We had an early morning flight from Bergen to Amsterdam where the stormy weather over the UK seriously impacted flights across the North Sea. One and a half hours late, we were given our slot across the sea to Manchester and, with the Captain’s ‘foot down’, we did the journey in 55 minutes including a

We travelled overnight towards Bergen. It was dull with heavy cloud and some rain which finally cleared for our arrival at 14:45. As our room was on the top floor we disembarked first and within an hour we were eating in the Varanasi Indian restaurant along the Bryggen!

An early arrival in Trondheim provided an opportunity to visit the town at daybreak – we missed it! Departure was at 09:30 and under perfect conditions we headed along the Trondheimfjord, on the lookout for German gun emplacements and into the Inner Passage for a day at sea. In the early evening we docked in

On the Atlantic Ocean we could not avoid being pummelled by the high waves, estimated at around 5m and very high winds. In the darkness the ship pitched and rolled severely with spray from the bow hitting the waves, travelling down the ship. It was around 04:30 that we arrived at Bodo and then continued

Our departure from Tromso was delayed until 03:00. Through howling winds and a big sea we made our way to the deviation route, a narrow channel that would help us avoid the worst of the storm. We arrived at our scheduled port at Harstad by 08:00 and as we were here to stay for 8

The storm and high seas continued all night and was beginning to delay the schedule. We omitted some small ports because of the state of the sea and at breakfast at 09:00 we were still ‘ploughing’ water en route to Hammerfest, where we docked at 11:25, only 20 minutes late.  Our entry into Hammerfest took

Kirkenes at 69N, is often described as the end of the earth. It is as far east as Istanbul and lies 15km from the Russian border at the end of the E6 highway from Oslo. It has a frontier feel where it is said that the local fishermen who can speak Russian get a better

At 05:45 we made a short stop en route at Hammerfest which developed from Kvaloya,  ‘Whale Island’ and at 70.39.48 N is possibly the world’s most northern town.  Approaching Honningsvag we sailed through a narrow channel with, to the north the island of the North Cape and to the south the mainland of Norway.  Honningsvag at

We made good progress northwards overnight with short stops en route and in the early afternoon arrived in Tromso. At 400km north of the Arctic Circle Tromso was, in the past, a centre for seal hunting, trapping, fishing and later a ‘launch-pad’ for several Arctic expeditions with some led by Roald Amundsen. We docked at

We had an early start as at 07:50 we crossed the Arctic Circle (66.3N) and entered the Arctic/Far North. Here we have reached the southernmost extent of the Arctic/Far North. North of here there is darkness in winter as the sun shines mostly on the Southern Hemisphere. In summer it is the opposite as daylight