Best night yet for seeing the aurora.
I have so many photos and videos, it’s going to be hard whittling them down to post here. Needless to say it has exceeded my wildest expectations.
I didn’t go to any shows last night, just got to dinner as early as we could and left before dessert to race up and change to go outside. Once again the aurora was immediately visible, and the lights from The Paris of The North actually made a nice contrast in the pictures. After an hour or so I went to bed, but was woken by my old friend, the tap tap tapping, at 2 am when the ship set sail. I didn’t mind because it gave me a chance to go and have a look at the sky away from light pollution. Simply breathtaking. In person the colours aren’t as good as through the camera but I didn’t expect to see so much movement, rippling and waving and pulsing. After an hour I went back to bed and slept soundly with ear plugs in situ.
My first activity of the day was a lecture from the astronomer, this time on the subject of Mars exploration. I’d completely forgotten that even in my youth, people used to talk about the canals on Mars. For a couple of hundred years since these were first spotted with a telescope, people thought that martians were a thing.
After that I went to a talk on gemstones which wasn’t as informative as I’d hoped, more like a sales pitch. I was impressed at the quality of jewellery they have on board, even a half million USD diamond necklace. I presume security must be tighter than it appears.
After that I went to a tango class. Too many women as usual so I paired up with a very nice English lady and enjoyed myself very much. I actually found it less stressful dancing with a woman. Sadly Simon would choose an attack of biliary colic over dancing lessons every time.
In the afternoon I got a phone call from the Purser’s desk, they couldn’t do anything about the noise but did we want to change staterooms? I thought, nothing lost by looking at other cabins, although Simon was very wary. Better the devil you know is his view, but then he’s had no trouble sleeping with the tapping. One room had intermittent loud bangs which I’m informed is due to the current big swells (the weather has deteriorated), but Simon was dead set against it. So, we’ve plumped for a stateroom down on level 6. I asked the officer why the rooms were now free, worried that we were inheriting someone else’s rejects, but apparently they’ve had a couple of medical disembarkations – not surprising looking at the age and general decrepitude of many of our fellow passengers.
So, we’ve repackaged our luggage and I’m currently waiting for someone to give me a hand to move. Exciting! No aurora tonight as it is overskyet (overcast).