The Shape of Water

My alarm buzzed at 6am, which wouldn’t have been out of the ordinary except for the fact that I wasn’t getting ready for work. I was actually half the world away—aboard the Seabourn Quest sailing towards Ísafjörður, a small fishing town in the Westfjords region of Iceland. It was the first port of call after departing Reykjavik on a “15-day Iceland and North Cape Quest”, an itinerary that takes travellers to the western and northern parts of Iceland, across the Arctic Circle to Norway, down and around the Norwegian fjords and ultimately concluding in Copenhagen.

I drew the blackout curtains—a necessity to keep out the eternal sunshine that defines Arctic summers—andwas sailing slowly into a fjord, moving gracefully through the gunmetal waters. This expedition ship was built to traverse such narrow passages and withstand extreme weather, a must as it spends most of its time sailing the icy wilderness of Antarctica. A few minutes later, my doorbell rang with my host (Seabourn’s version of a butler) bearing a breakfast of granola, yogurt and English Breakfast tea—a light start because today, I’m going off the ship for an expedition.