We crossed the Arctic Circle this morning before I left the cabin.  Even through Eric gave me instructions about how to guess the crossing to the second, I didn’t enter the contest.  I just spaced it out.  A bit later in the morning we had an Arctic Circle crossing celebration on one of the outside decks. We were waiting for King Neptune to arrive.  This was a very cold morning.  Jane, Sue, and Ellen are bundled up.

When he arrived …

The ship manager announced the name of the winner of the contest.

The winner was given a flag which was special.  But when they baptized her by pouring ice down on her back, I knew I wouldn’t have wanted to win that contest.  There were many people who then chose to be baptized with a bit of ice. then they poured actual ice water over the newest crew members.

We were given the opportunity to purchase a postcard and receive an Arctic Circle crossing stamp.  After I did that I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it so I photographed it.

We also found certificates of the crossing hanging by our cabin.

The funny part is that John (our astronomy expert  told us that the time we crossed the actual marker for the crossing was not accurate because the Arctic Circle has been moving 15 meters north every year.

A small navy coast guard boat passed us when we were on the deck.

After lunch Liv took anybody from the astronomy group for a walk around Bodø.

Bodø also had pretty manhole covers.

It was a pretty short walk.  We passed a building that had a mural of a child painting an Aurora.

On the way back to the Finnmarken I took a photo of the hills around Bodø but the buildings in the foreground were distracting.

I took another photo of the Finnmarken.

A woman took a photo of Ellen and I as we were getting back onboard.

John gave a wonderful talk entitled, “A Tour of the Planets,” and it was wonderful.  He had photos of all of the planets and the moons that circle them.  I just love listening to him.

We had another spectacular dinner.

• Asapargas with goat cheese cream from Haukeli Chevre, Flow mince, and chives.
• Mushroom and Oak Cake from Jæder Ådne Espeland, Flow Mince and chives
• DUGA Grain Créme: LIngonberries and Oat biscuits.

The presentation of the food is wonderful and it was all absolutely delicious.

Ellen, Marty, and I decided to stream church services from First Unitarian.  Marty wanted to hear the choir and we all wanted to hear the sermon.  We were really happy to be watching it on my laptop.  The testimony by a transgender woman was inspiring and the music was beautiful.  Then the announcement came from the loud speaker.  There was an Aurora.

We threw on our many layers of clothing and hurried out to deck 5.  At first there was not much to see.  A woman named Barbara was taking photos.  She told us that the photos showed colors that we could not see with our eyes.  Then all of a sudden the skies exploded with arcs, bands, rays, curtains and a corona.  We kept turning around and around looking at the sky.  We could see all of the colors and it was astounding.

After a while the clouds moved in but we had seen it.  My camera won’t photograph an Aurora but John is going to share his on the last day.

We hung out for a while because they were serving fish soup on deck 11 at 11:45 pm.  Were selling a tea and rum drink in troll cups in honor of the Trollfjord that we navigating …

…but we only had the fish soup.  It was wonderful.

I went back to deck 5 but it was all cloudy so I was about to go back to my cabin.  I met a group of women from Arkansas and we were talking.  Some people were going back outside so I followed them.  The captain of the ship was sending out beams of light on each side of the ship.  We were going through the narrowest part of the Trollfjorden.  The light mist in the air was actually snow.

The Trollfjord or Trollfjorden is a 2-kilometre long fjord cuts into the island of Austvågøya and flows out into the Raftsundet strait. The fjord has a narrow entrance and steep-sided mountains surrounding it.

It may be only three kilometers long and 70 meters wide at the mouth, and Norway may have bigger, broader and deeper fjords than Trollfjorden, but if you measure the drama here per meter, there are few fjords that can compete! This is a channel that penetrates deep into the 1000 meter high Trolltindan, and finishes in a dead end in the dark and dramatic Raftsundet.

There are small communities to be found here, some of them inaccessible by road, tucked into narrow straits at the feet of thousand meter high mountain sides.

It was absolutely mesmerizing watching the captain negotiate this narrow passage, turn the ship around like on a dime and go back through the fjord.

It was after midnight when I went back inside.  I took this photo from the live action map showing where we where at that time.  Looking at this map we had just negotiated the narrow fjord that is to the left behind were our ship is at this moment.

The people I was talking with told me a story about men fishing in the fjord about 130 years ago so I looked up the story.

In 1890, a clash broke out on Trollfjorden between tradition and modern times. On the 6th March, in the middle of the fishing season, the fjord was full of cod. Steamboats were attempting to take all the fish for themselves, shutting out the old sail-driven fishing vessels. However, the fishermen took matters into their own hands in order to put an end to the blockade and fighting broke out. Although the fishermen were doused with steaming hot water from the boilers, they eventually succeeded in breaking the blockade.

The Battle of Trollfjorden is described in Johan Bojer’s book The Last Viking, a work that had political repercussions. The Lofot Act followed promptly in its wake. This law regulates where different fishing equipment may or may not be used during the Lofoten fishing season.

This was absolutely the most exciting, satisfying evening of this voyage.  Seeing the Aurora so exceeded my expectations.  Going through the Trollfjorden was an additional treat.  I am having trouble finding words to express my joy.