At Sea

29 May 2017

We were supposed to be at anchor today in Isafjoröur Iceland, but the captain cancelled this port of call.  When he announced it three days ago, there was great consternation among the guests since this was for many, ourselves included, a highlight of the cruise. I’ve read that Isafjoröur is the quintessential Icelandic fishing village famous for its lovely fjords, grand waterfalls, and lots of birds, especially puffins. But the captain calls the shots and he said we were taking a different course to avoid the ice fields hugging the coast of Greenland.

Many passengers, in addition to me, did not find that explanation satisfactory. It appears that there is a trend in some cruise companies to cancel stops for reasons other than safety concerns. I’m told that it can cost tens of thousands of dollars to visit a port and if it is cancelled then the company keeps the money. I can only speak from my limited experience but on three of the last four cruises we have taken, we skipped a port - and always, as is the case here - the last port before disembarkation. Perhaps it is just coincidence but in speaking with some of the crew that we have gotten to know, we have learned that on this ship alone a port is skipped almost every other trip.

Having said all that, we are far from uncomfortable and a fifth day at sea will not diminish our enjoyment of this experience. For the past four nights we have had to advance our clock one hour resulting in getting to bed rather late and sleeping even later. Our routine on sea days has not changed much: an hour of exercise before coffee (we get up too late for breakfast), down to the computer room to see if they have downloaded newspapers, a change of clothing for lunch, a glass of Champagne before a long lunch, a nap, exercise (walk) again, change for dinner, drinks, dinner, and dancing until the wee early morning hours. As you can see, not terribly stressful. We do other things too, for instance Cindy had been taking a water color class for the past four days and we have attended two magnificent concerts by a guest pianist, Philip Wojciechowski, who is a truly gifted artist. We even attended an evening show in the lounge featuring the Crystal ensemble doing a Jump and Swing A Mania, which was entertaining - but the real reason was to dance to the Crystal Showband, which is really good. Think a mini Pink Martini.

The seas have been calm and the weather certainly agreeable for this northern latitude. The only wildlife we have spotted are a few birds that follow the ship; no whales or dolphins or even flying fish.  The wildlife lecturer on board is always on deck looking for something but since we deviated from our original course we are too far south of Greenland for any real chance of seeing anything of interest.  In fact we have seen nothing, no other ships and certainly no land. The commercial ships take the faster route from Halifax to Iceland so they are staying up north.  My dad took this route a few times during WWII escorting munitions and supply ships from the US and Canada to England. I can almost picture his small destroyer escort, about half the size of this ship, bouncing around the North Atlantic looking for German U-boats before they could attack the cargo ships.  Not sure he did much dancing after dinner.

If all goes as scheduled we should be docking in Reykjavik early tomorrow morning and Cindy and I shall be taking a tour (yes, I’m going to take a tour) around the lava fields and thermal springs of Iceland. We’ll spend the night on board in Reykjavik and get off at 7:30am on Wednesday for a transfer to the airport where we hope British Air will be flying us to London.  They have had a horrible few days and getting back to a full schedule will be a challenge.
Best wishes,  Cindy and Wm