Yet Another Sea Day on way to Iceland

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Wed was our last sea day before 3 port days in Iceland. It was to start with scenic cruising of Jan Mayen island which is 400 miles northeast of Iceland and 300 miles east of central Greenland but belongs to Norway. There are 18 people there during the winter and 35 in the summer. They work for the Norwegian Armed Forces or Meteorological Institute. During WWII when Norway was occupied by the Germans the men stationed there defied Germany and sent the weather reports to Great Britain instead. Well as I said our day was to start with a scenic sail by of the island so we headed up to the Lido about 7 for juice (ok and a chocolate croissant) and briefly saw a mountain sticking out of the clouds. I should have taken a picture then since that brief glimpse was all we saw other than fog.

We then headed to mass followed by real breakfast in the Dining Room. The Dining room is on the Promenade Deck and the Shuffleboard Court is on the back which could be seen from our table. Our Asst Waiter (from our Dinner Table) had outside duty with a station of rolls and coffee but very few visitors in the wind/cold. He kept smiling as usual though. We tried to go to the talk on Akureyri after breakfast but the show room was full. We did make it back in time for the Win a Cruise Bingo and though we were all pretty close (Mom only needed 2 more and the other Sharon only needed 1) we didn’t win. By now it was time for lunch of course so headed up to the Lido again.

The afternoon started with a lecture on “A Virtual Cruise Around Baffin Bay and Davis Strait” and then I hit the casino while Mom went to Tea with Dennis. I was still playing the same $10 when they came back and finally cashed out with $30. This was a machine I hadn’t played before but the bonus was based on monkeys (though of you from Work will appreciate that I’m sure!)

It was then time to get ready for another formal night. Mom and I were early so joined our Canadian tablemates in the Ocean Bar for a bit and then into another great dinner. The show was a Variety show with Luke Burrage the Juggler, Marty Brill the comedian, and Gary Arbuthnot the flute player. The juggler started with a film of him juggling all around the world (well everywhere he’d been so far today) that was pretty funny. It included him on the front of the ship in the ice pack the other day as well as one with the penguins (doing the penguin catch) from Chile earlier this year. He then did his cold weather routine where he had his arms going in and out of his jacket etc. It was very good. Marty was funny as usual and the Flute player as good as his earlier show.

Tomorrow we have an early tour to a waterfall and I’m not sure what else. Mom wants to go shopping in the afternoon. So hopefully I’ll have photos etc tomorrow.

Well guess I’ll have to post this later. Apparently we don’t have internet this morning.

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