Saturday in Akureyri

We arrived in Akureyri right on schedule to clear weather and temperatures in the 50s. That was the good news, the bad news was that the winds were blowing force 8 (35 to 45 kts) plus gusts. The dock at Akureyri is 150 feet long and the ship is over 300 feet long. The dock is rated for a pull of 25 tons and ship is a pull of 40 tons. Too make matters worse there are no tugs in the harbor. To put an end to this long story; we saw Akureyri and northern Iceland from the harbor and that was as close as we got. We departed the harbor around 10:00 and are on our way to Reykjavik, Iceland.
The wind is still blowing with gust up to 65 knots. Judi and I were at least enjoying the sun on the balcony and planed to eat lunch out there. We even were going to have the steward take our picture eating lunch on the balcony. The wind switched and the boat turned and the temperature on the balcony dropped at least 20 degrees. So much for lunch outside.
The island of Iceland around Akureyri was absolutly beautiful. There are still some small glaciers we could see. The mountains had some snow and the lower field was green. They had put up and wrapped their hay and it was lying in the fields.
Akureyri is the capital of north Iceland. The costal climate here is relatively mild, a result of the Gulf Stream and its warm ocean currents. The summer temperatures average around 77 degrees and the winter temperatures average around 32 degrees. Akureyri is about 37 miles south of the Arctic Circle. For two to three months in the summer there is continuous daylight.
The story for today is about cold. The old saying that it is cold enough to freeze the ball off a brass monkey. OK ladies it is not about the monkey’s genitalia. The British Men of War need iron cannon balls to shoot at the other ships. They also needed something to hold the cannon balls when they were not using them. So to solve this problem they made a device to hold the cannon balls out of brass and called it a monkey. (Do not know why the name) They would stack the cannon balls on this brass monkey to keep them from rolling all over the place. The coefficient of cooling for iron and brass are different. The brass shrinks when it very cold faster than the iron. So when it got very cold the cannon balls would roll off the monkey and hence the term: it is cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey:.
We are on our way to Reykjavik, rocking and rolling. The Captain warned us that another strong low is on its way toward us and we may not make any of the remaining ports in Iceland or Greenland. We will just have to wait and see.