Bit of a sleep in this morning after late night. Some people headed off on a land excursion for the day today at 8 am so breakfast is a bit less hectic in the dining room.
We sailed into Finnsnes at 4.15am so missed that one completely. Hardtack at 8am was were the day trippers got off and the next stop is Risøyhamn. To get to this town we have to sail through a man made canal created by the founder of Hurtigruten Richard With.
The waters to get to between the islands were too shallow for his ships to pass and they had to travel a lot further to get around so he dug a canal Risøyrenna, 5km long 100m wide and 7m deep. Our ships sail at a depth of 5m.
We see our first White tail Eagle (sea eagle) soaring high in the sky at this point and these waters are so rich with herring that we have a good chance of seeing whales in this stretch too.
Well it's almost 6pm. No whales today but did see some white tail eagles with the binoculars. We spent most of the afternoon on deck looking at the amazing scenery as it was night time when we passed through here on the way up. We did go ashore in Stokmarknes to look through the Hutigruten museum to see how the ships were fitted out in the last Hurtigruten has been in operation for over 120 years and these days it no longer carries the mail but it is still carrying cargo and vehicles along with commuting passengers and tourists like us between Bergen and Kirkenes departing daily.
On the way up we had a magical night where we cruised into GTE a Trollfjord under spotlight, well today we sailed in and out in the daylight and it was spectacular, once again apparently they can't always do it because of time restraints or currents but obviously today was perfect although we are now behind schedule by about 20 minutes!
We will have the opportunity to get off again at the next stop which is Svolvær. Not sure what is there but we will have about 90 minutes to have a look around and then we will have dinner around 8.30pm. Possibly dinner for two at our table of 6 tonight as I think the others are on excursions at that time and would have already eaten.
Still can't fault the weather although the wind when on deck is icy so jackets scarves and beanies are required.