Today we had a quiet day at sea. The wind came down to a force 3 and the seas although still confused (swell and waves from various directions) also got less and less.  While the good ship ms Aurora sped almost due north with a warp speed of 13 knots. The captain made an announcement advising that the Medivac had taken longer as expected as at the last minute there was no suitable local boat available to transfer the patient and thus he had decided to go back to the dock and do the transfer over the gangway. He did not advise if the patient was doing well, or not, so we are all keeping our fingers crossed.

The whole ship is buzzing about the eclipse, we all got sunglasses last night in the cabin and today’s lectures were about planets, stars and related. We have found the old lectures on the TV in the mean time, it took a while for them to get posted but when flipping through all the programs on the TV we found them this morning. It is not advertised in the TV program for the cabin but later on we also found a note on the display outside the Show lounge, the Curzon theatre. That gave the chance to look at a lecture giving at the beginning of the cruise about the Vikings.  Their  voyages around Western Europe, to Iceland, Greenland, Nova Scotia and also their presence in what is now Russia. Tsar Ivan the Terrible was from Viking stock.

What I did not know that their influence even stretched into modern computer days.  What we now know as Blue Tooth, was taken from a Viking name. Harald BlueTooth. The symbol for a Blue tooth connection are the two first letters of his name in Rune, put together……………….. so that was my cultural contribution to the blog for this cruise.

The well known photo wall from days gone by. Now only in use for Stock photos (5 for £ 50,–) Ordering is done at the other side by means of 2 kiosk consoles (similar as in use at  MacDonalds

I have posted photos of most of the public rooms on board but there are a few more. The photo shop, which harks back to the old days with a wall of printed photos, although that is now only in use for stock photos. 2 digital displays have been installed and with typing in your cabin number your photos come up. There no medallion as with Princess that activates when you get close, so I assume that the photographer notes your cabin number when taking a picture so you can type in your cabin number. We are not completely sure as we have not seen any photographer since we came on board. The other night, there was one in the dining room, coming closer and closer towards our table, and then something went wrong with the camera and the photographer disappeared, never to be seen again.

The Art Gallery on Board. Located in a corridor so you cannot miss it.

Another concessionaire outlet on board is the Art Center. Here on board, same as with Cunard, we have Clarendon Fine Art.  Contrary to what is the norm on the American based ships who have Park West from Miami, Clarendon works less with an auction formula but much more in direct retailing. So the art on display has prices for direct purchase. And some very nice paintings and statues as well. Buy them and you can directly walk off the ship with them. How that works with customs, I do not know, as everything over £ 139,– needs to be declared as import. But guests were buying so it must work.

We are in the cabin

We are out of the cabin

A gadget I really like and apart from Cunard I have not seen any other company doing it, is magnetic door signs. One sign with 2 sides. The advantage is that it does not blow off the door handle when compared to the paper versions that most ships still  have. Especially if they are printed differently on each side. Pick one up from the deck and you do not know which side was on display. Here somebody has to forcefully peel the sing off and then turn the sign around. On Cunard I saw a few children doing  that but the ms Aurora is an adult only ship, so it does not have that problem. Taking about Adult Only cruises on P&O. They have two adult only ships, the Aurora and the Arcadia. However lately they have been designating some cruises as Adult Only and some not, so you have to be careful when booking otherwise you end up on a cruise you might not like.

The Golden Cockerel

With an explanation for the historically less inclined.

Another unusual thing on board is that the Aurora is the holder of the “Golden Cockerel”. This is the internal Blue Riband of P&O Lines and Cruises and dates back into the grey mists of time, when the company had regular liner services to the Far East and Down Under. Then the ships tried to stay on schedule and also tried to improve their schedule. I do not know how far this tradition goes back, but I know that the trophy was given to the ss Oriana of 1960, and then went to the ss Canberra.

 

As the Aurora has a service speed of 24 knots and has sailed with a maximum sustained speed of 25.4 knots she is the fastest ship in the Fleet. 25 knots is already quite high but on trials she reached 29 knots. Hence she got the Golden Cockerel which is now displayed in a corner of the  foyer/square near Guest Services.

One of  my loyal readers asked what, to me, is the difference is between sailing in Alaska and sailing in the Fjords. Let’s start with the similarities. Both areas have a lot of green trees and land, and grey rock mountains. Both areas you can only get into when under pilotage. Both areas have indignous peoples. Indian Tribes in Alaska, Viking descendants in the Fjords.  Both areas are not a great place to be in, in the winter with (horizontal) rain, snow and storms. Both areas have  good viewings of the Aurora Borealis. (The best one I ever saw was in Juneau with purple “wheels” flashing over Mount Roberts.

“Pulpit” Rock in Norway. You can park a ship almost at the bottom of the face (other side of the photo) and look straight up.

The difference is mostly in the height of the mountains and how close they come to the waters edge and very often they are still very steep.  In the Norwegian fjords, (Geirangerfjord, Sondefjord) you can sail within touching distance (*) of the fjord wall and still have 300 feet of water under the keel or more. In Alaska the mountains are more curved and they curve upwards further away from the water. Hence there are normally wide beaches with low foliage near the water line (Great for Bear watching). Even in Grenville Passage and Johnson Return channel which are the narrowest passages in B.C. Inside Passage the mountain faces are not rising straight out of the water. What comes closest is maybe Seymour Narrows, where you go through “the hole” at Maud Island. That is steep near the water line but not very high.

