Post 285: 7 August 2018, At Sea
At night I tend to leave my porthole curtains open in the hope of capturing a good sunrise next morning. There was a slight problem as sunrise was due at about 4.45am, which was a bit on the early side even for me. But it was a sea day and so I could always catch up with sleep later in the day.
Looking out of the porthole at about 4.00am (I seem to have an internal alarm clock for sunrises) I realised it should be a good one and got dressed and went on deck, trying not to wake my wife Celia.
I wasn’t to be disappointed as the sky was blood red and somewhat surprisingly I wasn’t the only person awake and up. 
Photographing sunrises and sunsets is one of my favourite subjects. I love this time of day when many others are asleep and I seem to have the world to myself, quiet and serene.
I tend to revert to manual settings on my cameras alternating from focal lengths of 24 to 600mm. The latter can give a completely different perspective, almost getting to the ‘heart’ of the sunrise or sunset and capturing images and shapes that the eye finds difficult to see without some magnification from a zoom.
But sunsets, especially at sea, look good on a broader view too as they change colour, tone and shape over time. 
And if you have a mountain peak and/or an iceberg in as well you have hit the jackpot!
After such a good start to the morning I then retired to the Marco Polo Bistro for tea and pastries, where I had a very enjoyable chat with Lawrence Robinson who was the excellent opera singer on the ship. He has even sung with Katherine Jenkins so must be good!
Little else happened on the sea day other than in the morning when we passed what looked to be where the Greenland ice-cap met the sea. At first I thought it was clouds in the far distance, but on further looking realised it must be a part of the ice-cap where it reaches the sea. 
We arrived in Sisimiut next day at 8am in the morning. The second largest city in Greenland, situated 25 miles (40km) north of the Arctic Circle.
It was billed in the ship’s daily information sheet as ‘offering plenty of opportunities for us to make exciting experiences that are highly unusual – even to Greenlanders themselves. There are a wide range of options for being active in nature – taking relaxed hikes or checking out activities for the more hard core traveller’.
I couldn’t wait to explore those opportunities………..but more of that in the next blog.
secretwalkscom 