June 27 – Isafjordur, Iceland

Vigur Island windmill

puffin!!

Weather – 5º, partly cloudy, foggy, occasional
sun, blustery

Steps – 16,336

Northness - 66º (Calgary - 51º)

Sunrise - NONE, sunset - NONE, hours of daylight 24!!!– ALL HOURS ARE DAYLIGHT!!!

According to my weather app, today’s forecast was for rain, in fact it said it was presently raining, but I poked my head out and didn’t get wet…so much for meteorology…I used my eyes this morning. It looked like it could rain, so I wore my rain footwear. I also saw and felt that it was cold…we bundled up accordingly. Real fee was hovered around 2º. I was glad I had my warm socks today! For some

guillemot

reason I didn’t wear my long johns in the

roosting duck

morning but put them on for the afternoon and was happy I did!

We started with a 2-hour walking tour of Isafjordur – a town of about 3,000 inhabitants, there were more people in town from the few cruise ships in today. Today’s group was once again…big. The groups have been surprisingly big this cruise…there are varying theories for this…covid took the guides, the cruise is pinching pennies…not sure who to believe. The big group wasn’t really a problem walking. We were able to stay up front with Viviana, our Italian guide, to hear her. She was really good…I’ve said it

more puffins

before, I’ll say it again…the guide makes the experience!

We really didn’t see anything too remarkable, but with Viviana’s narration, it was much more interesting. Most of what we learned was about daily life in Isafjordur.

We ended up at the town’s Islandic Museum for a taste of fish jerky – (definitely dry, not too fishy tasting, fine but meh) Brennivín – (Iceland's signature alcohol, flavored with caraway...like all of these national hooches…strong and burny. The star of the tasting was the

WOAH!

FERMENTED SHARK!!! I had heard of this Icelandic ‘delicacy’ and sort of wanted to try but was just a tad reluctant…no need…its bark was much more than its bite…

yet more puffins!

Chris tried too! It mostly tasted like fish with a tiny aftertaste of ammonia, had we not been told to notice the ammonia, I’m not sure if I would.

After the shark, we had time for a very quick lunch back at the boat, getting my long johns on and were back out for a tour of Vigur Island.

Vigur Island has 3 inhabitants (a couple who run, maintain and own the island and their 7-year-old.) The other inhabitants are many, many more birds! We got to the island via a 30 min ferry ride. Once on the island we walked us around the island hearing about and

guillemots

looking at the many, many birds. We saw endless puffins, eider ducks, guillemots and arctic terns.

boat with bird

The family of 3 make their living by harvesting eider duck down from their nests. Apparently, the ducks don’t mind this and this practice might actually be beneficial for the ducks.

One of the many things that was interesting was how we shielded ourselves from the protective arctic terns. Our path took us along the edge their nesting area. The guide gave each of us sticks about a metre long to hold against our heads to make us seem taller. Walking through their nesting area was nuts! There were

back to the ship

maybe 100 or 200 terns swooping, cawing and pooping. Chris got a splash of poop and the guy behind me on the path got dive bombed. The nests really were close to our path…I was able to get a pic of 2

sailing is chilly

eggs without being assaulted.

The tour ended with coffee and rhubarb ‘matrimonial cake’ rhubarb. This morning Viviana told us that rhubarb grows prolifically here – yup, we saw it everywhere.

The day ended on the balcony with me under a blanket, sipping an Irish coffee. The only disappointment of the trip so far has been the lack of balcony time. I understand why it’s been too cold and completely expected little balcony time, but I LOVE balcony time. Today I figured I could last a while, which I did until we started sailing, then it got windy, and I bailed.

swooping terns

Dinner was at the ship’s Italian restaurant, followed by a ABBA dance party…fun.

tern eggs

A note about daylight…today there is NO darkness. Where we currently are, there is NO sunset until July 1, 3 DAYS FROM NOW…NO SUNSET!!! WILD! It’s something to look outside at midnight, to see a daytime sky.