Havila: Arctic Circle: Bodø: Majic Ice: Raftsundet Straights

As usual I rose early, found a cup of coffee and had the boat to myself.  Took a few pictures, but mostly just watched the breathtaking landscape glide by.  This morning Sandy surprised me by knocking on the window.  It was nice to sit with her and watch this unique scenery together.

Norway's second largest export, farm raised salmon

The arctic circle sits atop every globe like a halo.  It is not just an arbitrary line on the map. Its position is determined by the point where on the winter solstice the sun never rises above the horizon, the polar night.  South of that line the sun will rise, at least briefly, on the winter solstice.  Today that line is at 66°33’49.1 north of the equator, but there is no need to memorize this because as the tilt of the earth changes, which it does on a 41,000 year cycle, the northern axial pole points more and more towards the sun.  So currently the arctic circle is moving north every year at the rate of about 50 feet per year.  This will continue until the axial tilt starts moving the other way at which time the arctic circle will begin to migrate south.  The further you are north of the Arctic Circle the longer is your polar night, and of course, opposite on the summer solstice the longer your midnight sun.  For example, this voyage goes as far north as Kirkenes, Norway.  There they have two months with no sun in the sky.  Today at 8:00AM we crossed the Arctic Circle.  There was a marker on an island and the Castor blasted out its horn.  A little later there was a celebration on deck in which a crew member disguised as the Norse God Njord (the God of seafaring, fishing and wealth) baptized the first time arctic-travelers with a ladle full of ice.  It was fun. Between Sandy and I only one of us got baptized.  I won’t say which one of us didn’t undergo the procedure but suffice it to say that she is still, in nordic terms, a nordic heathen.  

Passing over the Arctic Circle

God Njord

Baptism of Ice

We docked for two hours in Bodø.  Sandy and I wanted to rub elbows with some of these natives of the arctic.  We walked into town, looked into a few shops, met a nice young Norwegian who helped us find a grocery store.  We wanted to get some snacks for late night plus it is always fun to go into the grocery stores to see what the locals take home and cook.  We purchased a few things and were ready to check out.  We saw the locals going through the self service line that didn’t look that different from our Krogers back home.  All went fine until we tried to leave the store.  There was a gate that wouldn’t open to let us out and it sounded an alarm.  Turns out we had to scan a bar code on the bottom of our receipt for that gate to open.  There was a problem...our receipt did not have a bar code.  We did the process again, this time knowing a little more and we did get the bar code and could escape the grocery store.  Can’t imagine what these tech savvy Norwegians thought of us Americans, but in the end they should be OK since I’m pretty sure we paid for our groceries twice. 

 

Streets lined with hanging flowers in the Arctic

The barcode that set us free!

This is how you dress for Arctic weather?

We stopped in the little arctic town of Svolnær.  Mail is needed here also.  Just a block off the pier the little town square sits pretty much like any town square in Ohio,  surrounded by shops, a few bars and several restaurants.  The town is considered the jumping off point for people interested in hiking the cold wilderness of the Lofoten Islands.  While in port we visited a walk-through ice sculpture gallery.  The temperature is kept at a constant 27°F and there are dozens of vignettes to walk around, drink at, and lay upon.  It was a fun stop.  

Approaching the fall equinox, the days are still longer than the nights but nothing close to having the midnight sun.  Also the change in daylight hours is occurring at a much faster rate than we are used to in Ohio.  (The days are getting shorter faster)  There are about two months of Midnight Sun up here and two months of Polar Night.  That only leaves eight months to go from the sun never sets to the sun never rises.

The Havila Castor sailed through the Raftsundet Straights this evening.  This is the iconic fjord sailing.  The walls of the fjord are steep and high and the passages between them narrow.  By the time that we entered the narrowest of the fjords it was dark. That coupled with the spotlights of the Caster shining on the walls prevented my iPhone camera from capturing the moment.  No matter...as Sandy and I simply stared at the spectacle and embedded it in our memories.