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Thu Sep 15th at sea between Iceland & Greenland: Beginning at noon, passage through the magnificent Prince Christian Sound: huge mountains, greenish slopes, the odd waterfall & drifting icebergs. Impressive! A great array of natural colors – but so many shades of green & brown.

Dinner tonight in the ship's Italian-themed La Terrazza Grill – in fact, a slightly difficult reservation to get since the Silver Whisper is fully booked. But luck prevailed – a table for two in the center of the dimly, but so enchantingly lit space. It all starts with a glass of Prosecco. The portions are purposely smaller & so I managed/indulged in four: Selezioni di Antipasti La Terrazza (tomato, bell pepper, olives, mushroom, tuna, anchovies, eggplants, Parma ham, mozzarella and sweet & sour vegetables); Crema di Patate Aromatizzata al Tartufo (creamy potato soup with Truffle oil, vegetable stock, onion & a dash of olive oil); then Ravioli di Gamberi al Pesto Leggero di Pistacchio (that's homemade ravioli with prawn stuffing, ricotta cheese & a light pistachio pesto sauce); and then Gamberoni al Cognac (a main course of pan-friend King prawns with a cognac sauce on a belt of Spelt (ground tiny vegetables with butter, garlic, black pepper & brandy). And could I squeeze in a small slice of dessert. Well, if I must – I managed/forced down the Tiramisu (layered Mascarpone cream with a dusting of cocoa) and then with just a taste of the Variegature (an Italian frozen yoghurt of sour cherry).

Fri Sep 16th Narsaruaq (Greenland): Hark! There's just too many ice flows in the harbor at Narsaruaq (population 3,000) here in southwest Greenland and so we've shifted a bit farther along the coast to smaller Narsaq, but a virtual metropolis here with a population of 1,500. But the scheduled tours are still going this morning: dog sledding, kayaking & hiking. A very quiet, very serene place -- and the local harbor waters remain rich hunting ground for seals, salmon, trout & mink whales. Smaller ice flows & chunks & slivers dot the inner harbor, the skies above are metallic gray & the temperature might just reach 40 degrees. Ashore, the local hospital (employing a single doctor) has been closed down, a dozen 5 & 6-year-olds are brought by their teachers down to the harborside to see the Silver Whisper and the local sheep-slaughtering shed bears a large sign "By Appointment to the Royal Court of Denmark". And yes, the Queen of Denmark has been here several times, up from Copenhagen and on the royal yacht. Notably, we are the last of three cruise ships to visit here this summer (the others being the Aurora & Astoria) and a lone, blue-hulled fishing trawler is being readied and loaded with equipment, after a six-month lay-up, for two or three months of fishing "farther north".

Dog biscuits! We meet up with a Husky. A fellow passenger from California jumps forward to tell us she has a Husky back home – and the dog's name is Alcatraz. It seems that litters of Huskies are bred up in Alaska and then named according to themes: Indian tribes, states, cities, wines, even prisons.

Sat Sep 17th at sea between Greenland & Canada: Nikki (the superb port lecturer) tells us in a lecture that Greenland might have become (in 1946) a US territory or even a state. Washington offered Denmark $100 million for this northern piece of real estate, but was turned down & instead settled for air bases. And David (our celebrity chef) does a demo on creatively cooking cod.

Countdown: The fifth of seven talks – today on Getting There Was Half the Fun. The SS United States is the speed champ, more seagulls are following the French liners & Rita Hayworth has lost her toilet seat. All golden memories (and tales) of a bygone age. A few more chats: "My father was chief engineer on the Empress of France, sailing between Liverpool & Montreal." ... "Our first cruise was on the Achille Lauro and we remember that, when sailing in the notorious stretch of water between Australia & New Zealand, the ship's stern lifted out of the water. But the propellers kept turning." ... "Being Australian, our first trips were from Sydney. We started with P&O's Cathay, going north to Manila, Hong Kong & Japanese ports. Of course, ship travel was quite different then, almost 50 years ago."

Life jackets! Some serious seas give us a good rocking & rolling about – yes, crashing glassware, bottles, etc. The weather lasts well past midnight – but half the guests are stoic, good sailors and – considering that chairs were "dancing" back & forth in the main showroom – a very good turnout for today's talk & tonight's dinner. But just about everything closed, bolted down, canceled: gift shop & spa closed, afternoon fashion show and after dinner show axed.