CHRISTMAS EVE Didn’t sleep all that well last night; I’d started a tickly throat a couple of days ago that I had put down to the very dry air around the ship, but during the night it had turned into the sniffles – a cold. The first thing I did when we got up was…
Tag: ice
A Day of Maritime History
LITTLE CHRISTMAS EVE Victory awaits him, who has everything in order – “luck” we call it. Defeat is definitely due for him, who has neglected to take the necessary precautions – “bad luck” we call it. Roald Amundsen What an amazing day today turned out to be! We got up at around 7.30am and went…
Aurora-spotting in Ålta
We woke up this morning to a bitterly-cold today; the weather app told us we could expect temperatures today as low as -14ºC. This is Norway in the winter – I would have been disappointed if it hadn’t been cold. 🙂 We enjoyed our breakfast up in the buffet as usual, before venturing out on…
All around Ålta
We woke up at eight o’clock this morning to find the Borealis slowly sailing into her berth in Ålta. Looking out of the window, we could see we were adjacent to the long runway of the airport; in fact we were going to dock in the same place that we had when we were here…
Ice, Ice Baby
We woke up this morning (we’d be in trouble if we didn’t!) and once again looked out of our portholes to see what the new day would be like, weather-wise. Once again it was foggy, but we hoped, like yesterday, it would clear and would be a beautiful day. Today the Boudicca was docked in…
Icebergs, Whales and Glaciers
After a good night’s sleep, lulled gently by the motion of the Boudicca in the clear fjord, we awoke early and looked out of our portholes. We couldn’t see a thing; thick sea fog made it impossible. As we were due to spend the day ‘scenic cruising’ through the Prins Christian Sund we hoped the…
Tasiilaq, Greenland
It was with excitement that we woke up this morning and eagerly looked out of our portholes for our first glimpse of Greenland. We had tried to go to Greenland on a cruise 10 years ago (June 2006) but there was too much sea ice so the ship, the Funchal, couldn’t risk trying to land. …
Looking around Leknes
When we woke up this morning we were in a new port of call, that of Leknes in the Lofoten Islands. Lofoten is an archipelago and a traditional district in the county of Nordland, Norway. Though lying within the Arctic Circle, the archipelago experiences one of the world’s largest elevated temperature anomalies relative to its…
The Frozen North
Sunrise: 9.28am Sunset: 12.53pm When we got up this morning, I noticed my ankle was looking a lot better and the swelling had gone down a lot. Nevertheless, I decided to wear my trainers today instead of my walking boots, so as not to irritate my old scar again. After breakfast we went along to…
Time in Tromsø
Sunrise: 9.26am Sunset: 1.30pm This morning I awoke late and found it difficult to get out of bed. Maybe it was the late night last night, the excess of drink, the dark morning or a combination of all three, but I did feel really sluggish and my bad ankle was throbbing and twingeing. 🙁 After…