Day 6

Today we visited a couple of glaciers around Svalbard and took some zodiac cruises around them. We landed on an island and walked around an old research facility that has been long abandoned due to the harsh conditions. While we we walking around enjoying the magnificent views of the glacier, we were apparently close to a nesting site for the arctic terns. Now two of these terns obviously saw me walking along paying absolutely no attention to their nest or their eggs, decided I must be a threat and began swooping me. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to spray on my tern repellent. Anyway, I managed to escape that ordeal unscathed and with both eyeballs intact.

This was our last day in Svalbard and our last chance to see polar bears. Unfortunately, the bears hadn’t got the memo and we left without seeing any.

That night we left Norwegian waters and headed out into the open sea. The swell was substantial and the ship began rocking and rolling. Walking around the ship became a challenge and we found ourselves staggering around on unsteady feet. My theory that the more you drink the straighter you’ll walk proved to be false.

Day 7

Today was a sea day. Lidia slept like a cat all day. She is not enjoying the movement of the ship in the ocean swell.

That evening after dinner, Lidia went to bed early and I meandered up to the observation lounge, ordered a nice single malt; neat, and settled in to sip and listen to the onboard entertainment. They have a guitarist and a pianist and both are excellent.

After a couple of sets, they announced that they were going to have a trivia contest. The subject turned out to be musical theatre, with a bit of classical music thrown in by the pianist, Roelof. Both of these topics are my jam, and so I took an answer sheet, named my team “party of one” (sad, I know) and topped up the whisky glass. There were 20 questions and I missed one, winning the contest. The question I missed was “in the movie Titanic, what song did the band play while the ship was sinking?” I have a problem with this question for many reasons:

A.       The Titanic movie is not musical theatre

B.       Who the hell knows what the band were playing?

C.      They ask a question about the Titanic while on a ship hurtling through the Atlantic Ocean, dodging icebergs at night?!! What’s wrong with these people?

Day 8

Today we spent most of the day sailing through the open sea towards a tiny, remote, volcanic island called Jan Mayen. We arrived in the afternoon, not expecting much. The sea looked rough and the island was covered in fog. There is a massive volcano called Beerenberg here. Now I know where the chutney comes from. We couldn’t see Beerenberg due to the fog, and we weren’t hopeful that we would get off the ship, since the swell normally prevents zodiac landings here. In fact, only one in ten cruises manages to go to the island.

Turns out we were in luck! After a little while the fog lifted, the sea calmed and an expedition team was sent out to assess the situation. They reported back that a landing  was indeed possible, so we geared up and took off on the zodiacs for a beach landing on the black, pebbled beach of Jan Mayen.

This place was extremely picturesque. Dramatic black cliffs, with red iron ore painted across their faces, competing with bright green vegetation draped over the top. It made for a striking demonstration of the beauty of nature.

We hiked up to a peak where the views were spectacular. We still couldn’t see Beerenberg, unfortunately, but we did see puffins from afar.

While we were on the island, the weather changed and the sea became rougher. I went back to catch a zodiac back to the ship. As the waves crashed around us, I managed to get into the zodiac without too much bother. One of the other passengers, an old guy, almost fell backwards out of the boat. One of the expedition crew were helping him and managed to save him from a dunking, however the rescue left the crew member off balance, and the next wave came in, swept him off his feet, and dumped him in the surf.

It was a wild, wet trip back to the ship and I was happy to get back to our room and change into dry clothes.

Day 9

Today was another sea day, with not much to do other than eat, drink, go to the gym and take time to ponder life’s great mysteries, like why it is that humans love crunchy things like potato chips, but a piece of eggshell in your omelette is the worst experience ever.

There were several lectures in the lounge which were interesting and a chat with the officers aboard the ship. We found the Hotel Director, Philippe to be the most interesting. He takes care of the ship’s orders, and we learnt that this ship takes 8 tonnes of marine diesel at a cost of US$500,000, or $760,000 Aussie dollars. In addition, with a passenger and crew count of about 400, we go through 2,400 eggs per day, 21 bottles of champagne, 55 bottles of white wine and 60 bottles of red wine.

Tomorrow we reach Iceland.