June 22 - En route to the Spitsbergen Islands

Today we have been rocking and rolling our way across the Barents Sea sailing even farther north, from the top of mainland Norway on our way to the Svalbard archipelogo. Its largest island is Spitsbergen, the name I am more familiar with.

We went to a lecture this morning about Captain James Cook, my hero from my South Pacific cruise. It was good to hear about him again - it seems appropriate to remember what the early explorers did and the conditions they experienced when we are at sea in such comfort. Each room in our corridor of Window Suite staterooms is named for an early Maritime explorer. We are in the Alessandro Malaspina suite. He sounds like a Spanish version of Captain Cook. His name was already familiar to Katherine because there are many places named for him in B.C.

The seas got progressively worse all day - Force 7 to 8 winds and 4m waves - and they closed the outside decks. But Katherine is proving herself to be a good sailor, and I like the action myself.

Over dinnertime the winds appear to have calmed down considerably, and I am hopeful that we will have a clear day in Spitsbergen.

We have been warned about the lack of internet satellite reception while docked tomorrow, so I may be late in posting about our adventures at only 10 degrees latitude south of the North Pole.