August 23, 2024 – At Sea – Labrador Sea – Mostly Cloudy – Cold – 40s

There was a little motion of the ocean last night but not too bad but with this kind of time change I always get up too early (around 2:53 AM).  I did somehow get back to sleep and finally got up to go to the Oceanview Café for Breakfast at 6:40 AM.  I had my usual breakfast (continues to be pretty good, especially the coffee since I now can get those to-go cups from the bar – they really keep the coffee hot).

Not a whole lot to see on this chilly foggy morning.  We are steaming toward Halifax, our next port of call.

I was at the Theater at 8:40 AM – set up quickly, and spent some chatting with the patrons. 

Another good turnout – I keep thinking about 70 percent full (700 people or so).  This talk, “Open Unsolved Cases: Forensic Genealogy” is a new talk and one of the more difficult ones for me.  It went OK and finished in 49 minutes allowing Samantha to set up her talk for the 10 AM time slot.  She will always have enough time because the Captain always gives his update at 9:55 AM followed by Manuel’s rundown of the day ahead.  I doubt she'll get started before about 10:15 AM.

Ellen seems to be responding to the Augmentin (always nice to have meds with us as they are frightfully expensive on board - a few years ago before we started bringing along our pharmaceuticals, I paid $23 a pill for Augmentin or $460 bucks for the full course).  

We spent an hour looking for whales and drinking coffee and tea in the Oceanview Café before going to lunch in the Moonlight Sonata Dining Room.  We went there today because they had the fried mushrooms, cold potato soup, and fried egg panini.  I had a veggie burger and once again struggled with getting the plain old yellow mustard.  The best part of the meal was the chocolate brownie with ice cream.

We spent a lot of the afternoon in very comfortable seats with a view just outside the dining room. 

We once again passed on the production show, “Amade” after checking our cruise logs and the comments left there after the time we saw this show.

We are now in our room as the ship has gotten very cold and our room is nice a warm.

August 22, 2024 – Qatortoq, Greenland – Foggy and Cold – 39F

A pretty smooth ride up the coast of Greenland and through a fjord to reach Qaqortoq, our second time here.  The night before we decided to say on the ship based on a forecast calling for temperatures around 40F or less. Another day in the cold did not seem wise and Ellen was still fighting some kind of bug.

I did have breakfast up in the Oceanview Café but saw very little of the shore.  

We are anchored and the dropping of the anchor at 6 AM was incredibly loud (did not wake Ellen up) and unpleasant. That is basically the only downside of this cabin and as along as we are docking, it shouldn't be a problem.  The bow thrusters are not as issue as we are almost eight decks above them.

The tenders will have to deal with the fog.  At one point the tenders were stopped as the visibility went to zero and Eclipse sounded the fog horn.

Ellen is in the room and I am spending time in the two seats outside the Sky Lounge.  I am still trying to be careful and avoid crowded situations and communicable diseases.  

I went to the Oceanview Café to get an Impossible Burger (the Mast Grill was closed due to the cold and the hot dogs and burgers were now being prepared in a corner of the buffet) and fries.  My burger was made fresh (did not come out of the drawer) and was really good (only the second O Burger of the voyage – the other coming at the beginning of the first cruise).  I brought Ellen back some tuna salad, egg salad, coleslaw, a potato croquet, and a piece of snapper. 

I informed our room steward that we will not need service until the evening.

The fog lifted and the day turned real nice.  We are still in our cabin. 

We cleaned up and went to the Oceanview Café for dinner.  We somehow got magic table #516 and our Kosher meals were there.  I had a Panzanella Salad from the menu (very good) and then we both had Mushroom Barley Soup (delicious).  Ellen’s short ribs were good according to her but my roast beef on a roll was simply inedible.  The beef was a thin slice of beef jerky and the bun was hard a rock.  I’m guessing over-microwaving.  We shared our issues with a suit who empathized with us but explained how they indeed had to microwave the Kosher Meals and some of them did not travel well on the microwave train.  We did get the rugelach the suit said didn’t exist and they were good as before.  So, except for my "roast beef" sandwich, the rest of the meal was pretty much OK.  I would never order that sandwich again.

Showtime tonight featured French Violinist Marie Electra (yes).  

We stayed for about two songs – there was something about her, maybe her French banter, that made us leave. We generally do not like violinists but I am sure the audience loved her. It's a matter of personal preference.

We saw the new party band, "Turn the Dial" in the Foyer.

We then went to the Ensemble Lounge to hear the new acoustic duo, DeeZee (violin and guitar).  They have a pretty mellow sound and are easy to listen to.  They can both sing and there weren’t a lot of people in the Lounge. 

I did get a picture of the sail away from Greenland.

We are coming back to Greenland next year and are stopping at some additional ports.  

We got our water and hot tea from Café al Baccio and we called it a day.

Clocks move backwards one hour tonight.

August 21, 2024 – At Sea – North Atlantic Ocean – Blue Skies but chilly – 40s

Today, the ship is going to transit the Prince Christian Sund– a fjord connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Labrador Sea.  That will begin around 2 PM.  Bad weather kept us from going through the fjord on Cruise #1.

