We had a beautiful bright sunny day when we sailed in the West Fjords area called Isafjordardup--that is the fjord of Isafjordur! This long, beautiful, wild fjord is the most remarkable I've ever seen. I've seen many, many. Here, so far north that the day of the Midnight Sun in June is so long there is no night and the longest night in December of each year has no daylight. So far north that the Polar Ice sometimes comes in with the tide, sometimes bringing with it a hungry bear! But on this beautiful sunny day, our ship sat easy in this fjord only yards from recent evidence of a freighter that had not only gone aground, but had literally gone ashore. What a place was for that moment home for our trustworthy M.V. Explorer. The cooks made us a picnic lunch and we all sat on whatever we could and ate in the sun on the warm deck. Had this happened before? Had there ever been a picnic in Isafjordardup? The dining room manager told us that this was the first time that it had ever been done on M.V. Explorer. Usually the weather was wet and unpleasant.
I took my hair pins out and let my long hair enjoy the sun. The sun added gold to it and the gold stayed a long time. A few folks from the town were still around the dock area. Most had gone out fishing or out into the mountains to camp & party. Never waste a sunny day in Iceland! So we were watched. Perhaps we taught them how to have a picnic. I think about that picnic when December comes and I can only imagine what Isafjordardup looks like. As if you could see it in the dark. Cold, miserable and lonely. Do the people there remember the day that the people on the ship had a picnic? Few ships come to Isafjordardup. Passenger ships almost never. We were among the few people to get to do so. Now the route of the M.V. Exployer has changed. She still goes to Iceland, but runs along the southern coast, fetches Reykjavik and runs back to Scotland, fetching Kirkwall.