Ship's Tour

Today I thought I'd take you on a tour of the ship's living quarters.




My first impression was that there was no way we would all fit. The Noorderlicht turned out to be a comfortable home for the time we spent aboard.

The cabins were downstairs. All cabins slept two people. There were five cabins towards the bow of the ship and five starting midship and heading towards the stern. Most cabins had a great view of the cabin across the way.



The crew had a chart room and private quarters in the stern as well as quarters in the bow that were reached by a bulkhead on deck. There were two toilet/shower rooms towards the bow on the starboard side and two toilet/shower rooms towards the bow. One on the port side and one on the starboard.

The galley and lower saloon was in between the bow and stern cabins.



There were two tables in the lower saloon. One sat eight and the other six. The smaller table was where the crew sat for meals.



The bench seating against the walls was also storage for food. Occasionally I'd be happily downloading footage when Anna would stand over me with "the look." I immediately lept up so she could get into the storage under my seat ... the last thing anyone wanted was to get on Anna's bad side.

During the day that table did double duty as Anna's bread board. She would kneed and roll out the bread, pizza dough, and pastries that she cooked daily.



A set of steep stairs led to the upper saloon.





On rough seas, these stairs were responsible for broken dishes, glasses, and many bruises. The upper saloon had two tables, one that could seat eight and one that seated six. Across from the two tables was a bench that ran the length of the wall. There was a bar in the corner with a map of our journey on the wall.



Every morning as we were eating breakfast, Jan would go from table to table saying, "The plan..." "The plan" was the discription of where we were going and what we could expect once we got there. He would then go to the map behind the bar and draw on our progress from the day before.



Here's the map behind the bar.



Here's a more detailed map of our journey. Red lines are going north, blue lines are the return trip.



1. Longyearbyen
2. Skansbukta
3. Fourteenthofjuly Bay
4. Sallyhamna
5. Moffen Island
6. Woodfjorden
7. Hornbaekpolten
8. Worsleyhamna
9. Magdalenafjord
10. Ny-London / Konigsfjorden / Ny-Alseund
11. Kongsvegan / Kongsfjorden
12. Poolepynten
13. Barentsburg
14. Longyearbyen