Day 11 Alta

Our excursion this morning is a cruise up the Altafjord, on the Sea Runner. Our guide is Valerie from Germany. We are quite a select group and the boat’s capacity is only forty-five. As we walk round to board, there are some white-beaked dolphin playing round the cruise ship. There are several sightings of them during our trip and I manage to get a photograph where they are recognisable as dolphin, along with plenty of pictures of the sea where they were a few seconds earlier. Again, it is not as cold as our multiple layers have prepared us for.

Valerie tells us of the access problems for some of the islands that only have a handful of inhabitants. Alta’s airport, which is right next to our ship, only has a short runway and cannot be extended. The harbour’s capacity is limited and ours is the largest ship that it can accommodate. Alta is expanding rapidly and there are issues getting construction materials to the city. It is popular with young families and the average age of the inhabitants is thirty. Valerie points out a reindeer boat. One of the Sami families uses this to take their reindeer herd to summer pasture. Previously, the reindeer would swim but they are often weak after the winter, so are now taken by boat. They are in much better condition after summer grazing and so can easily swim back.

We are back on board Ambience by lunchtime and have a lazy afternoon in the cabin, with occasional dolphin sightings. A leaflet is delivered to our cabin giving us our disembarkation time. We had based our coach booking on the time that the ship was due to dock. We should be ok but it would be a bit tight. We enquire about the options, thinking that we could perhaps book on the shuttle bus, which leaves earlier. This may or may not be possible. We then see that there is an option to leave the ship as soon as it is cleared by the port, if we carry our own luggage off. The first person we asked made no mention of this, thinking perhaps that no sane person would want to lift a case. We travel light and Chris’ heaviest item, his boots, will not be coming back with us as they’ve sprung a leak, so this should be easy. The weather is now what the captain calls ‘lively’ and free sea sickness tablets are being dispensed, which does not bode well. There are sick bags in strategic locations but it is unclear how these might be disposed of after use.

Day 12 At Sea

 It has indeed been lively overnight and only the hardy Few, that does of course include me, are in the restaurants for breakfast. Plates, cups and passengers are slipping and sliding and outside decks have been closed. I collect an emergency seasickness tablet and sick bag but don’t feel the need to use them. Chris heads off to the church service and I am back with Pam for more craft. This time, cool little pouches to hold a mirror and a clip thingy that will hold your bag on a table. I return to hear the astronomer in residence talk about the shipping forecast. This had the feel of ‘I need to cobble together another vaguely relevant talk, what can I find on Google?’. He tells us that the Gemini twins, Castor and Pollux, are thought to guide ships to safety. Admiral Fitzroy, of barometer fame, gets a mention as does the Marconi Station built at Poldhu in 1901, which blew down a month later. The first radio telegraph station was set up at Bolt Head, Kingsbridge in 1908. The code for an emergency was initially CQD (Come Quick Danger), before it was replaced by SOS. Some shipping areas have been discontinued or merged and there are now thirty-one. The regular broadcast has a 350-word limit; at 00.48, when Trafalgar is included, an additional thirty words are allowed. The areas are always reported in the same order.

At lunchtime, comes the announcement that we will not be making our scheduled stop tomorrow as we’ve had to go more slowly than normal and have taken a more westerly route to try to avoid the worst of the weather. I have some concerns that I told my nearest and dearest that I’d be in touch tomorrow and now I won’t but there’s nothing I can do.

I go back for the repeat craft session and manage to make two more pouches, so have some for gifts.

The weather is increasingly rough and staff members are heard to say that it is the worst they’ve ever known.