The first half of last night proved to be very lively, the wind got up and the ship was rocking and rolling quite a bit. When I looked out of our window, there were really large waves and some of them nearly up to our window and it was snowing quite heavily too. I don’t know what time it eventually calmed down as I fell asleep at some point but I do feel for anyone who had cabins at the front of the ship.
When I came to, this morning at 6:00, we were just leaving Honningsvåg and it was a completely different scene from last night outside the window, just calm water and snow covered mountains.
On a positive note for Nicole, scrambled tofu was on the breakfast menu again so she duly obliged herself.
Just after breakfast we stopped at Havøysund for the second time and this time it slowly emerged from the falling snow.
A completely contrasting weather conditions from our stop here a few days ago.
With some downtime between then and our next stop, we did some final research on things to do and see at the next stop which was Hammerfest. A lot was dependent on the weather and what we could find during the 105 minutes at our disposal and we eventually decided we would attempt to walk up to the Toke viewpoint.
After arriving on schedule we got off the ship but when we got to the start of the hike there was a sign saying it was closed during the winter, the recent fall of snow made the route look very unfavorable which eventually was the deciding factor and, as a result we explored the town instead.
We used the CFG book walking tour as a rough guide and set off to see what we could find. We located a few monuments and statues, three churches one of which was a chapel which was the only remaining building after the Germans scorched earth policy was implemented on Hammerfest. They believed it would be bad luck to burn down a cemetery hence why it survived.
We also visited the Hammerfest Church across the street with its unusual design that was designed to resemble the fish drying racks used in the region.
I think we covered most of the suggested landmarks but found the time had soon disappeared, so we made our way back to the ship for lunch. The afternoon was spent just kicking back in the Havblikk Lounge where visibility wasn’t too great due to the many snow showers.
At 4:00 we made a later than scheduled 26 minute stop at Øksfjord, this was slightly longer than scheduled because I think we were late leaving Hammerfest and there was quite a bit of cargo to load. After dinner, we popped outside for one last civilised hour stop which was a harbour called Skjervøy.
There is a midnight stop at Tromsø tonight but at this point in time we are undecided whether to drag ourselves out of bed.
Having said that, the Northern Lights alarm would do it though.
Fitbit Steps – 14,164
So, no sunbathing I guess?
😂