The American walked past my cabin window. Again. At least, I am assuming he was an American because few other nationalities exhibit the same tendencies in my experience. He was wearing a light blue rain-jacket and darker blue baseball-style cap. And he had just walked past my cabin window, head down, ignoring the coastal scenery (and much else for that matter), just as he had done a few minutes earlier and also a few minutes before that. He was to exhibit these tendencies for quite a few minutes more.
The man wasn’t the only person pacing around the deck. Two ladies, one dressed in red and one in white, were also on their morning constitutional but, unlike that of the man dressed in blue, their route was clockwise and their pace less strident. They were having a chat as they walked and looked relaxed. After a while they no longer featured, presumably having gone inside, their daily work-out completed. The man, however, kept walking. Lap followed lap, the sunlight coming through my cabin window momentarily blocked as he marched past. He didn’t look as if he was enjoying himself, but I am sure the exercise was doing him good. At least for his sake, I hope so.
It was a quiet day on board.
We had crossed the Arctic Circle southbound shortly after 9am having previously made a 15-minute stop at Ørnes around 7am. It was one of five scheduled stops on Day Ten of our voyage, none of which was longer than an hour. However, we had time to go ashore at Sandnessjøen just after lunchtime and again when we stopped at Brønnøysund in the late afternoon; giving us the opportunity to stretch our legs on dry land, rather than by circumnavigating the passenger deck on board.
About 30 minutes after leaving Brønnøysund we sailed towards Torghatten, “the mountain with the hole in it”, before continuing southwards towards Rørvik, our final port of call of the day.
It had been a relaxing day – at least for those of us disinclined to go power-walking – and a very pleasant one.
We had started to receive our departure and disembarkation instructions (some people were ending their cruise at Trondheim the following morning) and there was a general air of ‘winding down’ which just added to that feeling of relaxation. Happy days!
The China Penguin 