Friday 24/11/2017. Tromso. 10.00pm.-4C. After dinner Ilze and I went for a walk on deck. The sky exploded. This is what we saw. Ilze is in tears. I have no words. Pete.

Friday 24/11/2017. Kirkenes to Hammerfest. Sunrise 11.00am. Sunset 12.01pm. -4C. Latitude 70 degrees 39’48” It was -4C and snowing when we pulled into Hammerfest after an overnight passage from Kirkenes. A whole14 degrees warmer, but it was snowing and blowing.  The blizzard like conditions made the trip ashore fraught with peril.  A check at the […]

Thursday 23/11/2017. Honningsvag to Kirkenes. Sunrise 9.42am Sunset 10.43am -18C. The times are different from yesterday because we have crossed time zones and come back south. Strange fact:- did you know that Kirkenes is less than 30kms from the Russian Border and is further east then Istanbul?  This fact, is known only to a few, […]

Wed 22/11/2017. Hammersfest to Honningsvag. Sunrise 11.54am. Sunset 12.17pm -7C 71 degrees 10′ 21″ ….a nautical term which I am completely ignorant about, which is the latitude of the northernmost point of the European continent. Today we went to Nordkapp, 71 degrees 10″21′ on our only guided excursion from the ship, a 40 minute bus ride […]

Wednesday 22/11/2017 At Sea 71.16.95 N.  25.78.32 E. -6C Sunrise 11.02am. Sunset. 11.23am. (Yes, its correct) “Rounding the Nordcap” does not have quite the same ring as “rounding the Horn” but it has always had the same degree of difficulty to the world’s sailors. It is officially the northern most point of the European land […]

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 […]

Monday 20/11/2017 Trondheim to Bodo. Sunrise 9.28am, Sunset 2.10pm. -7C   We crossed the Arctic Circle at 7.10 this morning, and were greeted by snow capped mountains as the sun rose, which grew more and more snow capped.  Just after lunch there was snow right down to the waterline. Going on deck for those wonderful photographs is a […]

Sunday 19/11/17′ Trondheim to Rovik. Sunrise 9.15am.  Sunset 2.30pm. Temp. -7C. After competing in the Schiphol Airport event last week, todays was going to be easier. We were supposed to arrive in Amsterdam from Venice with an hour and a half to wait. Italian bureaucracy meant our plane’s departure was delayed.  KLM had sent a […]

Saturday 18th November somewhere between Floro and Molde. Sunrise 8.49am. Sunset 4.05pm. Not much time to take photos.  White peaks  beginning to appear on the mountain tops. Scenery becoming more spectacular.  Postcard pretty villages clinging to rock faces, lighthouses everywhere so that ships aren’t caught unawares.  Very rugged coastline.  So beautiful. We had some rough […]

After packing up our comfortable loft room in the Augustine Hotel in Bergen, we had time for a quick walk around to admire the shop windows before our ship sails. The MV Nordenorge sails at 10.30pm for all ports to the north and we cross the Arctic Circle in about four days time. We dined […]