Sea day

Firstly in interesting talk from the captain. Quite surprising that part of the route plan is about where and at what speed you can dump waste water etc

A talk from Kelly on auroras. They generally run on an 11 year cycle. That said, the high level of activity in May 2024 was a little earlier than expected and more lively too.

He explained what happens in a solar flare and that the aurora colour is based on which gas electron or molecule it is that is turning in to light energy.

Those turning in to light energy in higher level gas give green, then red, blue and pink as you get closer to earth.

He also explained that we use a different part of the eye at night. One that is not good at distinguishing colours, eg not easy to find your red car in the car park, as you do not see the colour. An aurora therefore has to be really strong for the human eye to see the colour.

The best time to view the northern lights is near the solstice, ie April May Sep Oct

Later, we were able to look at the sun through his telescope. You could see the various sun spots, each the size of earth.

Tonight is evening chic. Photographers at every turn, stopped for one and ended up in a full on photo shoot.

A photo with the captain. Considering his talk earlier, I was surprised to find him not chatty, only polite chat, and not particularly photogenic.

Georgeios head of housekeeping, who we had chatted with before.

Kristine is back from her day off. She gave us her full version of creep. It’s up there with Rodney!

Brilliant show based on films and musicals from the in house team.

It wouldn’t be a chic night without a silent disco.  Such fun!