Tues 21/11/2017

Tromso to Hammerfest.

Sunrise 10.07am. Sunset 12.55pm.  (Yes. 12.55pm)  -8C.

Last night all of Ilze’s wishes for this trip came to fruition.

Our first sighting came at 7.25pm, the announcement came during the last course of our dinner, the stampede from half eaten chocolate moose (don’t you hate predictive text) led us out onto level seven and a bitter wind and only some green wisps.  Giving up, we retired to bed with our clothes laid out in order to facilitate speed dressing.

Barely asleep when the alarm went off and a mad scramble back out side only to discover it was for an arrival in some sort of a Troll fjord that the was being lit up by search lights. Pete then trudged to the rear of the ship to get out of the wind and the sky above exploded. You could hear the cries of delight above the engines and the gale force winds.

It flashed and dazzled, swirled and sprawled from one horizon to the other. Although not the full colour spectrum, regular viewers said it was one of the most wide spread events they had seen.  It dimmed some what about midnight and we went back to bed, frozen but deLIGHTED.  At 3.15 am the alarm went off again, but we stayed in bed.

We arrive at Troms about 2.00pm and we intend to walk to the Ice Cathedral, in the dark,  so expect more words and photos here later this afternoon.

Pete.