Airflight and rough seas
Sunday, 10/3/10
Reykjavik was our most anticipated port because of the 90 minute air flight (in a small Cessna) we had scheduled from home. The flight was all of three things, exciting, disappointing and sickening. We had high clouds when we took off, with a fair amount of wind. The weather held for the first two-thirds of the flight and then the clouds rolled in. There was also turbulence and when the pilot circled in a downward spiral to give us great views of Gullfoss waterfall, John’s tummy got turbulent as well. The views from up high were great. The ground is often broken up and in other places it is smooth. The rift between North America and Europe is really wide in this area, as it is the most volcanic area of Iceland. One area of the rift was so wide that it had what looked like a road down the center of its depth. You might get an idea of it size from the picture we include. Notice the shadows in the rift.
The rivers can be clean or very brown, which is due to their source in the glaciers. Some rivers pop out of the ground full sized, due to flowing through underground lava formations. The hills often have a yellow color and sometimes a red color that are caused by sulfur and iron deposits. We flew higher and higher to find smooth air and to get above the glaciers. Immense, they are covered in places with black ash from recent eruptions. It often looked like scattered snow on dark rock instead of ash on ice.
The closer we got to the volcano we came to see, Eyjafjaliajokull, that erupted earlier this year, the more the clouds rolled in. The pilot flew above them and there were pockets that gave views of the ground, but not over the volcano, so we did not see it. Still, it was a fun morning.
The flight was scheduled for 90 minutes, but we were up for two hours and were the only passengers. Most of the photos are a bit fuzzy, taken through the windows of the plane. Iceland is sparsely inhabited, and most live very close to the coastline. The interior is largely lava fields, glaciers and moonscapes. There are buildings away from the coast near geysers and other tourist points of interest, but they are few and far between. There are land tours onto the glaciers and a road around the island that mostly hugs the coastline, but cuts across the NE corner of the country.
The seas are rough and predicted to get rougher over the next few days. The Captain has altered course to avoid two major depressions and we are north of our normal route, hugging the coast of Greenland. When the seas are rough, the ship slows so that the stabilizers are effective. The winds today are predicted to be a 5 or 6 on a Cyclonic Force scale, whatever that is. We do know that a hurricane is a force 12. We have heard rumors that we may be so far behind time wise that we may not stop in Sydney, Nova Scotia and that would mean sailing on to Fort Lauderdale without stops. The ship did take on fuel in Reykjavik. All satellite TV stations are inoperative this far north and the Internet is slow. We hope to get this message out today, Monday.
Colleen and John
Reykjavik was our most anticipated port because of the 90 minute air flight (in a small Cessna) we had scheduled from home. The flight was all of three things, exciting, disappointing and sickening. We had high clouds when we took off, with a fair amount of wind. The weather held for the first two-thirds of the flight and then the clouds rolled in. There was also turbulence and when the pilot circled in a downward spiral to give us great views of Gullfoss waterfall, John’s tummy got turbulent as well. The views from up high were great. The ground is often broken up and in other places it is smooth. The rift between North America and Europe is really wide in this area, as it is the most volcanic area of Iceland. One area of the rift was so wide that it had what looked like a road down the center of its depth. You might get an idea of it size from the picture we include. Notice the shadows in the rift.
The rivers can be clean or very brown, which is due to their source in the glaciers. Some rivers pop out of the ground full sized, due to flowing through underground lava formations. The hills often have a yellow color and sometimes a red color that are caused by sulfur and iron deposits. We flew higher and higher to find smooth air and to get above the glaciers. Immense, they are covered in places with black ash from recent eruptions. It often looked like scattered snow on dark rock instead of ash on ice.
The closer we got to the volcano we came to see, Eyjafjaliajokull, that erupted earlier this year, the more the clouds rolled in. The pilot flew above them and there were pockets that gave views of the ground, but not over the volcano, so we did not see it. Still, it was a fun morning.
The flight was scheduled for 90 minutes, but we were up for two hours and were the only passengers. Most of the photos are a bit fuzzy, taken through the windows of the plane. Iceland is sparsely inhabited, and most live very close to the coastline. The interior is largely lava fields, glaciers and moonscapes. There are buildings away from the coast near geysers and other tourist points of interest, but they are few and far between. There are land tours onto the glaciers and a road around the island that mostly hugs the coastline, but cuts across the NE corner of the country.
The seas are rough and predicted to get rougher over the next few days. The Captain has altered course to avoid two major depressions and we are north of our normal route, hugging the coast of Greenland. When the seas are rough, the ship slows so that the stabilizers are effective. The winds today are predicted to be a 5 or 6 on a Cyclonic Force scale, whatever that is. We do know that a hurricane is a force 12. We have heard rumors that we may be so far behind time wise that we may not stop in Sydney, Nova Scotia and that would mean sailing on to Fort Lauderdale without stops. The ship did take on fuel in Reykjavik. All satellite TV stations are inoperative this far north and the Internet is slow. We hope to get this message out today, Monday.
Colleen and John
posted by Colleen and John | 3:36 AM
1 Comments:
Yikes, sounds like another cruise it's good I'm not on! :) Thanks for all the updates, bummer about the volcano.
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