20240613 Thursday (or Thorsdag)
Djupivogur has been around since the late 1500's, principally a trading town. After all, it's the closest Iceland town to countries south and east.. We'll anchor out again. It appears that there's lots of open water that could keep the tenders from going to the dock. We'll see.
We've selected no tour here. We just plan to walk around and then go to Langabúð, the town's center. The building was erected in 1790 and now houses a cafe, bar, museum, gift shop and about everything one needs.
Still farther south there's supposed to be a food truck (Matarvagninn á Djúpavogi) that specializes in salmon roll or hot dogs (good reviews). Here's a link to the Facebook page.
We pulled into the anchorage around 0730. The captain continued to move around to get a good anchoring spot, complicated by Ponant's small cruise ship Le Bellot already at anchor. We've been in port with Le Bellot somewhere in the past but I can't bring it to mind at the moment.
It's overcast today but calm. Fog on the ocean but less so ashore. Sunrise this morning came at 0215 and the sun will set at 2341 tonight. Solstice is a week from now. The village (pop. 450) is off our starboard side for now as we swing on the hook. The first tender to shore just pulled away at 0750. A few minutes later Le Bellot's tender headed in. And now a small tanker is making for the small harbor.
We went to breakfast and joined a couple from Beaumont, TX, and another couple from Brisbane, QLD, Australia. Nice conversation on several subjects. Food quite satisfactory
Going ashore by tender is throttled by a ticket system currently to keep the lines of those wishing to go ashore manageable. We found out a little later that our priority boarding would have allowed us to be up front but we were in no hurry anyway.
We tendered, no big deal, and walked up the hill to the 1790 building (L). As advertised, it's a museum, cafe, and gift shop. You can tell it's old - the beams in that thing would hold up two or three more buildings.
We went south 100m to the gift shop and bought a few things. Then we returned to the brew pub (also L) We spoke with the staff. O had the IPA, D had a Blueberry Sour, both good.
A sign on the face of the bar said, "It's never too early for a beer, Mahatma Ghandi".
That about did it for the little town that boasts "where life goes slowly". Back to the ship. Changed out of going-ashore clothes into smart casual, and went up for hamburgers. Then we relaxed in the Lounge for a while and returned to the suite. The last tender from shore is approaching the ship so soon we'll be underway for Isafjordur.
As the last guests came aboard the clouds rolled back and the sun came out. The sky turned to the light, thin, blue typical of the northern latitudes.
The Captain's announcement included that the ship will be farther north, so sunset will not happen until tomorrow (past midnight) and sunrise will come about a half-hour later. About 0800 tomorrow we will cross the Arctic Circle.
Link to today's photos.
We did dinner in the MDR, nothing special. They're closed for breakfast tomorrow but have brunch 1030 - 1300 which we'll take.
Later - we're only doing 10 knots in the NE direction counter-clockwise around Iceland. Isafjordur must not be all that far away. 'Nite.
20240614 Friday At Sea
We'll cruise the north coast of Iceland, being careful not to collide with it. For a little time we'll be above the Arctic Circle (66*33'30"N), but that's not new to us.
It's a quiet morning here today - the MDR is serving brunch at 1030, so we grabbed juice and stayed comfortable till then. The director announced a Blue Nose ceremony we don't need. The ship is north of Island, cruising at 11 knots toward Isafjordur. Course 270*, Sea State 1, light blue sky between the high clouds.
Latitude (R) is 66*38'28". Thus we are about five minutes above the Arctic Circle or about five Nautical Miles.
Brunch wasn't how we understand it. It was menu select rather than buffet style. The French toast starter was bigger than the main Eggs Benedict. Tasty, though.
Earlier (before noon) we saw some the land of northern Iceland. Later, it receded. Even later (1430) we ran into a fog bank; very restricted vision. Hope the radar's working.
We attended Thorsteinn Hannesson's lecture on Iceland, which was mainly on physical things there, like volcanos and tectonic plates but with a music session with beautiful photos. Later comes a lecture on Isafjordur.
20240615 Saturday Isafjordur
Isafjordur (to use our spelling), above, is a perfect harbor for safety from storms. The harbor website provides some information. We're here 0700 - 1500.
The harbor chart is at left. Click here for a large picture looking more or less east. We anchored about in the upper right corner of the chart.