It is a beautiful day in Greenland as evidenced by the pictures taken at breakfast.  

The Oceanview Café opened about 15 late so nothing was available (not even coffee) and I got the first waffle that came off the waffle maker.  That made breakfast a little shorter and after bringing Ellen her breakfast, I changed and went to the theater at 8:30 AM for my second talk, “Forensics and History: Identifying the Famous and Infamous”.  It was a good turnout – I can’t figure out how many people anymore but I do know that there are about a hundred folks up in the balcony.  The talk went well and I finished a bit late at 9:49 AM.  This still did not interfere with the Captain’s update at 9:55 AM and gave Kelly plenty of time to set up for his talk on the Auroras. 

I stayed for about half of his talk and then went to check on Ellen. She is feeling much better today so I hope that she has turned the corner on whatever she had.

We both had lunch in the Oceanview Café, which was slammed early as people completely filled the Starboard side of the venue in anticipation of the fjord transit.

We did eventually find a seat – not a great one – and, since it was Food of Greece day, I had a lot of salads involving peppers.  Ellen ate something I can’t remember.  We eventually found a seat on the Starboard side and stayed there for most of the transit.

The transit was sort of narrated by Samantha and Manuel but it was mostly a visual experience.  Amazing mountain with very sharp peaks.  There were four glaciers that actually reached the water and sloughed off some sea ice.  No huge icebergs – some ice floes.  Near the end of the transit, we saw a nice waterfall. Samantha, I believe, incorrectly identified the large glacier below as the "Jacobshaven Glacier" -

that glacier is actually in northwestern Greenland and is thought to be the glacier that spawned the iceberg that sank the Titanic.  

We entered the Sund and encountered super smooth water in the fjord.

The transit is 60 miles long and took hours as ships are asked to travel at show speed due to the presence of ice.  Another highlight was the presence of the Caribbean Princess going the other way and a small science ship that spent a lot of time in front of one of the glaciers.  In one shot, I got both the Caribbean Princess and the Science ship.

Eclipse also did a couple of 360 turns in the fjord so that people on both sides of the ship could see the glaciers.  I'm adding all the pictures I took (mostly in order) during the transit below.  It was spectacular - more scenic than the Chilean Fjords or Alaska - and I do feel bad for the passengers that missed this on the first cruise.

We stayed for dinner and I once again had the Pasta Aglio e olio.  This time it was prepared by the little pizza girl and not as good as Ana’s version.

We went to the show which featured “Folk – The Trawlermen” – a group. Three guys, we had never seen before doing Irish and Scottish Shanties and folk songs. I liked the music and the banter and found the show entertaining.

From the theater, we went to the Moonlight Sonata Dining Room and talked to the Hostess on Deck 4 Portside (the side where you go in to get your seat). With the help of a suit, we ordered two Kosher Meals for tomorrow night.  I ordered the Roast Beef on a bun and Ellen asked for the Short Ribs.  We also ordered two Mushroom Barley Soups and Rugelach for dessert.  The suit said there were no Rugelach and they weren’t on the menu but we told him we just had them a couple of nights ago.  He said he would check (confidence is not high).  I also asked him for “yellow mustard” and he called it “English Mustard” because Grey Poupon was “French Mustard”.  We also asked for Table 516, the table overlooking the dining floor below.  She said that was already taken so we requested a table for two away from people.  She said she would do what she could when we arrived at 5 PM. 

Back to the room after that.

Seas are still calm.

August 20, 2024 – At Sea – Cloudy – 40s

Seas were pretty smooth last night and I slept longer than usual according to my watch.  I went up to the Oceanview Café for the Early Risers Breakfast and the whole buffet was open so I got my waffle combo including sour cream and scrambled eggs with cheddar on top.  From my window seat, all I could see was a hazy, but calm, sea.

The breakfast was good – I brought Ellen her breakfast and got ready for my first talk at 9 AM.  I got there at 8:30 AM to set up and greet passengers.  This group of passengers is a friendly lot and my pre-talk chat was nice. 

The first lecture on this cruise is going to be a "Death in Iceland: The Birna Brjansdottir Murder".  I did not get a chance - due to all of the craziness and switching of schedules, to do this presentation on Cruise #1.  I got a brief intro from Kristine and got started just a few minutes late. My pace was good and I finished at 9:47 AM.  The turnout was good – 70 plus full – for a first talk at the early time slot. I also included some new slides of locations in Reykjavik that I took, while we wandered the city, that related to the case.  And since we had left Reykjavik just a few days ago, people could relate to the story better.  

Samantha Olson, the Naturalist, hurried me off the stage even though the Captain had not yet come on with his update. 

I changed clothes and came back to hear the end of Samantha’s talk on “Wild Whales”.

I stayed for J. Kelly Beatty, the Astronomer, who talked about life on other planets in “Are We Alone?”  Kelly had introduced himself to me (along with his wife) before my talk.  He seems like a very nice guy – he’s from Caltech.  The talk was interesting even though I was familiar with almost all of the material.. 

