Hurtigruten; Monday, 04 February, 2013
First main stop of the day was Hammerfest, a town which had grown almost out of recognition since my last visit in 2008. Since then the Liquid Natural Gas terminal has opened on the outskirts of town and along with gas the money has really started to flow into town. Row upon row of modern blocks have been thrown up in the intervening years, along with a new cultural centre and lots more housing. This was all clearly visible from the coach tour that we did of the town, and even more so when it went to the viewing point on Mount Salen.
What was also obvious was a distinct change in the weather, with a biting wind dropping the already low -7C to an icy -25C with the wind-chill. Thankfully, we were only out of the coach for a couple of minutes at the two stops – Mount Salen and the Meridian Column. The tour dropped us back at the boat just before departure time and with the last passenger back on board we slipped our moorings and moved back out of the harbour.
With the icy winds and choppy seas we ended up being nearly an hour late by the time we finally reached Øksfjord, and what was supposed to be a short stop was extended by problems loading the cargo, so we were still quite late when we headed off out into the open sea towards Skjervøy.
We were originally due into Skjervøy at the same time as dinner was due to start, but with the delays we sat down to dinner in the middle to quite a breeze with waves crashing over parts of the ship, on several occasions the windows of the restaurant got a soaking, and that is three floors above the waterline. However, for everyone who had been through the previous Tuesdays crossing between Måloy and Tørvik, this was just a mild swell.
Sjkervøy was again supposed to be a quick turn around, but ended up taking longer than the booked stop, so we headed out towards Tromsø quite a long way behind schedule and the midnight concert in the arctic cathedral rapidly being pushed back closer to 1am.
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