After a late night ashore on Grimsey, the heels were dragging this morning. So we enjoyed a slight sleep in, and with fully caffeinated bodies headed out for a Zodiac cruise of the cliffs and coastal zone of part of the Langanes Peninsula. This isolated eastern promontory was breezy and at times a little foggy, but in the sun and out of the wind we enjoyed idyllic conditions.
The clear waters beneath us held kelp forests, and we could see moon jellies and lion’s mane jellies in the water column. Above us northern fulmars floated on stiff wings, circling the cliffs and calling occasionally as they landed beside mates or perhaps prospective mates. Herring gulls called evocative gull screams.
Offshore, puffins whizzed past, small black guillemots caught bottom dwelling fishes, and mother common eiders tended the last of the small broods, perhaps having lost a few ducklings to the ever vigilant and advantageous herring gulls.
The basaltic cliffs projected the surprisingly loud song of winter wrens out towards us, and garden angelica and roseroot clung to the thin soils. It was a place of calm in close to the shore, surprisingly sheltered from the wind, but we could see it wasn’t always that way with rounded boulders showing signs of storm surge and havoc.
But amidst all this were Vikings, not the ravaging Icelandic kind, but the more friendly hot chocolate toting Swedish kind. Anders and Steve our heads of hotel were able to fortify our strength, and our hot chocolate if we wished, as we pulled briefly alongside.
Back aboard we headed further south and east, seeing clouds of birds, the occasional minke whale, and even a couple of aloof white-beaked dolphins were spotted. Presentations on climate change and the Politics of the Arctic by Joe and Don were well attended, and in between all these activities eyes were rested.
