A time change this morning, so although we slept in until 7:00 AM body time, it was 6:00 shipboard time. It is still rough and snowing this morning. We are to arrive at our first Iceland port, Seyoisfjorour this morning around 9:00, but Captain informs us we are running 30 minutes behind schedule due to his decision to slow the vessel to save wear and tear and also to create a less rough sailing experience.
We breakfast as normal and then return to our cabin to await the call for our 3 hour coach tour of the Skalanes Nature Reserve. However, a ship wide announcement tells us that the coaches cannot make it over the mountain passes to the port, due to the amount of snow and ice on the roads. Therefore all excursions are cancelled for today and passengers who had booked these will be credited for the cost. We are told that we will, however, be allowed to disembark into town as soon as we are cleared. Much encouragement to wear appropriate clothing as it is blowing snow and the temperature is a 0 C with a windchill of -6 C.
The next problem is that the port cannot make their gangway equipment work to get it up to the level of our ship. No gangway means no disembarkation. Finally, around 11:00 they are able to cobble together a makeshift gangway for those that want to go in to town. We make the decision to stay and watch the showing of Specter - the James Bond film in the main lounge.
We finally find a spot at a restaurant as we didn't finish the film until 1:30 PM. Not very good planning on the part of the crew, but this entire day has been a problem for them, not of their making. People who did disembark came back very chilled and cold. Although we had some guilt at not making an attempt, we were warm and cozy in our cabin listening to music and reading our novels. We did venture to the reception desk to purchase additional internet time as we had already burned through our first 4 hours. Unfortunately, the Internet was down and they can't sell us additional time until it is back up.
At 4:30 the crew prepared for departure and on to our next stop. However, it took the dock crew a good one-half hour to deconstruct the jerry-rigged gangplank assembly they had created, utilizing two large fork lifts, a flat bed truck and 10 men. A comedy to watch, but no one was injured, other than pride. I am guessing that the automated gangway will be repaired prior to the next cruise ship arrival. We finally departed at 5:00 PM, headed to our next stop on the north side of Iceland, Akureyri. Large snowflake started to drop heralding our departure - looks like another snowy evening.
Onward to dinner. Our table mates also stayed onboard all day. As dinner service was beginning, the Captain announced that we would encounter additional very rough seas and wind gusts to 50 knots on our overnight trip. Consequently we would have an hour's delay tomorrow in the start of all excursions. We dined on veal saltimbocca and pan-seared swordfish. The theme of the dinner was Italian and all the waiters were ensconced in tri-color aprons; their attempts a pronunciation of the Italian names of the dishes were hilarious. The profiteroles for dessert were very good.
After dinner, we took in a singer in the main lounge and then finished with a night cap in our favorite bar, listening to the violin and piano stylings of two lovely young ladies. The combination of rough seas and a few cocktails made for a comic return down the halls at evening's end.
