Another shore excursion was visiting Grimsey Island.  It is the most northern part of Iceland that is inhabited.  The Arctic Circle runs through Grimsey Island, and we had the opportunity to have our picture taken holding a sign that said we had crossed the Arctic Circle.  There are only about 100 residents in Grimsey.  Fishing is the primary occupation.  They have their own post office, a small store, church and airport.  We got to Grimsey Island by tender.  The water was a little choppy but we felt safe throughout the ride.  The day we visited, the ship’s captain ordered everyone back to the ship a little earlier than planned because the sea was becoming increasingly rough.  We still had a several hour visit on Grimsey.  The pictures below are of a tender, our ship as viewed from Grimsey, a fishing boat unloading its catch, and a rather unique sign pointing the way to the Arctic Circle.

After getting our bearings, we hiked to the Arctic Circle where Tauck staff took our picture.  We then hiked deeper into the island to observe birds.  I have never been a bird watcher, but did enjoy learning about the many birds in Iceland.  There were presentations aboard ship so that we could learn to identify different birds, and the lecturer accompanied us on shore excursions to assist us with identification while also sharing other fun facts.

For me, the highlight of Grimsey Island was seeing the puffins, or “lundi” in Icelandic.  Iceland (not just Grimsey Island) is estimated to have a puffin population of 8 to 10 million birds.  Puffins spend most of their time in the water, and only come ashore to breed and raise their chick (they have only one).  They are excellent divers and swimmers, but are awkward in the air (by chance, I have one flying in the corner of one of my photographs).  They can actually dive to a depth of 200 feet as they look for fish, including herring, hake, capelin and sand lance.  The silver fish in some of my pictures is a sand lance. Puffins are really fun to watch and photograph!  We watched from a distance so we wouldn’t disturb them or their nests.  I used a telephoto lens to take these pictures.