After our departure from Iceland, we were to have two days at sea, the second of which was to be scenic cruising of Cape Farewell. Having been unable to cruise Prince Christian Sound on our way east because of the ice jams, we were looking forward to the scenic cruising of Cape Farewell with its icebergs.
The first day at sea was just a sea day with nothing but ocean and a few birds near the ship. On sea days, I try to walk the deck right away before other activities consume the day. The seas were calm so I made 16 laps around the deck—the equivalent of four miles. After breakfast, it was a morning of interesting lectures in the Showroom at Sea (the ship auditorium), first with Port Lecturer Barbara Haenni describing what we would find in our two ports in Newfoundland, St. Anthony and St. John. She was followed by a biologist, photographer, and world traveler who discussed the whales and polar bears of the North Atlantic. After lunch, the Icelandic professor, Dr. Thorsteinn Hannesson, described Greenland with emphasis on the more barren north and central part of the world’s largest island (he distinguishes Greenland from Australia in that Australia is a continent). Once again for our Formal Night at dinner, Barbara Haenni was at our table and we love that because she is such a wealth of information about travel and it has also been interesting to get to know her a bit better personally as well.
Earlier in the day on Thursday, our captain made an announcement that the likelihood of going into Cape Farewell would most likely have to be scrapped as the ice buildup is unusually great this year, so like with Prince Christian Sound, we wouldn’t be able to make our preferred passage with its wonderful scenery tomorrow. That’s a disappointment, but it’s not worth making our cruise as memorable as the Titanic’s! He also said, we would have to wait for aerial checks by plane spotters which periodically make these determinations to determine whether we could visit the Greenland port of Nanortalik. Apparently the ice is jamming the entrance to the passage to that small Greenland port and we may have to skip that too. We would have to wait until tomorrow and maybe even Saturday for that decision.
So Friday, the day we were to do scenic cruising of Cape Farewell, became a regular sea day. However, all four of the day’s lectures were too good to miss and all were very different from each other. First Barbara Haenni gave a rather different talk today. Instead of talking about what to see in a port, she told about the 1917 Halifax Explosion since we will visit Halifax very shortly before we disembark at the end of the cruise. I had never known about the Halifax Explosion but Halifax Harbor was a major port for sending military equipment and explosives for use in fighting World War I. Very briefly, two ships bumped each other in the very crowded harbor, setting a fire followed by a huge explosion that virtually destroyed Halifax and cost many lives. Even now, it is the largest unintentional man-caused explosion. She was followed by the speaker who described the origins of the North Atlantic Vikings and their push into the North Atlantic.
In the afternoon, the naturalist gave an interesting talk about the birds of the North Atlantic. He did it in such a way that even “non-birders” like me found it fascinating. Then, of particular interest to Barb and me, the Shore Excursions Director, Joe L’Episcopo gave a talk about the Chicago Columbian Exposition in 1893. Since our great grandfather (our paternal grandmother’s father) had been an ornamental plasterer in Toronto, he had been commissioned to do some of the ornamental plastering for the Columbian Exposition so he moved his family to Chicago where they settled. We wish we had asked our grandmother, who was 11 in 1893, what her impressions of the World’s Fair had been, but it’s too late now! The lecture described the process by which Chicago won the bid to host the exposition and the various buildings that housed the innovations of the late 19th century. It’s difficult to not have anything to do!
In the evening, we attended the Murder-Mystery Dinner since we had enjoyed that so much when we were on the grand voyage to the South Pacific. We asked our tablemates if they were interested in attending, but only our new friend, Marge, decided to attend. We were so glad we did it because we howled our way through dinner with laughter. The premise was that we were attending a class reunion for “Maasdale (as in Maasdam) High School”. The organizer of the reunion, “Nate Nurdley”, welcomed us to the reunion dinner and then stepped into the kitchen to make sure all arrangements were ready, there was a commotion, and then a report that he had been “murdered.” However we were assured that all was under control and that we were to go ahead with our dinner. Members of the staff played various roles including the librarian “Agnes Crabapple”, photographer “Tonya Flashoff”, French Canadian foreign exchange student and big time jock, “Jacques Strappé”, and several more. Throughout the dinner, the “suspects” went from table to table professing their innocence while casting doubts on the motives of everyone else. Every few minutes, “Mario Testosteroni”, the lady’s man and now detective, interviewed the “suspects.” Each table voted as to whom they thought the murderer was. The comments were hilarious and it was truly a fun evening.
There is always so much to do¸ even on our sea days!
Chuck
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