The Circle, 7/1/24

 

At my age, I've gotten kind of used to maybe sleeping, maybe not, and I am a very light sleeper, so when the ship slows and skews her arse end around to dock port-side, I wake up.  Then I need to get up to "see what's going on."  Always curious or possibly nosy.

I probably wasn't asleep when we pulled into Rorvik close to 10pm as one of our sister ships, the Richard With, was pulling out to head south, photo below. (We're heading north).  Most of the time they toot their horns (howdy!), but at this time of night, they skipped that ritual.

Later on, she slowed again and began that backing her arse end around (haha, I know that's not the proper term) to port so as to dock.  I was definitely asleep; it was roughly 2am when she sailed into Brønnøysund.  I got up and peeked out the closed, room-darkening blind.  Not much to see below except a forklift doing its thing.  Then I craned my neck to the left and gasped!

"Jimmy!" I called.  "Wake up!  Come see this!"  You know he loves me if he can tolerate hearing words like that at 2am.  "Look!"

All agog, I pulled on long pants and my jacket and ran out (barefoot) to a bigger and somewhat cleaner window to take these pics.  What a breathtaking sight!  I stood for many moments taking this in, so happy at that moment to be a light sleeper.  Is it sunrise?  Or is it sunset?  Or is it just a summer sun phenomenon at 2am?  We are getting close to the Midnight Sun.  Dunno.  But I promise you, it was a wonderful sight.

Eventually I went back to sleep.

Broken clouds the next morning.

Rugged skylines interspersed with tiny villages.  Does Norway have islands?  Do bugs rule the world?  We've never seen so many islands, from gigantic to barely a few stones visible above the water.  Thousands and thousands of islands.  Some look like they're from Middle Earth or Jurassic Park, others are placid or populated.  

And then came the announcement the passengers were awaiting!  It was time.  On the port (left) side, a small island came into view.  And an invisible line.

The magic number 66° 33’ marks this line, the Arctic Circle, north of which the Midnight Sun shines. Above the line, you can see the sun 24 hours a day throughout the summer.  This globe marks the point, though the virtual line shifts by almost 15 meters over the course of a year.  We crossed close to 11am.

Everyone cheered!  Some danced.  Music was playing.  Celebration time!  Not our first time, Jimmy and I crossed the invisible line when we flew into Fairbanks several years back.  OK, but seeing this and being a part of this was a lot more exciting than flying into Fairbanks!

Next up, tho fairly far in the distance, was Svartisen (dead center), Norway’s second largest glacier.  It stretches over 370 sq kms (or 143 sq miles) and has as many as 60 glacier arms.  We didn't get much closer.

And then, all of a sudden, when you feel like you're the only ones in the world, a couple of boats show up next to you, and zip past.

Svartisen Glacier.

Such a fine day!  I feel good enough to be almost all better from my cold, hooray!  And the seas are so calm, like glass, we barely feel like we're at sea.  This afternoon the ship is stopping in Bodø, and Jimmy and I have booked an Arctic walk tour, so I'll post that later on.  Is this a cool day so far, or what?  Wowzers.