Wednesday 12 September - Day 22 - "at sea"

Overnight we made it to Iceland - actually I believe we've been tracking around in circles outside Reykjavik since last night some time.  The seas aren't all that big any more, the elevators are all open and it's much more like business as usual.
That is, unless you're on Deck 9 - as we are.  Deck 9 passengers woke up this morning to toilets that wouldn't flush and hot water taps that didn't live up to their promise - cold water only.  All was better again by about 9am, but it wasn't very nice in the meantime.  Still, at least the toilet didn't leak all over (and under!!) the floor like the one we had on the Pacific Dawn!
We went to something called a "slot pull" this morning - a group of people get together and contribute a set amount of money which is then loaded up into a slot machine and then played out. There are apparently lots of variations on it, but the way this one worked was that we put in $15 each (which came to more than $450), then each of us had 5 $3 turns on the machine.  The hope of course is that at the end, you have more money than what you started with - but whatever happens, you then split the money up between the players.  We got $11 each back, and the only real beneficiary was a charity which is going to get the extra 30c each of us could have been given.  I shan't bother with this again though, the slot machines are so incredibly boring compared to the pokies I'm accustomed to playing - the Americans can have the slot machines all to themselves  :-)
I'm writing this part of the blog at about 3pm, and we have spent the whole day at anchor outside Reykjavik.  We weren't due to arrive until tomorrow morning, but the captain has managed to get a berth at 5pm today, so we might be able to leave the ship and have a quick look around Reykjavik this evening.
Later update - nope, still going round in circles.  The wind has picked up again, we can't dock until the Crystal Symphony - another cruise ship - has left the dock we need to tie up to.  Crystal Line cruises are very expensive, and their ships are much smaller (and therefore less powerful) than the one we're on.  Basically in this wind it would be too risky for them to try to leave port, so we just have to wait until they can go.  Latest news is that they're hoping to try to leave again around 10pm.  In the meantime, the Captain has backed our ship off shore a little - I'd guess that we're now a few yards over 3 miles off-shore, because that's the limit that lets them open the shops and the casino on the ship!  I have to say though at this point - about 8:30pm - there's no real sign of the wind slowing down - the waves seem to be quite high and choppy.

Still struggling with my ankle - putting it up whenever I get a chance!