Ellen is not feeling well and staying in the room – I went to get some lunch and the Café was slammed.   Every seat was taken – I walked across the chilly deck to get to the Spa Café to eat my tuna sandwich and pick up something for Ellen.  The Solarium and Spa Café were also full.  I wound up having my lunch sitting on the deck of the Solarium.  I brought Ellen a few dishes from the Spa Café.

We both spent the afternoon in our cabin.

For dinner, I tried to bring up some food – some tuna, some bread, some veggie pizza.  None of it really hit the spot but at least we ate something.

Of course, we did not go see the show – fortunately, it was “Rock City” and we wouldn’t have gone anyway.  There was nothing on TV but sports and news so it was a long evening.

Ellen has started on Augmentin to deal with what looks to be a sinus infection.

August 19, 2024 – Akureyri, Iceland – Cloudy, Rainy, and Cold – 40F

We are in dreary Akureyri, Iceland this morning.

A very bumpy night – slept through a lot of it but was up pretty early (around 5 AM). The Sun was up and I got a nice shot of the town from our cabin.  Yes, another cloudy cold day in the Arctic Circle adjacent.  

When we were here a few years, we spent a very very cold day walking around the town (I was looking for a coffee shop but never found one).  We stopped at a sculpture of a whale's tail so that the freezing wind off the fjord would catch us head on and we would get the full effect of wind chill.  I zoomed in on that spot in the second picture below.

At 6:00 AM (yikes) I was off to the Oceanview Café.  And there already a lot of people up there.  This is a "non-sleeping" or a "breakfast at dawn" cruise, apparently.

The big news this morning was the reappearance of sour cream near the lox table.  I hope that this is a "rest of cruise" thing and not a one day deal.  The breakfast was extra special now that the whole gang was here (except that marmalade is still MIA).

We are leaving early today – 3:30 PM – so going out in the cold does not seem like the smart thing to do. 

There are two other ships, both small, here today:  The Atlas World Navigator (on the right) and a ship called Deutschland. The Navigator looks more like a large yacht than a cruise ship.  

A quiet day – Ellen is still dealing with a cold or sinus infection – so again staying away from another cold day is a good idea.

At dinner in the Oceanview Cafe, I had Ana make me another small dish of Pasta Aglio e Oilo, which again was very good.  A Caesar Salad completed the meal. 

After dinner we went to the theater to take in a new group, Vox Fortura.  

Three black fellas who were semifinalists some years back on Britain’s Got Talent (the ships hire a lot of BGT contestants apparently).  They do a combination of opera and soul music.  Not sure tonight’s set was representative of that but they did a great job on “The Prayer”, the first time I have that song performed by male vocalists.  They were very talented and entertaining and they were all from Alabama.

We took in a few minutes of Next Stage from the Deck 5 overlook.  

We went back to the room after the set.

Clocks go back one hour tonight.

So far, the seas are smooth.

August 18, 2024 – Isafjordur, Iceland – Gray, Raining, Cold – 36F (33F wind chill)

An ugly day in Isafjordur.

We are 2 for 2 at this port (not being able to get off the first time we stopped here a few days ago).  You can see our position relative to the port and town in the Google Map graphic.

It's even colder today - the Captain said it might actually snow - and very few people are getting off the ship today (can tell by the crowds in the Oceanview Café).  There is still no marmalade (sacrifices need to be made) on the buffet but everything else is there.  The guy taking egg orders knows me at this point and plops that cheddar cheese on my scrambled eggs without being ask to.

We spent most of the day outside of the Sky Lounge in the two chairs in the alcove.  It might have been close to freezing and a threat of snow but there were people out there kayaking and playing some kind of relay game (looked like a day camp of some kind).

I had tuna salad and assorted other stuff for lunch.

At 4:45 PM I went down to the Moonlight Sonata Dining Room on Deck 4 (Select Dining) and got in a medium sized line (Maxwell, the suit from the other side had told us last night that we would be waiting over an hour in line).  The line moved very fast and we got Table 516 along the railing (where we sat on a previous cruise – the best seats in the Dining Room – no neighbors and very little noise).

When we checked in, the hostess looked as if our special meals weren’t there and our waiter also gave us the impression that something had gone wrong.  Actually, we misread both of them and the meals were indeed there.  The Salisbury Steak was actually a very spiced up hamburger (didn’t like the spices that much but the dish was OK).  The mashed potatoes were cholent type of potatoes (OK) and I didn’t touch the green beans.  The parve carrot cake didn’t cut it but the six rugelach were authentic and perfect.  We had two for dinner and took four back to the room for another time.  The food came so fast – our main meal was finished at 6:01 PM and we were able to leave for the theater before 6:30 PM.

We are not big fans of magicians but we decided to see James Cielen – a semi-finalist on England’s Got Talent and a Gold Medal Winner in Las Vegas.

The tricks were not new and I thought that some were easily rigged (especially the envelope with a famous person as a baby).  He also did the never ending snow from the hand trick (we’ve seen in done before).

The ship started to rock and roll just as the show ended and didn’t stop until the middle of the night.  Some of the rolls were major.

Up in our cabin, the motion of the ocean was pretty strong and we tried not to get knocked down.