NB Day 6: Havøysund

If m/s Havila Castor was on schedule, it would have been 10:10p when it stopped in Skjervøy last night. We wouldn’t know. We were both fast asleep. Same for our 10-minute stop in Øksfjord at 1:50a this morning.

It was not surprising that I slept through the 40-minute stop in Hammerfest shortly after 5:00a. It was surprising that Mui was also fast asleep at that hour as he is usually heading out for his morning coffee at just about that time. Turns out that the allergic sinusitis that had been plaguing me — exacerbated by the constant change in the weather — had found a new victim.

A hot shower, some Ibuprofen for the headache, and a fortifying breakfast. Mui then returned to take a nap and rest up for today’s long stop later this morning. Having spent so much time in the cabin, I left him to sleep and went out for some fresh air.

There are a number of lounges and outdoor spaces on the ship where one can relax and enjoy the passing scenery between walks on the outside decks.

The lounge on deck 6 seems to have the cleanest floor-to-ceiling windows, but the only open space is at the bow … often too windy. There’s no lounge on deck 8, though there is plenty of outdoor space … part of it covered. With my recent bout of sinusitis, however, staying out for the next several hours probably wasn’t going to be smart. So up to the Havblikk Bar & Lounge I went … on deck 9 forward.

A corner grouping of chairs around a coffee table at the back of the lounge turned out to be the perfect spot. I had a floor-to-ceiling window on the port side. I could see through to the starboard across the foyer … in case something of interest popped up on that side. And I had a door nearby for easy access to the panorama deck and the forward terrace when something warranted going outside … which I did as we approached Havøysund at 8:30a for 15 minutes. That it wasn’t raining at the time was a bonus.Read more