The harbor here might be crowded, with two other cruise ships:
Costa's Favoiosa (3700 passengers) and Viking Star (930) but it appears we arrive first. There are two cruise ship docks, but we are too large for either one. So they docked and we tendered. Humph.
D & O have selected a three-hour drive tour to view "Fjords and Flowers". D is a flower person so we expect she'll shoot a lot of pictures.
We were up early to get eggs in the Lido and down to the tender boarding area. Wind calm, temperature 55*f, overcast, fog, etc. There is snow on the tops of the hills and in shady spots. See the photos for details.
A Google map of the area can be seen here, where Isafyordur is to the right and Flateyre to the left. We bused through a 6km tunnel to get first to a miniature botanical garden, very well done, out in the middle of nowhere. Took pictures of the flowers, then bussed on to Flateyre.
We entered the simple, small Lutheran church there. The portraiture of Jesus and followers over the altar surmounted the text of Matthew 11:28. A 21-year-old musician appeared and sang a few songs in Icelandic reasonable well (as best we could tell).
We stepped to the side of the church to view the monument to the 22 persons killed in the 1995 avalanche that struck the north end of town. Surprisingly, the snow split as it approached the church, sparing it. Since then, massive rock diversions have been built above the town to encourage an avalanche to miss the town.
We hiked to the Old Bookstore (1914, oldest in Iceland, branch in Reykjavik) and caused it to do great business. O bought a travel sewing kit (we need one), a couple of bars of unique soap and a book of all the Sagas of Icelandic literature (he had two sagas from past trips). The book is a good 2.5 inches thick, so it will put him to sleep many times.
Then to the village cafe for coffee and a few bites of pastry. D walked across the street to view the wreckage of the boats damaged and sunk by the avalanche.
Then we returned to ship. Gave Lara, our German guide who is studying for her Masters here, a small amount. A very nice, calm tour.
On board we grabbed food and ate in the pool area (covered of course). Then we returned to the room where the concierge returned D's lost sweater to her. No idea where they found it. D's very pleased that they dug through the lost-and-found to find it for her. Then O worked on this treatise. The plumbers returned to play with the tub's plumbing again.
The sun broke through the clouds, revealing several thin mountain streams coming down from the snow patches.
Underway at 1500, up the fjord with passengers on the bow taking pictures. Narrative was given by the CD as we went.
The Captain came up on the speakers with an update re: Greenland and our stops there. It seems two of the three stops there are in danger of being cancelled due to ice fields obstructing our passage. This ship is not constructed to penetrate ice fields. In the meantime we're running SW with most of the gerbils on-line doing 20 knots. Later, he threw a few more gerbils into the wheel, now doing 21 knots.
In there somewhere we got word that our friends the Norms have returned home from their river trip through Europe. As we noted, there was a lot of rain up there and the Norms noted they had problems but we haven't yet heard the details.
D went to mass & returned. O went to the Lounge. Found out concierge Christian is ill and out of service for a few days. Young lady is filling in. She and the plumbers were in our suite when we returned; problem hopefully fixed but tonight is the final leak test.
Making 21 knots to the SW, sky overcast, SS1. We make Greenland early tomorrow. No further word on ice fields.
We did breakfast in the Lido - poor choice - everyone else slept late and went to the Lido as well.
Got the passenger population numbers (L) from Luigi.
At noon the Captain advised us in three languages that the Danish Coast Guard's ice-danger line has been updated. Now the low-pressure area is pushing the ice against the southwest shore and all three of our ports are inaccessible. A fourth village (pop 73) named Arsuk might work but … The Arsuk word drew laughter.
Also, the winds at the south point of Greenland are out of the south at 25 knots, gusts to 37 knots. Ya, that will push ice against the southern ports in Greenland.
Since we still know nothing we are doing 21 knots toward it.
This is starting to remind us of our 2020 Covid cruise.
We attended Dr Hannesson's lecture on Greenland anyway and later attended a tech talk by the Cruise Director on useful travel apps. I wouldn't use any of them - they reek of data gathering - but it was interesting.
Stopped at the concierge desk. Plumbing people either made or received a new tub part to be installed tomorrow. Thank goodness we have the shower.
Did a bunch of nothing in the suite. Noticed fog and rain had started. Did dinner in the MDR, satisfactory. Back to the suite. More fog. Ship slowed to 17 knots.
