Reykjavik - At sea - 7th August

The weather has changed and the glorious sunshine of yesterday has given way to cloud and some wind.

We had our breakfast, this time without boiled eggs, and then walked down into the town to go to the tax refund office to get the tax back on Wendy’s sweatshirt. On the way, we saw our first Silversea jackets! I spoke to one of the passengers who said the ship had docked last night. We learned later from Anna, the restaurant manager, that it had in fact docked at 5am.

We found the tax office and managed to get our 500 Kroner refund. We went round the corner to see the Silver Explorer at her berth in the harbour.
 

We walked back to the apartment to meet Joy and Craig. We loaded the car with all the bags and Craig and I drove down to the harbour to deliver the bags to the ship. We returned to meet Joy and Wendy, before Wendy and I went for a drive to see the Pearl.

 

From the Pearl, we drove to the Laugardalsholl Sports Centre where Wendy sang in 1994.

From the sports centre it was a short drive to take a look at the Heigars church. The church had four spires, a white façade and a modern interior.

 

As we left the church, we noticed the magnificent brass, or bronze, door handles. Here is a close-up of one.

We then drove back to Budget to deliver the car and were taken by their shuttle bus to the boat.

It was great to be welcomed back on board by so many people we knew. We went through onboard registration and then sat with Joy, Craig, Laura and Brion drinking Champagne. It was then down to the dining room for a buffet lunch. Robin West, our expedition leader, announced the cabins were ready, so we went down to 322 and unpacked.

Our last view of Reykjavik, as the last passenger bags were being loaded on to the boat.

At 4pm we had the Emergency Drill instruction, which was followed by the ship leaving port at 5pm. As we pulled away from the quay, I managed to get a photo of Captain Alexander (second from the left), who had been our captain on the Svalbard cruise. He was standing on the quay watching the ship depart and was about to begin his leave. He will be returning to the Explorer later in the year.

Passengers on the aft deck waving goodbye to Iceland, as we departed for our cruise to Greenland and Canada.

It was sad to see Reykjavik fade into the distance. Our three night stay has been most enjoyable.

At 6.45pm we went up to the theatre for a short briefing and the crew introductions. I said hello to our chef, Christian, from Germany. At the end of the briefing, we were all reminded to put our watches back one hour and we were also told to do the same tomorrow evening.

At 7.30pm we went for dinner, which was very good indeed. I was very pleased with the French onion soup. I am hoping it’s a good sign of things to come!

We headed for our cabin and an early night. I was whacked!!

At sea in the Denmark Strait - 8th August

Our first night at sea was pretty good for me, although Wendy said she couldn’t get to sleep till midnight, but putting back the clock by one hour certainly helped.

There was a reasonable swell and the ship was moving quite a lot from side to side. We decided to have breakfast in the room and ordered it from our butler, Christel, who comes from South Africa. When we docked in Cape Town at the end of the South Atlantic cruise, she replaced our butler, Helen.

We skipped the first lecture by Claudia on birds but watched it on the TV in our room. We then went up to the theatre to hear Peter Damisch's lecture on the Viking colonisation of Iceland. As on our last cruise, his delivery made it a very interesting and entertaining hour.

The ship was rolling quite a bit and the waves came close to our cabin window.

 

We then donned our Silversea coats and went out on the aft deck for some fresh air. Even though it was quite warm, around 12 degrees, we didn’t stay long as it was raining and we had to stay under the sheltered area of the deck.

Wrapped up against the elements!

Next, we went to lunch and sat with Kaia, the hairdresser. She was with us on the South Atlantic cruise. Three Australians joined us, Frank and Wendy who had emigrated from the UK, and Vicky whose husband, Bruce, was not feeling well and had stayed in their cabin.

After lunch we went up to the theatre for the Zodiac briefing by Robin West, who also gave us an outline of what was going to happen tomorrow when we reach Greenland. One bit of good news was that the weather forecast was for a sunny afternoon.

The rest of the afternoon was spent watching a DVD I had brought with us, Five Easy Pieces. I didn’t think it was a particularly good movie.

By now the sea was really heaving and the ship was moving violently from side to side. When we went up to the dining room to have dinner with Suzy, Glenn, Joy and Craig it was quite dramatic. Even though we were sitting on deck four, the sea frequently reached the height of the dining room windows. Then the plates started crashing! We had a superb meal and I asked Dominic to tell Christian the chef how much we had all enjoyed the food.

After dinner we went up to the Panorama Lounge for coffee and were joined by two South Africans from Durban, Neil and Brenda.

We returned to our cabin and watched the heavy seas before getting into bed. I checked my Garmin and there were still about 175 nautical miles to go to the coast of Greenland. During the night there were several violent movements and everything slid off the tables and fell to the floor. Amazingly, I never felt queasy at all.

How things have changed!

Skjoldungen Fjord, Greenland - 9th August

We had the most amazing, or horrendous, night you could imagine, depending on your point of view!

