This morning we were due to drop anchor at 8.00am off the island of Heimaey, the largest and only inhabited island in the Vestmannaeyjar (Westman Islands) archipelago, located about five miles off Iceland’s south coast. It was a new port of call for us, so we looked forward to exploring.
We had to be up at seven o’clock, so we had time to get washed, dressed and breakfasted in time for today’s excursion at 8.15am. As we sat in The View eating our breakfast, we looked across to a rugged, mountainous landscape, with steep sea cliffs covered in grass. Some of the larger mountains had snow at the top.
The weather was gorgeous; a sunny day with nary a cloud in the sky and crisp, clean sea air. We couldn’t wait to step ashore.
After breakfast we returned to 3388 and gathered together rucksack, cagoules, shipboard passes, tour tickets and our Icelandic kroner. Then we made our way to the Neptune Lounge to await the call for our island tour.
It didn’t take long, so we proceeded down the stairs to A deck where the pontoon was ready for us to take the liberty boat across to the island. The sea was lovely and calm, and we couldn’t help remembering our extremely rough and splashy tender ride across to Easter Island in January. It only took about 10 minutes before we were making our way up a steep ramp to the shoreside, where our cheerful local guide greeted us.
Our guide was a young man (he told us he was 27) with an unpronounceable Icelandic name, so he just asked us to call him AJ, which were his initials. As we each boarded the coach, he ticked our names off a list he had on a clipboard.
Before we set off, AJ smiled and said he had a surprise for us. We wondered what could be in the box that he held in his hands, but he gently reached in and brought out a bird, which he told us was a puffling, or young puffin. Unlike mature puffins, this one didn’t have the distinctive colourful beak or the black and white plumage; it was more of a grey colour and had a fairly standard beak. It was not too happy at being handled and made a series of plaintive noises.
I wondered why AJ had brought the puffling onto the coach and felt a bit uncomfortable about it, until AJ told us that each year, around 15,000 young pufflings, when they are leaving their clifftop nests for the first time, become disoriented by the harbour lights and fall into the streets, where the volunteer “Puffin Patrol” rescue them and take them to a nearby puffin rescue centre, where they are cared for until they recover and are ready to be released into the sea. This puffling was one of the rescued ones, so I felt a little better about it being there. 🙂
Once AJ took the puffling off the bus and handed the box to another local guide, we set off along the sunlit streets, where we passed the Rescue Centre as well as a sealife centre, some souvenir shops and a supermarket. Of course, the sea plays a huge part in Icelanders, especially those on an island like Heimaey, so it was inevitable that we passed a chandlery and several other boat and sailing equipment stores.
The first place AJ wanted to take us to was to some steep-side cliffs to show us Haimaey’s national sport of sprangan, where people use thick ropes to climb, rappel, and swing across steep sea cliffs.
Originally, the practice came from an old survival skill. Men scaled dangerous local sea cliffs to harvest seabird eggs and hunt birds for food. Sprangan became the specific rocky site near the harbour used to train novices in these rope techniques safely before heading to higher, riskier cliffs. The local sport today combines gymnastics with cliff hanging. Cliff-swingers push off the rock face, perform mid-air twists, and leap between named ledges.
We followed AJ along a grassy path until we came to the base of the cliff, and we gathered around while he demonstrated sprangan to us.
Afterwards, we returned to the coach and, leaving the town behind us, set off towards the coast, and the side which looked towards the Icelandic mainland. From here, AJ pointed out several volcanoes to us, including the infamous Eyjafjallajökull volcano, whose eruptions during March and April of 2010 caused major disruption to flights. Melted glacial ice mixed with rising magma to create a massive silicate ash cloud that shut down European airspace for six days, cancelled over 100,000 flights, and stranded 10 million travellers.
The rugged scenery, under this unexpectedly glorious day, was stunning. We could see a small beach whose sand was black and had obviously started off as volcanic lava. Iceland is known as the “land of ice and fire” and it is easy to see why! This small island country has 130 volcanoes, 32 of which are active.
Back on the coach we drove for a short while until our next stop, which would afford us a fantastic lookout immediately above the cliffsides where, not only would we have great views over the ocean, but we would be able to look down on the colonies of puffins. The island of Heimaey has a population of around 4,500 people but, depending on the time of year, its puffin population varies between one and eight million! So the puffins outnumber the people at least 222 to 1. 🙂
We had a fantastic view of the puffins in the long grass of the cliffside. I used the amazing zoom facility on my Samsung phone to get some great photos of them with their distinctive colourful beaks which make them instantly recognisable.
