We didn’t stay up last night and the weather seems to have changed from the sunshine yesterday. There was a tannoy announcement this morning saying we are crossing into the Artic circle at 7:38 this morning and there would be a ‘ceremony’ on deck but we didn’t bother going as it was still foggy and raining so not sure what that was although overhearing some people talking about it I think it may have involved getting doused in artic water! We spent the morning in the lounge on the upper deck having bagged the final two seats we decided it was a good a place as any to spend the morning, then we went and had an early lunch as we are going on a trip at 12:30 around Bodø and Saltstraumen. After we docked in Bodø and disembarked we got on our coach and we were driven around Bodø which was a little confusing as we had expected to walk round, having said that there wasn’t much to see and what there was seemed to be closed as it is some kind of national holiday today. We were driven to Saltstraumenn which is the worlds strongest tidal water. 370 million cubic metres of water forms the worlds strongest tide stream creating flows that can be 10m wide and 2m deep they can rotate at up to 20 knots! It is where Artic Salt is produced on an old pier located 1m from this stream. This is a really eco friendly production process as they use the water swirling through the narrow stream to create electricity to run the plant. The water is filtered, then steamed to remove a sufficient amount of water for the salt water to rise, as this happens salt crystals form which are harvested to form Artic Salt. Possibly more impressive is the actual whirl pools themselves. These are caused because the sea and river levels differ so it is where the two meet as the tide goes in or out gallons of sea water rushes up the river mouth creating what look like cauldrons of water and mini whirlpools/ Chris and I were the only people from our trip to walk up to the top of the bridge so that we could look down on the pools and it was well worth it, unfortunately we didn’t have long to look as we had to turn round and come back down to make sure we got back on the boat before it left port to continue on our journey. We had another trip this evening to Lofoten scheduled but unfortunately about half an hour before we were due to dock Chris mentioned the fact that we didn’t really seem to be that close to land, just after that an announcement came over the airways that we had been diverted by the coast guard to hep look for a surfer that was missing and we may not be able to get to the port in time for the trip. About 7pm they came on and said that we were still searching so we would not be doing the trip and a refund would be given so we decided to settle in the cabin and drink the free champagne we were given when we arrived and has been in the fridge since then so every cloud has a silver lining! Assuming we get back on track, we started the day at 64 degrees north and ended it at Svolvær which is 68 degrees north.
