Can I say, be careful what you wish for? Well, at 9:15 last night we got the Northern Lights alarm and Nicole (Bolt) was gone like a flash again. With much clearer skies tonight, the view and photos were so much better. I stayed out there until 11:15 only popping in a couple of times when the activity was not so good so I could warm up a bit.
If we get more over the next few nights, I doubt whether they will top last nights show. I have so many photos it was really difficult to narrow down the ones to post so here’s a small selection of my favourites.
While I think of it, what you see with the naked eye is completely different to how the photos appear. Cameras often capture more saturated colours that the human eye can perceive. In real life, auroras appear as pale green, grey, or white but even so, they are unmistakable.
Needless to say, we were tucked up in bed by the time we reached Tromsø.
After visiting Deck 9 for our early morning fresh air indulgence, we went for breakfast. As we were approaching Harstad, we were just finishing eating, so I popped out to deck 7 to capture the moment.
On our approach to the next stop of Risøyhamn, we spotted a couple of birds of prey. Using Google Lens I have been able to identify it as a White-tailed Eagle (also known as the sea eagle)
We also passed through the Risøy Strait which is 4.8 km in length, 50 metres wide and 6 metres deep.
Almost straight after we made a 15 minute stop at Risøyhamn. – The other side of lunch we made a 30 minutes stop at Sortland, where we picked up the passengers that took an excursion from Harstad this morning. As is the norm, the tour bus and ship cross at the Sortland Bridge. I missed this as we were still in the dining room.
Our next stop was Stokmarknes which was for an hour and long enough for us to get off for a quick walk. Instead of going to the Hurtigruten Museum, we headed for the bridge to get a photo of the ship and the museum building. We were confident of doing it because there were posters inside the cruise terminal displaying the route.
In the late afternoon we sailed through the Raftsundet Strait where I managed a few more Sea Eagle silhouettes.
Our last civilised time stop of the day was Svolvær where if we had got off when we arrived we would have had 2 hours. The first half hour was spent finishing dinner and we lost another 10 minutes because they like everyone aboard before the departure time so in the end we had 80 minutes to explore which as it happens was more than adequate because just about everywhere was shut and it was dark and raining.
On a positive note, it did give us the chance to walk dinner off. Strong winds are again forecast for tonight so we have another bumpy night ahead.
Fitbit Steps – 16,227
Gorgeous photos of the Northern Lights. Best yet.