Northern Lights Yacht Blog, Iceland 3rd Jan 20

Forecast 40% cloud cover 2/9 KP index 

A beautiful night was spent out searching for Northern Lights on the yacht Amelia rose.

The skies were clear on this beautiful, though very cold evening, and as we left Reykjavik old harbor from our top viewing deck we could see firework displays going off across the city. We made sure everyone had fully explored the yacht, Amelia Rose was built as a superyacht in Mexico in 2003 and so even the insides of cupboards have hand-carved wood. It really is a luxury yacht! 

Whilst we made our way out past the islands that guard the Reykjavik harbor everyone stayed cozy and warm in our luxurious lounges, or up in the wheelhouse, where lucky people got to have a seat in the captain’s chair! The whole time we keep an eye not just on the local weather forecasts and systems but on the information we get straight from NASA, things like an increase in the solar wind speed and density indicate that we should be seeing the northern lights appear soon. 

Once the captain had found us a great position, sheltered from the wind so the yacht sat still and it wasn‘t so cold, but with great views of the skies, we started to look in earnest. We were out there for well over an hour before we started to see the northern lights. To pass the time we looked at the star constellations and named them, and talked about the science behind the aurora, but also the myths and legends that surround it. 

Finally, the northern lights appeared, although at first we could only see them through our cameras, but then they started to brighten into a big green arc to the north, coming out from behind Mount Esja.  The arc faded in, then faded out a couple of times, which is completely normal, and rather beautiful, but sadly as the aurora brightened again the thin cloud started to thicken stopping the lights from being seen to their full advantage.

So whilst we saw them, and they must have been extremely bright to show through the cloud, it wasn’t exactly what we hoped for. Because of this we gave our customers a free ticket to be used in the next three years, we really want to show people the natural wonder that is the aurora borealis, and we are so lucky that we live in a place where we see it so often. 

If you are interested in learning more click here http://www.aurora-service.eu/