We arrive in grey overcast to our last port before Reykjavik, pressaging a cloudy night ahead for our eclipse. We are resigned to poor visibiity. Our ship which was originally scheduled to leave at 5 pm was moved up to depart at 2 pm to be able to get in a position to possibly enhance our chance of a clear sky for the eclipse. So we only have a few hours to walk around the town area before we must return to our ship by 1:30 pm.
Most of our group decide to walk to a waterfall we can see in the distance around the harbor. Marge and Rae are off on a boat tour to see Puffins, and Judy to see an old church. We walk along the road and it is a beautiful setting, with the gravel path turning into high soft grass found as we moved in the direction to the waterfall. We pass by some stables with a number of beautiful Icelandic horses grazing near a barn. I know from my past visit that no horses may be imported into Iceland to avoid any cross breeding with their unique smaller and studier breed.
Our goal is a high thin waterfall falling down into a stream that will eventually end at the sea. There are many people walking that way. We are hiking in very soft very unsteady sod and grass and I slip and fall, landing on my forearms and feel very shaken, with a pull in the back of one leg, but otherwise okay. I decide it is risky to go further and turn around and go back at that point and two friends go with me. I am fine after walking a short distance.
Before we get there, we visit a grocery store absolutely filled to the brim with tourists as in addition to our large ship, the much larger Queen Mary 2 is in the harbor along side another tourist vessel, all here for the full solar eclipse that very night. There are a few pop-up tourist shops by the harbor which we peruse before returning to the ship for the last time as tomorrow we disembark.
The eclipse is to begin at 4:45. We were all given Eclipse Glasses to keep our eyes safe and earlier in the day we were given strict instructions on how to safely look at the sun. The sky is completely overcast as we head out to sea and at 4:30 when the Captain lets us know he is heading back North into the Greenand Sea in the hope of finding a break in the clouds. He tell us everyone on the bridge is working toward that goal but he does not know if it will happen. Our group heads to the top deck and I am surprised to see how much room there is with just about everyone on the ship on the two top open decks. The sun is still much higher in the sky than we expected. We are able to place ourselves along a railing with a full view of the sky above us and suddenly there is sunlight as our Captain is a miracle worker and finds a small open patch of sky amid the dark clouds.
And we watch the full eclipse as the moon begins to slide in front of the bright sun at 4:45 and continrd to move across its surface with a small bit of cloud occasionally crossing on one side. Our astronomer on board, Dennis Mammara, is broadcasting some commentary and he is happy that we will be able to experience what he believes is one of the most amazing experiences of the human race. Partly way through he mentions how at this point all the settlements throughout early history would begin banging pans and making noise to make the bad spirit gobbling up the sun go away.
Totality happens and the sky around us goes dark and the wind, already strong on the ships deck, gets stronger and colder. Everyone cheers and then goes silent. We see the corolla and ring of diamonds around the sun as for 2+ minutes there is very little natural light. And then we cheers again as a crescent sliver of brilliance appears on the other side as the moon makes its way across the sky. We were told that this phenomenon can only happen because the size of the moon and our distance of the sun allows the exact perfect fit between the two when the moon crosses in front of its fiery neighbor. Our astronomer tells us how fortunate we are and remarks that the cloud cover has prevented us from seeing the shadow cast by the moon move over the water. But instead we have had the gift of beautiful clouds enhancing our experience. Dennis proclaims his appreciation for the Captain who has miraculously somehow managed to allow us to see this natural wonder by driving the ship like a ’57 Corvette, and we all give a rousing round of applause and cheers for our appreciation.
Jupiter and Mercury are visible to the right of the sun.
As the moon begins its exit from across the sun, Rae and I go down to her cabin where we can sit on the balcony in comfortable chairs and watch the slow progression as the sun begins its complete reappearance in the sky. The ship has now turned around and we are once again under a full covering of clouds. We relax and eat a thankful last dinner on board together.
I check later and find that the many passengers on the Queen Mary 2 stayed in the port of Reykjavik and were not as fortunate as we were. We head to Reykjavik to disembark in the morning, still glowing from our experience.