June 19 - Night and Day

UAt last, a day off. No port, just a day at sea to relax.  We crossed the Arctic Circle today and now we will have no sunset until we cross back in a few days.

We're used to lots of daylight in Anchorage, but we are farther north and there is more daylight. Last night it never got dark, even for an hour. I know because I stayed up late. It didn't even get dark-ish. It just got a little less bright, and by the time I went to sleep it was getting brighter again.

We sailed past a lot of islands today. There are lots of mountains. They have snow on them, but not much snow. In the morning we were still sailing past villages and fishig boats. Not so much in the afternoon, not at all in the evening. Just more islands and mountains, and a little more snow.

We went to a very interesting lecture today about phenomena related to light: rainbows, sundogs, haloes, auroras, green flashes, and mirages. I learned a lot. The lecturer talked about various different kinds of rainbows, what causes them, how to find them, etc. One unusual kind was a rainbow that goes straight up and down. I forgot what the explanation was. In the late afternoon we looked out at some kind of ship passing by and right over it we saw one of those up and down rainbows. By the time I thought of taking a picture of it, it was too late.

The lecture covered this phenomenon:

It's getting cold outside, but so far the water has been fairly calm. Just another indolent day at sea.

We had dinner with a nice British couple - and a strange British guy who gave the rest of us the creeps. He hardly said anything, and I couldn't understand the two things he did say. Even the British couple could barely understand him. He had bad table manners, and he got food all over his shirt. That's the luck of the draw, I guess. We were the last to be shown to the table. Once you get close enough to see who's going to be at your table, it is very awkward to say "No, I don't want that table." I didn't want to do it this time because the nice British couple clearly needed rescuing. They looked like deer in the headlights.

After dinner we saw a show called Born to Be Wild. It's a cute show - we've seen it before. They have a pink Cadillac on the stage and they use it cleverly. The dancing wasn't the best, but the lead singers were good and the music was lively and mostly familiar songs from the 70's, 80's and 90's.

Shabbat Shalom!