The cruiser set out again from Brunsbüttel on 30 November. She had been spotted there by a Royal Air Force reconnaissance aircraft the previous day, but the British failed to understand that her presence at the port meant she was about to sail. "Admiral Hipper" was escorted by four torpedo boats for the first stage of the voyage. She refuelled from a tanker at a fjord near Bergen in Norway on 1 December before proceeding north. Meisel wanted a period of bad weather to help hide his ship from British patrols while passing Allied occupied Iceland, and he operated to the south of Jan Mayan island for the next several days. During this period, the cruiser refuelled from the tanker "Adria" on 2, 3 and 5 December. After the weather worsened, "Admiral Hipper" passed through the Denmark Strait that separated Greenland and Iceland on the night of 6/7 December. She was not detected by the British.