Search for the Northern Lights Cruise 9th-25th February 2013 (Part Two)
February 13th The Day It All Happened
I woke with a vague sensation of being tipped up onto my feet. There was the sound of things rolling around on wood and my father said, “The ship’s tipping over.”
He stopped the items rolling off the bedside table and looked out the window to see if we were in a storm. He saw the sea was calm but, more importantly, discovered the sky was clear.
We dressed warmly and went upstairs.
As we were about to go out onto the deck we met another couple coming inside. They stabbed a thumb behind them and told us to get outside. At 5.35am on February 13th 2013, I can definitely say I saw the aurora for the first time. I cried of course. I was overwhelmed with the emotion of this phenomenon I had longed to see – confirmation of the sun’s particles interacting with the Earth’s atmosphere – since I was eight years old.
The aurora that morning was very fine and could have been mistaken for wispy clouds. It could have easily been mistaken for clouds with the moon behind, had we not known that it was a moonless sky. It changed very slowly and was a very light aqua. About three times I saw flashes at the bottom, which looked like lightning strikes.
Aurora.
At breakfast we met Frances and told her that we had seen it.
Francis had been waiting 60 years to see the aurora. She had been dog sledging, lived in Sweden for a number of years and had been on a Russian Ice Breaker to Greenland and had never seen the aurora. Poor pet was devastated she had missed it.
Early afternoon we achieved my father’s lifelong ambition and we crossed the Arctic Circle. There is an island, that we slowly passed, where a metal globe marks the place, just slightly south, of the geographical point of the Arctic Circle.
Arctic globe.
That night about 8.30 I had difficulty getting a good signal whilst making a phone call to my husband. I stepped out onto the deck and spotted the aurora. It was a short call and I dashed off to get my father. He rushed off to get our coats whilst I ran around the ship looking for Francis.
It was extra special to share it with her and to see her reaction to seeing it for the first time.
Dad was very sweet and gave her his coat, as she had just come out from dinner and was dressed as such. He went and got another coat for himself and left Francis and myself up on deck.
This time the aurora was even better than it had been that morning. Massive swirls, gently rippling across the sky, columns of green and red, curtains that travelled like smoke and intense bursts of energy which flashed randomly. The aurora was so bright at one point, it lit up a path in the sea in the same way the moon does.
It was an hour and a half before we went inside. By then it was starting to fade and Francis confessed she had not been able to feel her feet for the last hour. Despite this she still reluctantly came back inside.
Earlier that day I had compared seeing the aurora to seeing a unicorn. Francis told me she collected unicorns and decided my choice of words was a sign we were meant to meet.
Feburay 14th. Valentines Day in the Arctic.
We had an extra bit of excitement today. The ship was to take part in an exercise to help local rescue services as we approached Tromso. There were helicopters landing on the ship and fire crew running around the deck. It was like a scene out of ‘The A Team’. The whole thing lasted about an hour then we carried on into Tromso.
Tromso Air/Sea Rescue.
The moment we got up the scenery was spectacular; snowy mountain, after mountain flanked the river on both sides of the ship.
Approach to Tromso.
We passed, what appeared to be, a ski resort at the bottom of a mountain. There were chalets with balconies smothered in deep snow. The loveliest orange lights were shining through the windows and, with the snowy mountains behind, the whole image looked just like the most perfect Christmas card.
That night we saw the aurora again, although this time it was brief. This time it was distinctly green and arched across the sky from North to South.
Feb 15th Our Second Day in Tromso
We were booked on the Panoramic Tromso tour in the morning and decided we would visit the Sealife Centre (Polaris) in the afternoon.
The tour was really good and we got to see the whole of Tromso and its surrounding landscapes. We crossed the very high bridge and passed a completely frozen lake.
On our return we walked through the town and made our way to Polaris. The seals performed tricks for the visitors and although at first I thought it might not be good for them, it was pointed out that the tricks not only exercised their bodies, but their minds also.
Feb 16th Our Final Day in Tromso
It was -4 outside when we decided to walk to the bridge. By then one of the passengers had broken their foot on their first day in Tromso, so we were very careful and decided to wear our ice grips.
As we crossed the bridge there was an icy wind blowing down the river. I had been cool until then, but as we began up the bridge the wind started to burn my face. It felt as though my skin was being burned off. The bridge was very high and quite steep and we seemed to go up for a very long time. I became quite breathless. It took us about ten minutes to reach the pinnacle where we had a wonderful view of the mountains and the ship.
Tromso bridge lit up at night.
We returned in time for lunch and a viewing of Star Wars.
The previous day an asteroid had exploded over Moscow. My brother told me it exploded 15 miles up, was the size of a bus and was travelling at 40,000 mph. 1,000 people were hurt.
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