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 us passed the Meridian Memorial erected in 1854. The town was chosen as one of many locations across Europe to the Black Sea which were used to determine as accurately as possible the dimensions of the earth and the accuracy of lines of latitude and longitude. The Russian scientist F. G. Struve started the project in 1816 with the intention of forming cartographers to draw accurate maps all needed for trade and expansion of empires.
The weather had improved as we left Hammerfest for our next stop at Oksfjord but at 2:00 p.m. we received news of a course change. The weather in the area near the Lofoten Islands where we would normally go is so bad that ships are avoiding the area. Having already experienced 4.5m waves last night the Captain is going to dock at Harstad to ride out some of the storm by staying there for the best part of 8 hours. We expect to depart Harstad at 4:00 p.m. Monday direct to Bodo at 02:30 on Tuesday to be back on schedule. We still have to cross open sea and expect 4.8m waves and the best policy is to stay in one’s cabin.
Along the way we heard a helicopter approaching. Thinking that there was some kind of emergency we had the cameras at the ready but discovered a little later that it was a drill.
Storms now dominated the journey from the Barents Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. In rough seas we made a brief stop at Skjervøy. One person disembarked plus a car and its driver and a crew member, who nipped off the ship to be greeted on the dock by his parents who appeared to be holding a gift, before he quickly returned to work. As night closed in we continued across an even more stormy sea arriving at Tromso at 23:45 to ‘wait on the weather’.