20260328 Viking Vela Northern Lights and British Isles - Day 13/32

Viking Vela In Search of the Northern Lights and British Isles Explorer Cruise Day 13/32 – North Sea Sailing and Blue Noses

We were rocking and rolling as we went to bed last night. We continued with rough seas until the wee hours of the morning before things cleared out. Our guess was that we had to go to open water so the ship could make fresh water. We've been on other ships where they have to move offshore for the desalination systems on the ship to work properly. But we came back, because this morning, we saw this from the balcony.

 

We expected to see open water, but we were tucked in again

We continued navigating through small islands along Norway's southwest coast for as long as possible

We still had a few hours before we'd leave Norway

We played our final Baggo for this cruise. There will be only one sea day on the next cruise, so most likely only one more after this. It was guest versus guest, and we formed teams of about 10 or 12 guests. It was fun once again, even if our team was on the losing side of almost every pairing, losing to the other team in convincing fashion.

From there, we went to the Star Theater for a cooking demonstration from Executive Chef Arthur and his Executive Pastry Chef.

They prepared Shetland Mussels and Strawberry Eton Mess - they were funny and entertaining

Next up was a quick change of clothes into bathing attire. One of the cruising traditions is a Blue Nose ceremony for first-time Arctic cruisers. While we are now south of the Arctic Circle, itinerary logistics meant that today was the best option for the ceremony.

This isn't our first time above the Arctic Circle. We briefly crossed into the Arctic Circle north of Iceland as we made our way to Akureyri at 65.6826° N latitude. We never set foot above the Arctic Circle before this trip, so we figured we should go through the ceremony.

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They stopped heating the hot tub on the pool deck, letting it cool. Then, they added the exclamation point by continually dumping huge bags of ice into the water. Brave (stupid?) guests went one after the other, sliding into the frigid water, and climbing out to a waiting towel.

I'm pre-chilling my legs

Ready...

Arlona's expression explains how chilly it was

Arlona went waist-deep - I went all the way under, but I'm hidden behind her

Here's the video action:

Next was the ceremonial blue nose mark

A dab of blue-tinted cream on the nose

Finally, a shot of Norwegian liquor, Aquavit

Skol!

After a quick shower, we had lunch, meeting a very nice couple from Texas. They were very interested in our upcoming Snake and Colombia River cruise, so who knows, we may see them again.

At 3:00, resident astronomer John Maclean presented a video compilation of roughly 400 photographs of the aurora, submitted by guests. It is 32 minutes long and a little repetitive, since we all were taking photos of the same auroras, but there are many incredible photos included.

We enjoyed drinks at the Explorers Bar. 

We decided that it was margarita night

We went to Torshavn for a gathering of the folks who are continuing on for the next cruise, British Isles Explorer. There are 16 of us who will continue on for 13 more days. The Viking officers were all there, and they provided drinks and snacks for all of us.

We had dinner tonight at Manfredi's.

We enjoyed bisteca steaks and other courses. There was, as always, too much food. It was a good meal. We went up to the World Café to check out tonight's British special event. There were so many lobster tails that we almost regretted our dinner choice. In addition, there was a slew of amazing desserts. Alas, we were too full to take advantage.

We went back to the Explorers Bar for Name That Tune. With 15 tunes where we had to name the title and artist, we scored 23/30, and we thought that was respectable. The winning team scored an amazing 28/30 and enjoyed complimentary mimosas.

When we got to the room, we found our Arctic Circle certificates.

We also received a note telling us to adjust our clocks one hour ahead. We found this confusing because Amsterdam is not one hour ahead of Norway. They are on the same time as Norway. It turns out that overnight tonight, this part of the world flips to daylight saving time, springing forward an hour. So we move forward an hour tonight. Tomorrow, we'll flip back because England is an hour behind the Netherlands. The joy of travel across time zones.

We dock at noon tomorrow and will be touring a tulip farm - a quintessentially Dutch thing to do.