Fjord near mining settlement Svea. The Heleysundet Strait is located between Barentsoya Island and Spitsbergen. In both straits the flow is driven by semidiurnal tide. The Norwegian Pilot (2016) reports the maximum current up to 7 knots in Akselsundet and 9 knots in Heleysundet. The current velocity in Akselsundet was measured with ADCP AWAC for the water column of 45 m depth in 2015/2016 according to the request of Port Captain in Svea. Surface velocities in the Heleysundet Strait were deduced from the ice trackers deployed on the drift ice. A simplified box model of tides in the fjord was developed for the estimates of slack water period. In the paper we compare numerical estimates of the slack water periods in Akselsundet with field data collected by the ADCP. In Heleysundet the slack water periods and current velocities are calculated and compared to the ice drift velocities.
