Day 12 (21 March): Voyage South, Day 2

In 33 days, we'll be waking up in our tiny interior cabin. But we won't just be waking up once - we'll be doing it twice! At 12:45am, we'll be taking a snowmobiling excursion in the polar night. This starts from the port at Mehamn, where the Capella arrives at 1:20am. We'll be donning the warmest of suits and jumping on our snowmobiles, where we will explore the valleys and flats of endless snow, and with any luck - experience the beautiful northern lights.

Snowmobilers enjoy the breathtaking northern lights over Mehamn, clad in warm gear for their Arctic adventure.

Meanwhile, the Capella continues south without us, but not for too long - three hours later, we'll rejoin her at Kjøllefjord, just after 3am. While we all know how important sleep is, nothing is more important than this excursion! We're excited for this one; I expect it will be up there with one of the best experiences of my life. So I care very little that it's eating into precious sleep time!

Once we wake for a second time, I expect we'll hunt around for some breakfast (which will actually require no hunting at all, just a visit to one of the restaurants on board) where breakfast is served between 7am and 10am. We'll need to be quick... our next excursion leaves the boat just after 11am. We'll be exploring Hammerfest, the northernmost town - by bus.

The ports for this day include:

• Mehamn (the snowmobile tour starts here)

• Kjøllefjord (we rejoin the Capella here)

• Honningsvåg

• Havøysund

• Hammerfest (our bus tour)

• Øksfjord

• Skjervøy

• Tromsø (self guided stroll)

There was an excursion to tour Tromsø, but we thought we might like to do it ourselves. The Capella docks there at 11:45pm and leaves again at 1:30am, so we will have a fabulous opportunity for a wander around this beautiful place.

Tromsø illuminated by city lights, nestled under the majestic snowy slopes during a serene winter night.