As our journey across the Denmark Strait to Greenland progressed, the sea became rougher and rougher. Throughout the night, as the ship rolled and heaved, there were crashing sounds as everything was thrown around the cabin. Nothing remained where we had stored it! Life-jackets, books, cameras, clocks, the fruit bowl etc. etc., all ended up scattered around the cabin. I managed to sleep for about an hour at a time and then was woken either by feeling I would be thrown out of bed, or by a loud crashing of the waves on the side of the boat. Wendy, on the other hand, found it difficult to get any sleep at all, especially as she frequently got up to try to retrieve and secure all the objects being thrown around the room.

At about 6am I decided to get up and see if we were anywhere near our destination, Skjoldungen Fjord. It was still heavily overcast and the sea was very rough with waves of six to seven metres. I staggered up to the observation lounge and saw my first sight of Greenland in the murk - high snow-capped mountains straight ahead of the boat. The coastline reminded me of South Georgia.

I attempted to go outside to take photos but the rain and water swishing about the deck meant I had to go back to the cabin to put on waterproofs and boots. I told Wendy we were nearly there and went back up on deck and managed to take some photos in a sheltered spot.

 

 

One of the many glaciers flowing down from the Greenland icecap to the sea.

We started to go past numerous icebergs of different shapes, sizes and colours.

 

This vivid blue berg is made up of freshwater ice and does not have air bubbles of ice from compacted snow.

At 7am there was a loudspeaker announcement by Robin West that a pod of whales was directly in front of the boat. There were fin and minke whales. This photo by Wendy is the dorsal fin of a fin whale.
 

At around 8am we entered the fjord, which is about seventy miles long and in the shape of a horseshoe and here we are at its entrance.

We went down and had our breakfast and then returned to the deck to begin the most amazing fjord cruise imaginable. High mountains towered above us and glaciers flowed down to the sea for most of the journey. It was one spectacular view after another.

 

 

 

Here we all are: from left to right, me, Joy, Wendy and Craig - very happy bunnies!

At noon we went on the first Zodiac tour of the cruise. We had all been split into four groups and we are in Group Four, which includes Joy and Craig. The tour took us to Thrym Glacier, a jagged wall of ice, which is the only glacier that feeds the fjord from the Greenland icecap. I will let the photos do the talking!

 

 

Kara was our Zodiac driver and she took us through large expanses of floating ice so that we could hear the popping sound of the melting ice releasing air bubbles trapped inside. It is known as bergy seltzer! She also pulled out of the water a large piece of totally clear ice and put it on the floor of the Zodiac for us all to touch and photograph.

She explained the difference between clear and white ice. The clear comes from frozen fresh water and the white ice from compacted snow that forms the ice sheets and glaciers.

By now the weather was getting much better and when we returned to the ship, the sun was starting to shine. We went to the dining-room and watched the fantastic scenery pass by as we ate our lunch. What a life!! Again, I will let the photos give some idea of how lucky we were to be able to cruise this magnificent fjord.

 

 

At one point, Robin West and Richard Sidey took a Zodiac and moved away from the ship to be able to photograph and video Silver Explorer as we cruised through the fjord. They then moved on to the glacier at the far left of the photo below.

Passengers and expedition crew at the bow taking advantage of the beautiful sunshine and the incredible scenery of Skjoldungen Fjord.

Laura, Brion and Robin West's father, Gerry.

 A river of ice cascading down into the fjord.

Robin and Sidey at the edge of the drifting pack ice from the glacier.

The sun glinting off the water and the ice - what a photo!

Satisfied customers!

The view from the bow.

The splash of ice calving from the glacier.

Looking back along the fjord from the aft deck of the boat.

Enjoying the sunshine; from left to right, Craig, me, Laura, Brion, Brenda, Neil (hidden) and Mike.

We saw our only other boat of the day - a small motor cruiser moored to the side of the fjord. At first, we couldn’t make out the national flag at the stern, but we then discovered it was from Iceland.

Nearing the end of the fjord and encountering many small icebergs that had drifted in from the sea.

We reached the sea again at about 5pm, which by now was quite calm. What a change from this morning! We started the 175 mile journey down the eastern side of Greenland to our next destination, Prince Christian Sund.

At 7pm we went to the Captain’s Party when Captain Maggi was introduced by Robin West as the first female captain in the Silversea fleet. We followed the party with dinner where we were joined by Carl and Judy from California and Colin and Robyn from Sydney. We had a very enjoyable and excellent meal. Wendy then headed to the cabin while I went up to the bar for a final drink with Joy and Craig.

With such a clear night I wondered if we might see the Northern Lights. I went up on deck but the western sky was still too light for the aurora to show. I did, however, take a couple of photos of the beautiful evening sky above the Greenland coastline.

It was the perfect way to end an incredible day, but I went to bed wondering what we would have to see or do, to be able to top it during the rest of the cruise!!