Sea Day, August 8, 2017

Sea Day, August 8, 2017

Clocks forward another 30 minutes. Jim changed the little battery-operated $2 clock from Walmart that we always bring along. The staterooms are like a Vegas casino: no clocks! However, I usually look at my phone but I haven't had it on since Sydney so missed the 30 minute advances. You'd think I could extrapolate the correct time (just add an hour), but evidently that is just too hard for my little pea brain. Which is why on this sea day I slept in until 8 only to discover that it was really 10! Oops. And that is why I missed the talk about the Natural History of Greenland by the entertaining Canadian geologist and half of the what to see and do in Greenland. Oops.

I did, however, get to the showroom in time for the "Ask the Captain" session. On each cruise, the Captain chats a bit about himself and his time at sea and then takes questions from the passengers. This captain is Dutch, married to an American and lives in Charlotte. It is also his last cruise. He will leave the ship in Rotterdam and retire from active captaining. Too bad, he was quite droll and funny. Someone asked about the horn tooting, specifically the fog horn. There aren't many ships along our route, but when one is within five to ten miles, the horn is sounded in a regular rhythm. He also said to be prepared for a whole lot of horn honking going in and out of Rotterdam, the home port in Europe for Holland America. In fact I think he said 2-1/2 hours of noise. We are on the Rotterdam after all. Fine by me. I love the deep, throaty sound.

He also told us about sailing in and out of Greenland. Evidently by Greenland maritime law we must have not one but TWO pilots in their waters. However there are no pilots in Greenland, so we pick them up in Nova Scotia and they get off in Iceland at a cost of $98,000 to the ship. Yowza. That really irked him.

It's another grey day with occasional rocking and rolling, but not much. Better gloomy on sea says and sunny in port.

Tomorrow we will be stopping at Qaqortoq, Greenland. It is a tender port. There are no tours available. However, they do have a cafe, a store and post office. Barbara, our Location Guide, said they have their own currency but will accept Canadian, US and Euros at an interesting exchange rate. Hey, their ball, their rules. It's supposed to be in the 40s but Jim is not quite ready to make it a definite long pants port. Most people just want to get off to say they've been to Greenland.

Greenland is ice and Iceland is green. Just a little fun fact.

Ice permitting we will cruise the Prince Christian Sound the following day. On the previous trip westbound the eastern opening of the Sound was iced in. The captain said he will take a helicopter ride from Qaqortoq to fly over the Sound to see if it's open. Otherwise the ship will sail into the Sound tomorrow night and then out during daylight. More game time decisions. I guess he had to make several itinerary changes from Rotterdam to Boston. We're just hoping that it's clearer so we can enjoy the fjords and maybe spot some whales and seals.

We also learned that we will not be docking close to town in Reykjavik but 3-1/2 miles away alongside the newest HAL ship the Koeningsdam (sp?). There is a city shuttle, $20 a pop. Wow. AND it's Gay Pride Day on our first of two days in port so the usual Hop On/Hop Off buses will not be running. It should be a happenin' place. Jim and I are going out and about the countryside to see bubbling geothermal stuff, volcanoes and weird landscapes. From talking to those who've been there Iceland is a love it or hate it place. They also have their own currency. Jim likes to collect odd foreign coins to use as ball markers on the golf course. He should have a bagful by the end of this trip.