A day 'without' sun

As we approach Hammerfest under the unfeasibly pink-orange skies (extras) of a day where dawn and dusk will last about four hours without the sun ever appearing above the horizon, I am delighted to see a bit of down-to-earth sea industry, the Melkøya Island liquefied natural gas plant. Hammerfest was a dismal run-down city that young people were desperate to escape until the plant was built 11 years ago and gave them jobs processing gas brought 160km in an underwater pipeline from the Snøhvit field in the Barents Sea. Snøhvit has the distinction of being invisible and trawler-friendly because the entire plant has been built on the sea bed and is operated by robots. In contrast, the lights of Melkøya Island glisten in the morning darkness.
 
Hammerfest claims to be the first urban settlement in Northern Europe to get electrical street lights, in 1891. Hmm. Does that mean that Newcastle upon Tyne (1879) and Electric Avenue in Brixton (1880) are in Southern Europe or Central Europe? It is also home to the Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society and we manage to resist the invitation to become life members, but we do get off the ship to try out our new-found skill of walking uphill on ice with spikes on our boots. We get to the edge of town – not very far, really – to admire the avalanche fences (extra).
 
The boat continues to list most of the day (extra) but the sea is getting calmer and the list and the wind are less than yesterday. Even so, we are not allowed out this afternoon at Oksfjørd (population: 506, main trade: dried cod), where the family wanted to set foot in what we decided should be Oxford’s Norwegian twin town.

We’ve learnt to recognise the glow on the horizon that is Aurora activity and spent some time on deck monitoring it before stopping in Tromsø for a midnight concert in the spectacular Arctic Cathedral. Organ, saxophone and soprano playing Norwegian and Sami music, traditional and modern. All fabulous apart from the crass encore of Amazing Grace.