Friday 22 July, between Grimsey and IsafjordGrimsey turned out to be a lovely little island with some great inhabitants, and not all of them of the human variety!
After dinner, most of the crew ventured into 'town' - Grimsey town consists of a number of fishing warehouses, a nice swimming pool, a generator building (with 2 generators going 24/7 to provide the island with power, an 'official building' complete with flagpole and all, a bar and a number of houses. Oh, and an airstrip and terminal building/tower. With 2 flights a
day from the mainland they even have their own air traffic controller, not bad for a population of 80!
Needless to say, it didn't take the crew very long to find the only watering hole in town after dinner, where the locals were happy to mingle and tell all about the island. Of course this included one of the local fishermen with some proper fishermantales, exagerration included for free.
Several G&T's later, and we were all too happy to believe him.
The next morning was the great National Geographic Puffin Photo Hunt. A short walk from the harbour and past the airstrip, brought us into prime puffin country on this stretch of rugged south coast. From the road, you could see a couple of puffins sitting on the edge of the cliff and everybody got their cameras out. After the initial shots were taken, Susan and I got
into the swing of things and slowly and quietly made our way in a commando crawl towards the edge of the cliff, much to the hilarity of the rest of the crew. It did pay off though and we got the most amazing view of dozens and dozens of puffins lounging on the cliff side, with hundreds more drifting on the sea below. Two puffins were perched on a little rock, one moment looking at each other and getting so close they seemed to kiss, the next moment looking opposite ways...it was just like a little lovers spat: I love you...I love you not!
A neverending show, with the puffins going about their business, trying to take off, crashlanding on the cliff, preening their feathers and just watching the time go by. And us watching them...
Just brilliant.
Just outside the harbour, hundreds of our trusty ever present fulmars were drifting on the sea, waiting for something to eat or to do...something must have startled them, because as we were on the breakwater, they all took off simultaneously...beautiful sight!
As much as we would have loved staying to watch some more puffins, we had to get going as the ferry was due in to berth right where we were on the dock.
Waving goodbye to this exceptional little island was like saying goodbye to a good friend, with whom you've shared plenty of good memories.
More good memories to come though!
We had just over a day's trip ahead of us, motorsailing west to Isafjord, in the north west peninsula of Iceland. There is an extensive and beautiful fjordsystem there, so if we would not be able to make the crossing to Greenland, at least we had some good cruising ground to explore. A quiet start, with some amazing views in the distance of Iceland's north coast, partly obscured by the clouds. We sailed back into the Arctic circle, keeping a good look out for whales. Late afternoon it paid off: it seemed there were big blows everywhere on the sea; dolphins splashing; the big distinctive whale blows followed by a fin and after a few breaths, an elegant tail tilting up before graciously disappearing below the surface...as soon as one had disappeared, another one
would show up, some as close as 20 meters from the boat! A fantastic sight...as things quieted down again, the boys went back down below, leaving the ladies to their watch...and we got a show never to forget!
A big humpback whale came out of the water, breaching, reaching for the sky before splashing back in the water on it's back. A breathtaking sight!
Before we could recover and still chattering about this amazing experience, he came out again, reaching even further out of the water before getting back down with a massive splash. And it went on, and on, and on...breaching 7 or 8 times in total...It left us all in awe and slightly dazed, sitting on the deck, looking at each other, hardly believing what we had just seen.
Our day was made.
