Leknes and onward

Yesterday we were both in Leknes and in the news.  Whilst Norwegian TV sent helicopters overhead to keep a close eye on the situation, Peter and I got on a tour bus.  We were escorting a trip to a Viking Museum.  On the way, we stopped for photo's of the tiny little village of Unstad on the North shore of Lofoten Island.  Breezy to say the least, but the views were pretty spectacular.

Then the bus took us onward to the Viking Musuem.  A Viking Longhouse was discovered on the site in 1981, and it turned out to be the biggest ever found in Northern Europe.  As well as all the relics and artifacts found, the Norwegians went on to build a replica.  Neither Peter or I would have chosen this as a preferred tour, but even so, we found the longhouse interesting.

It gets dark early this far north, it was very dark by the time we reached the port at 4.30pm.  The tender took us back to the ship and we waited on board for the tide to lift us off the sandbank.

Tugs pulled us away about 5.30pm, and then we spent a bit of time in the bay whilst the engineers played with engines -we think he was probably clearing mud from the filters, and therefore the engines kept starting and stopping - and then finally, around 8pm, we set sail for our next port - Alta.

Thing is we've not got to Alta yet, we're parked in the middle of a fjord just outside Tromso.  Apparently the sandbank did cause a little bit of damage after all, and we are staying here until the engineers resolve a technical issue.

Alta this afternoon, and we've not got any escorting duties, so we get to wander around freely.  Awesome.

Marco Polo in the news again..........

OK, the ship getting stuck on a sand bank was a bit inconvenient, and probably had the Captain cursing a bit, but for the passengers, it just added interest.  They all managed to get away on their respective tours, and Peter and I escorted the two busloads to a Viking Musuem

However, for the Norwegians this is big news, (they don't have much to do around here), we've had news helicopters overhead, the coast guard come pay a visit and Norwegian folk rubber necking as they drive by.  Apparently we've been headlining the tv, the radio and the newspapers.

Cruise ship stuck in Norway

Well, at about half past 5, the tide came in, and tugs pulled the ship out.  Easy peasy and without fuss.  I bet the Captain and the pilot wished they'd known that earlier today.  We've had all sorts of fun n games with tugs and winches n stuff.

The tour wasn't too bad either.  I'll try and update the pictures as soon as I get a chance

Oooops! Drama at Leknes

Today's port of call started with a lot of funny noises coming from the ship as we arrived.  Followed by announcements that the wind had caused problems parking the ship.

What has actually happened is that the ship has sort of run into a sand bank, and now appears to be well and truly stuck.  Tugs and winches seem to have been involved, but we ain't going nowhere.

We've been told by the shore excursion teams that the excursions will go ahead, as soon as they get the tenders sorted out.  Everything is severely delayed at the moment.  Me n Peter are due to escort a tour this afternoon - we'll wait n see how that goes.

In the meantime we've been admiring our wonderful surroundings from the ship.  It's quite lovely here, and the sunrise was beautiful - we didn't get out on deck with cameras early enough to capture it though.  The photo's show what we got so far though.