The 750 meter gap in Seymour Narrows. Not so high but still impressive as the gap is quite narrow.

As a result I do not have a real preference. You can get with the ship close to a glacier, in Alaska, to see calving and a lot of  wildlife, but in Norway you can sit under a rock wall and have to put your head in your neck to see the top.  For sailing there is not much difference as the pilots are required to do all the work. For the guests the good thing this, that all of the Norwegian fjords have  5 & 4G phone coverage everywhere, which in Alaska you have to be close to a town.

A Hurtigruten Cruise ship going through a tight opening. Where is the Broomstick ????

(*) A little anecdote told to me by a Norwegian pilot when I went into the Fjords with the Veendam in 2007. A lot of the pilots employed come from the coastal Mail boats, the Hurtigruten and they sailed almost without supervision through the fjords on their watches as it was daily routine. Not as we have on the cruise ships where either the Captain or the Staff Captain is on the bridge when sailing inside. So through the years (this goes back a long, long time) they devised a game  called “broom stick sailing”. Each ship  had a standard length broomstick on the bridge wing. When coming close to a cliff rock in a fjord, the flat bristle bit was pushed against the bridge wing rim so that the stick part was sticking out. Most likely 5 feet or so. The idea was that you then sailed that close that the broom stick-stick hit the cliff rock but not the ship. This pilot claimed that this went on for a long , long time, until AIS was fitted on the ships and the people in the office could see where the ships were at all times.  I did not directly believe it but the harbour master in Bergen confirmed that this was indeed happening and it did not always work well.

Guests on board have the chance to sign up for a visit behind the scenes, as you now can do on nearly every company. You have to pay for it but here with P&O the price is a reasonable £ 85,– for the whole tour; as there are company’s out there who now charge $ 179,–

 

The Classical Duo, the Meridians, Flute and Piano.

Lesley went to see an interview with the whole cast, on the stage in the show lounge, while I took the chance to take photos of the art in the 3 staircases. There is a pattern to the consistent style of paintings hanging on the wall and I will come back about that later. Then we re-united in The Playhouse to listen to the 2nd recital of this cruise by “The Meridian Duette” with Dream Like music by Debussy, Faure, Albeniz and De Falla. The set was called Moonlight & Fire to warm the guests up for the Solar Eclipse. And they were very good again. There was even a classical piece influenced by  Scott Joplin (The Entertainer) I never knew that there was “cross -contamination” also from the light arts to the serious stuff.  The Playhouse/Movie Theatre was packed again, and I expect that when the 3rd recital is coming it will be standing room only.

A very clever way of looking at the eclipse without  having to look into the sun. Just use a reverse pair of binoculars. (Photo courtesy Ruud van Deventer, son of old HAL captain H.L van Deventer)

That warmed us up for the Solar Eclipse, but there was n’t one, at least not on board the ms Aurora. Had it been perfect sunny weather where we were, we would have seen a 1/3 eclipse or so but it was completely overcast. People in middle Europe and Spain had a perfect and even good friends of mine in Holland, far north from the centre of the eclipse could observe at least a very good partial curve. But how hard the guests standing on the outside decks did wish for it, The skies remained overcast. Luckily there are plenty bars on board to get over the disappointment.

The stage setting for the show “Up all night” which center’s around people falling in love and getting engaged in a pub. I could not get a photo of the cast performing as there was that nasty announcement again of “no recording”.

It was 2nd formal night this evening, we have 3 this cruise, and we were able to combine cocktails again with a show in Carmen’s. This time a small Cast Show. It was the full cast complement but on a dance floor about half the floor size of the show lounge.  This was a show set in a Pub having the good English name of the “Cat and Fiddle”. It was very good, we are now becoming used to the very high standards on this ship where entertainment is concerned, but they could have named this the “musical chair show” as I have never see a cast moving soo many chairs, soo many times as part of the show routine.

Tomorrow we are in Leknes, capital of the Lofoten Islands. We are too big to dock in downtown so the ship has to anchor and use the ships tenders. With an official arrival time of 08.00 hrs. I expect that the ship will be at anchor around 07.00 hrs. to lower the 4 tenders and set up the platforms.  The distance from the anchorage to the shore is a 4 tender distance as we sailors call it (one ashore, one at the gangway and 2 sailing opposite) and that should give a smooth operation. As we are in a suite, we have priority tickets so we do not need to get a tender ticket in the lounge.  We are getting up somewhat earlier tomorrow as we want to try the Suite Breakfast in the Sindhu Restaurant. We have not done that yet, as it closes either at 0900 hrs. or 09.30 hrs. and then we are only just waking up. So we will make the effort; one has to experience everything, at least once in a lifetime………….. If it is good, we will do it again.

Weather tomorrow, looks mainly overcast, dry and with a chance of sun breaking through. Temperatures  around 13oC / 53oF and a gentle breeze blowing. England will be facing another blistering hot day, so it looks like that we choose the right period to go away.