May 12, 2018

    Today was the first day at sea. Clocks were moved back an hour to agree with Icelandic time. As the ship approached the northern coast of Ireland last night, the waves got larger, to three meters, which gently rocked the ship.  You could tell as you lay in bed that the ship swaying from side to side. 

   This morning the sky was overcast, there was a 40 knot wind and the temperature was about 10.  There was a storm system to the east that caused the winds and waves to get stronger with up to five meter waves in the morning and a light rain around noon. During the afternoon the wave height diminished to two to three meters.

   After breakfast and a walk inside around Decks 4 and 5, we attended the Destination Highlights presentation about Akureyri, Iceland and Lerwick, Shetland Islands.  We had missed the presentation about Reykjavik on Thursday.  A good way to know how to pronounce Akureyri (Ah-ker-ray-ree) is to remember that it rhymes with Tipperary; as in the World War I song ”It’s a long Way to Tipperary”.  Tipperary is the name of a town in Ireland near Dublin. That was followed by Emile Baladi’s lecture about the culture and history of Iceland which was first settled by Vikings around 870.

   We had a light lunch in the Oceanview buffet restaurant and noticed a brief rain shower, followed by a rainbow. Next, we went to the Captain’s Club cocktail reception where the passenger with the most cruise points on this voyage was recognized. There were three couples with over 3,000 points, one of them being over 4,000 points, which represents 107 cruises in a suite.  On the way to Ken’s lecture about Iceland’s natural history, we looked out to see that the clouds seemed to be thinner then later in the afternoon there were some tiny openings showing blue sky. Iceland is a land created by volcanos. Through the middle of the Iceland, running roughly north to south, is the fault line of two tectonic plates.  There is even a rift valley where the two tectonic plates are pulling away from each other. The Great Rift Valley in Kenya, Africa, is the same kind of geological feature. We walked some more, inside then had an afternoon nap before dinner.

   The dinner dress code was Evening Chic which in theory is a bit dressier than the regular Smart Casual.  Except for a few men wearing suits and a few women wearing gowns and cocktail dresses, the passengers’ clothes were not anywhere near the formal wear of the “Formal” nights of just five years ago.  This was good for us since we could not fit formal wear in our large backpacks for our five-week vacation with three four day Bed & breakfast or hotel stays and two 10 day cruises.  We sat with the group from the first evening. Most of our table companions will be on tours at dinnertime tomorrow.  We arranged to meet Peter and Karen for a later dinner tomorrow. 

    This evening’s dinner began with a complimentary cocktail of Blue Curaçao, lime & club soda. Dinner selections tonight were Tomato & Watermelon Salad and Yellow Corn Soup followed by Beef Ragout and Rack of lamb with mashed potatoes, carrots and broccoli.  The chosen desserts were fresh berries in a phyllo pastry cup and apple crumble with vanilla ice cream.

    We joined Randy and Cathie for a drink before the 9 p.m. show that featured singer Nick Page.  We checked about a transfer to the airport next week and are scheduled to take a small bus at 7 a.m. from the ship that will get to the airport in plenty of time to catch the flight to Brussels. We heard segments of the show as we walked inside on Decks 4 and 5 to reach the daily goal of 8 kilometers. After the show we were joined by Peter and Karen in the Café al Bacio where enjoyed a frozen frappe.  Later we danced in the Grand Foyer to the music of the house band.

         Distance walked today was 8.61 km