Dolphins and puffins and whales, oh my!

 July 7

What a day. This morning was spent at sea, en route to Grimsey, one of the most northern islands of Iceland. Some mornings at sea are quiet — but this morning we saw several sets of White-beaked Dolphins, and one group “fish smacked” repeatedly (meaning they leapt out of the water, turned, and side-flopped back into the water).  They smacked for at least five minutes - it sounded like fireworks going off.  A couple of small groups did a small amount of bow running; however the ship was not going fast enough so they got bored and left. We had glimpses of a Fin Whale and a Minke Whale. Then, just as we were getting ready to toast crossing the Arctic Circle, three Humpbacks made an appearance off the port bow. Our navigator slowed the ship to maximize our ability to watch, and for easily 15 minutes a mother and calf slapped their front flippers, wiggled their flukes, and rolled in the sunny surf for us. Amazing! Once they departed, we did celebrate crossing the Arctic Circle with a champagne toast.

After lunch we went ashore. Grimsey is a very small community, but as we learned yesterday, it is expected that every town has a swimming pool as part of community sports facilities. In the south and west of Iceland these are often thermal spring fed and heated, but in the east and north, the pools need to be indoors and mechanically heated, as in Grimsey. Grimsey is also well served by ferries and air flights to the mainland, and offers five bars of cellular service. 

Our hike today had two objectives: to see the Arctic Circle monument, and to see puffins on the cliffs. The Arctic Circle monument is a huge sphere, enabling it to be rolled to a new position as continental drift changes the geographic location of the Arctic Circle on the island. As for puffins, they were everywhere! In flight, hovering, roosting, fishing, squabbling — there must have been thousands of them. The island also hosts other sea birds, particularly Arctic Terns, which can be quite aggressive if you stray near their nests. We were all instructed to take along a hiking pole to hold over our heads, creating something higher than our heads for the terns to dive-bomb. 

In the end, a busy day.. and with sunset at 1:52am and sunrise at 2:24am, these are long days even with blackout curtains!

Pictured: Atlantic Puffins, White-beaked Dolphins, Humpbacks, Arctic Circle monument