Alaska Summer Solstice Cruise - Sea Days

Cruise Day 11

At Sea

Wednesday, June 19, 2024

We are at sea today and Val and I took advantage of it, by sleeping in.  After breakfast in the Neptune Lounge, I downloaded the pictures we took yesterday and then backed everything up.

Today is the reunion luncheon for those of us who were on the 2022 Grand Africa Cruise, and it was a pretty big turnout.  Since this cruise was first introduced on the Grand Africa and it had a very unique and interesting itinerary, many signed up while onboard including us.  Someone said they heard that 13% of that cruise booked this one which meant over 100.  The lunch today was arranged by our Cruise Critic Roll Call and not everyone who booked on the Grand Africa is a Cruise Critic member, but we still had at least fifty at the luncheon.  We had a great time renewing some old acquaintances and meeting some new people we hadn’t meet before; it was a lot of fun.

The Grand Africa Cruise reunion lunch.

Of course, since we had to walk back through the casino after lunch, we stopped in briefly to lose some money before returning to our room.  I spent part of the afternoon bringing the blog up to date and then Val and I looked at the pictures we took yesterday.

We did our usual dinner and casino routine and then returned to our room.  Tomorrow is another sea day, but we’ll be sailing up across the Arctic Circle for the Summer Solstice.

Cruise Day 12

At Sea Crossing the Arctic Circle

Thursday, June 20, 2024

Today was a day where things didn’t go as planned.  I got up at four and looked out the window and saw we were traveling through an ice field that looked pretty thick to me.  When we got up the ice was gone, but we were soon in another ice field that looked like it had some pretty heavy pieces of ice in it and the ship was moving very slowly.  As we sailed on it also became very foggy with the ship's fog horn blowing every few minutes.

The red marker in the upper left hand corner is where we were supposed to cross the Arctic Circle, but unfortunately there was too much ice and we never made it.

This is what it looked like outside our balcony at four in the morning.  At this latitude it never gets truly dark at night.

Later in the morning we were going through more ice.  The ship has to go very slowly through this ice so it doesn't get damaged and if the ice gets much bigger and denser the ship can't safely continue at any speed and that's why we had to turn back.

A little while later the captain made an announcement that the ice was much heavier than anticipated and we would have to abort crossing the Arctic Circle and turn around and head for Nome.  It was disappointing, but understandable as the ice had looked pretty heavy to me and safety always comes first.  We have already crossed the Arctic Circle twice, but it would have been unique to cross it on the summer Solstice, but oh well, that’s the way it goes sometimes, especially when traveling.

I have had a cough the last day or so and thought I might be coming down with a cold but thought I should take a COVID test just in case.  We had brought test kits with us so just after noon I took the test, and it came back positive.  I can’t say I was too surprised, but I have avoided getting it for so long I just never thought I would actually get it.  I wasn’t feeling very sick, but I did need to notify the ship’s medical department and I knew I would be quarantined for five days and that was very disappointing.

However, it wasn’t as bad as I thought as the new CDC guidelines only call for a quarantine to last until you don’t have a fever for 24 hours.  They sent up a thermometer and then called to get my temperature and it was 98.6, normal.  They told me they would call in the morning and if it was OK then, I could move about the ship wearing a mask.

That didn’t seem too bad, but it did mean we would not be able to get off the ship in Nome.  Val had arranged a car rental for us, and we were going to drive out one of the few local roads into the tundra and look for musk ox.  Very disappointing, but you just have to go with the flow.  Val emailed the rental agency and cancelled our reservation and then we settled in to do nothing for the rest of the day.  

Both Val’s and my doctors had prescribed Paxlovid before we left on our Grand Africa Cruise, so we had that with us, and before we left, my doctor said to text him if I tested positive and before I started taking the Paxlovid.  I did that and he reminded me of the medications I should stop taking while taking Paxlovid and then told me to go ahead and start taking it.

The Neptune Lounge concierge called several times and asked if there was anything I needed, and Val went out and brought in our lunch and dinner.  When I tested positive Val decided that even though she was feeling fine, she should probably test herself too and luckily her test was negative, so she is still free to move about the ship.

Hopefully tomorrow morning my temperature will still be normal.  Luckily, after Nome we have three sea days before our next port so we shouldn’t miss any more of our activities.  I hate missing Nome, but what can you do.