Cruising the Irminger Sea

 Tuesday, September 10, 2024

This is the route the Vikings would have taken when sailing between Iceland and Greenland. Another sunny day - not too rough, although it got a little bouncy overnight - didn’t bother most people. It was still rolling the next morning - of course Ed and I enjoy a good rock!

Did take a look for the Northern lights again around 10:30 p.m. but didn’t see any. Unfortunately I heard the next day that they were spectacular around midnight. I may try again on the 11th, albeit a bit later than 10:30pm

Fairly quiet day as most sea days are. Did some laundry. The clocks moved ahead one hour again, which makes the morning fly by - you eat breakfast and next you know it’s lunch time.

Betsy walked a mile on the outer deck after lunch. 

Then joined Ed on Deck 7 to finish writing the part two blog for Nanortalik.

Headed to the port lecture at 4:30 pm - these are very informative for the next day’s port - not only getting information on the town and the area but on the specific excursions as well. We are kayaking tomorrow and then ATVing. It will be a busy afternoon.

Attended the 6:30PM lecture on “Why Does Iceland Have So Many Glaciers and Volcanoes?”. The speaker, Dr. Raymond Arvidson, is quite good - he so enjoys his profession and sharing his knowledge with everyone else even if it’s a bit above your heads initially. I think he said Iceland has 33 active volcanoes and many, many other inactive ones. The one near Reykjavik that had been erupting again, shut down this past Saturday. People attending the lecture clapped at that.

Dinner after the lecture followed by a show in the theater put on by the cruise director, Damian Sollesse - he is quite the talented entertainer - having played in London’s West End among other places. Sang pieces from Jesus Christ Superstar (he played Judas), Les Mis, Phantom of the Opera, Frankie Valli, and Grease among other songs. Told us a bit about his background (he’s from England) - both his grandmothers were singers, one of them an Opera singer. Damian’s mom is onboard as well - we met her on the ‘In Search of Icebergs’ tour as she was with us. Very nice person although she said that she doesn’t get much time to visit with him as his job as cruise director is very very busy.

Took a walk up to Deck 9 around 10:30 PM to check for the Northern Lights but we gave up. when I returned to the room I went out on our balcony and took one more picture - it was a dark sky to the naked eye; however, it was amazing what the camera saw - the sunset sky:

Off to bed. And as I said earlier, the Northern Lights did make an appearance - just a bit later while we were snoozing 😴 

More tomorrow,

Betsy