Plan now to take a cruise to follow the sun, and then watch it disappear

Unless you happen to be one of the 49,000 residents of the Faroe Islands, your best chance of getting a good view of the solar eclipse in March 2015 will be from the decks of a cruise ship.
The event, on March 20, will be the last total eclipse visible in Europe until August 2026 – but only a small part of Europe will get to see it.
Cruise lines have been quick to schedule voyages to take passengers to view the eclipse – it could get quite crowded in that small patch of the north Atlantic. At that time of year, there’s even a chance of seeing the Northern Lights on the same trip.
A 14-day cruise on MV Voyager, leaving Portsmouth on March 16 and also taking in visits to Iceland and Belfast, is already completely sold out.
Cruise and Maritime Voyages’ Marco Polo leaves from Tilbury on March 16 for an 11-night voyage that visits Kirkwall, Reykjavik, and Invergordon as well as Torshavn in the Faroes. Fares from £1,319 pp for two sharing an inside twin cabin, to £4,089 pp in a de luxe suite
The latest eclipse cruise to be announced (so far) is a 15-nighter on Fred Olsen’s Boudicca, which leaves Southampton on March 9 and spends several days in northern Norway before being in the right spot on March 20. Fares from £1,799 to £3,209.
There may be other cruises available for the eclipse as itinerary planners realise the opportunities available. Sadly they wont include the appropriately-named Celebrity Eclipse, which will be in the Caribbean.
And given the fact that the sun will be in total eclipse for no more than 2 minutes 47 seconds, a lot of passengers will be keeping their fingers crossed that they don’t find themselves in the Faroes on a cloudy day. I don’t want to cast a shadow over any plans, but the Faroes get an average of 260 days of rain each year and overcast days are common.
Don’t want to wait until 2015? There will be a solar eclipse on November 3 this year, visible across a swathe of the Atlantic. The best place to view is just south of the Cape Verde islands, and Saga Sapphire will be there as part of a 28-night cruise to the Canaries and Africa which leaves Southampton on October 18. Fares from £3,149.