Tilbury docks, London : 6th June 2007. Leaving about 6 pm on a dull, cloudy evening. During the very late evening we passed through the Dogger Bank area where a ships pilot was taken on board.
The next day the ship was cruising northerly off the east coast . Still cloudy but quite calm with some breaks in the cloud late pm onwards. Arriving in the Orkneys on the 8th of June the weather was cool with a little rain at times. Shortly after leaving at 5pm the cloud started to break.
The next day was of perfect sunshine with a dead calm sea. The Perfect conditions were to hardly changed for the next week. These seas can very often be stormy. The 9th of June was spent at sea, we were heading for the southern coast of Iceland, an area of volcanoes. The evening sunshine was still with us up until about 10.30. The passage to Iceland was very calm. Standing on the bow looking ahead it hardly seemed that the ship was moving as the sea was so still and sometimes had a turquoise colour to it. We arrived at the Icelandic coast very early on the morning of the 10th June. Breakfast on the deck was fantastic, the views stunning. Nearby the cliffs were covered in Puffins, in the distance the snow seemed to be lying down to near the shorelines, and there was just a glimpse of a small whale surfacing . Everything is still going well for us. The sea was calm and so we went ashore by launch to a small fishing harbour on the island of Heimaey. We had the option of going into a large cave by launch but chose to go by foot through the village and toward the local Volcano which erupted last in 1973. The Larva is extensive and covered some of the village. Eventually we reached the crater of the Volcano and walked into it. The Web page link to the Icelandic map of our cruise is at http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/lucken9/Iceland/photo#map

Midnight sun 11th June 2007



The sunset lasts for hours. At 1am the sun is only just below the horizon