Entering the land of the midnight sun

The seas calmed down last night. I guess our sacrifice to the sea gods
worked. He was only a small cadet, no one will miss him (just kidding).
We are about 200 hundred miles south east of Iceland and will be there
sometime tomorrow, June 14. We've already entered the "land of the
midnight sun". Last night the sun went down after midnight and rose this
morning at about 3:30! The days will get even longer the further north we
travel and the closer we get to the summer solstice. It was freaky
getting out of the Library after my shift ended at 23:00 and the sky was
still bright. I'm glad I have blackout shades in the cabin because I
don't sleep well when it's light.

They are arranging tours of Iceland for us. There's going to be a trip to
the Blue Lagoon which is the world's largest hot tub. It is a
geothermally fed pool that can hold about 1,000 people. There is also
supposed to be a whole Iceland tour to take us to the glaciers, geysers
and waterfalls that the country is noted for. Another tour is a
whitewater rafting expedition. There will also be plenty to see in the
city of Reykjavik within walking distance of our dock. As usual, I will
have the whole time off because the Library is closed while in port.

Rumor is we are staying in Iceland an extra day because the 17th, the day
we were going to leave, is their Independence Day. It is supposed to be
one big party. If so, we will lob a day off our next port which has
changed from Kiel, Germany which was originally scheduled to Belfast,
Northern Ireland instead.

I can't believe the voyage is half over. 2 more ports to go and we're
heading home. We lost some of the crew and cadets along the way and added
others. Some were planned, some were not. No one fell overboard or
anything like that, they flew back home. I'm already planning the closing
of the Library several days before we arrive back in order to pack up the
ton of stuff up that has to go back ashore. Tempus fugit.