After the excitement of the Top of the World visit we had today the first of our two sea days. Two days are needed as we have to cover about 1160 miles, straight down, to reach Bergen in the middle of Norway. As the sea is very smooth we are having a very nice ride following a course of 185o which will not change for those two days. With every mile that we make we are coming closer and closer to the real world, of email, twitter and facebook. I expect that we will be able to pick the signal again in the early evening of today. I am not very much into satellite signals but it all seems to depend on the angle above the horizon and the strength of the signal beamed at any given time. That means that we might not pick it up at the same latitude where we lost it last year while Northbound. Still today we should be back in “civilization” as they call it and it will mean that I can upload my blogs tomorrow morning.

So today was a peaceful day where everybody could rehash the events of the past few days and enjoy life on the Prinsendam. Plus there are still things to look forward to. We have the ports of Bergen, Kristiansand and Oslo still to visit and then a last day at sea before the cruise ends in Amsterdam. Also today we had our first luncheon of the mariner society. On a 3 week cruise of the Prinsendam nearly everybody is a mariner, as there are only very few guests who will be on their very first cruise. The one star mariner starts at 30 days and that means with having one 10 day or two 7 day cruises under the belt, you are over the first hurdle and on the way to four star and eventually getting to the 700 day medal. So today and tomorrow we will have a luncheon which will be attended by nearly everybody, if they do want to attend of course. It is a set menu and some guests prefer the large choice of the Lido but on the other hand you do not get the free drinks and neither the mariner tile.

What amazed me the most today was the weather, was that it was nearly calm of wind and hardly any sea movement at all. We are now in the middle of the Norwegian sea, which is nothing else than a local name for the top part of the North Atlantic Ocean so there should be swell. There isn’t and that is extremely unusual for this area. There is either wind or swell and most of the time both. Today nothing except the occasional fog patch, for which we twice had to blow the whistle for about 5 minutes. That happened when we passed through the area where, to our portside (looking East), the Norwegian Sea is connected to the Barentz Sea. This is the body of water located above Murmansk in Russia. Here is an outflow of colder water. That gave us more speed for a little while (almost a knot) but when meeting the (relatively) warmer water and air of the Norwegian Sea it also created the opportunity to generate more of that hazy stuff, but for only a short period and that was also amazing. Weather wise this is turning into a most unbelievable cruise. Everyday we have had the most perfect weather – for that day-. Overcast in the ports, so no sun glare that spoils the photos and make the scenery not look genuine, but which was then followed by a little sun on departure to give an exciting sail away. Now we have flat calm seas where everybody was expecting wobbly weather. The long range weather forecast is predicting some more wind tomorrow in the open sea and some drizzle for the last two ports but that is long range. Still it should be quiet weather all the way to Amsterdam. Just amazing.

However we will take it as a gift and enjoy every minute of it. Tomorrow morning we should pass over the Arctic Circle again and then we will be back in normal cruising territory.