It was around 11.00am when we arrived back at the harbour, but Trevor and I were not ready to go back to the Bolette yet. Once we were dropped off, we decided to have a wander around this pretty little town. First of all, we wanted to find the supermarket and get some of the famous Nordic salty liquorice, some of it to take back for my workmates. We were able to procure some, and we stashed them in the rucksack to take home. I have found that most people hate the salty liquorice, or salmiak, the first time they try it, but it is an acquired taste. I love the stuff! 🙂
As we wandered around the town, we came across the puffin rescue centre again and wanted to go inside, but when we opened the door, a bloke came and said it wasn’t open to the public, only to marine biologists and researchers.
We wandered around the harbour and I took some photos of the colourful boats against the backdrop of mountains. What a gorgeous little place this was! In the distance we could just see Bolette at anchor. It was a lovely scene; I am rarely happier than when I am near the sea. Not surprising really; I was born with the scent of the briny in my nostrils. 🙂
Around 11.45am we decided to take a slow stroll back to the tender embarkation point, and we were pleased to see that one was already there, so the queue was not too long. We embarked more or less immediately, and soon we were gliding over the calm sea towards the Bolette and her pontoon. Then it was up the steps and into the ship on A Deck once again, before we took the lift to Deck 3. We were just in time to hear the captain’s noon navigational announcement.
Dumping our bags and cagoules (which we hadn’t needed) in our cabin, we had a look at the Daily Times to see what activities were on this afternoon. We saw that there was a game of carpet bowls at three o’clock, so we’d be sure to attend that, and see if we could accrue any more “Sail & Play” points. 🙂
In the meantime, we went to The View for lunch. It was not too busy up there as most people were still ashore. The tables near the windows usually fill up quickly, but today we were lucky as we took our seats, and we enjoyed a pleasant light lunch accompanied by a refreshing cold glass of prosecco each.
We then returned to 3388 and settled down for a half hour power nap before going along the corridor and out onto the promenade deck for a while. This is what I like about the cabins on Deck 3; they are right on the promenade deck so, while we didn’t have our own balcony this time, it was never too far to go outside in case there was something interesting to see. 🙂
Just before three o’clock we headed back to the Ocean Bar for our game of bowls. All the usual suspects were there; some of them were very good players. However, even though Trevor and I play lawn bowls back home (and Trevor also does indoor bowling), it makes no difference on the ship! The balls are much smaller and have a stronger bias. If you do get your ball near to the jack, it is more down to good luck than good management. We didn’t win this time. 🙂
Afterwards, we returned to our cabin to start getting washed and changed and smartened up a bit. This was because they were holding the first of two “Bubbles and Speak” sessions at five o’clock, and we would need to be ready to go to dinner immediately afterwards at six.
“Bubbles and Speak” is an informal little chat with the head sommelier. It’s not a sales pitch; it is purely a chat or discussion about wines and food and drink in general. Each attendee is provided with chilled cava during the 45 minute talk.
When we were on our wonderful transit of the Caledonian Canal in April 2025 on board the Glen Massan, we met a couple called Ian and Sue Couper, and we had learned at the time that they were going to be on this cruise! We had already come across Ian during one of the indoor kurling games, but I remembered him saying he liked to attend the “Bubbles and Speak” sessions on Fred ships, so when we arrived at the venue, we were not surprised to find him there, and we spent some time reminiscing about our cruise on the Glen Massan.
There were about eight of us altogether, and we enjoyed a lively conversation about wines as we enjoyed a glass of cava each, which was topped up a couple of times. The session finished in nice time for us to start making our way to the Bloomsbury Restaurant.
As ever, on table #207, we enjoyed interesting and amusing anecdotes with Steve and Susan, Roger and Sue while we dined on delicious food and drink. We now felt comfortable enough in each other’s company to share the odd risqué joke, and I usually saved one each night from my repertoire to tell at the coffee-and-liqueur stage of the meal. Tonight was no exception, and everyone was still laughing heartily when the waiter came over and gently had to remind us that he needed to prepare the table for the next sitting! 🙂
The show in the Neptune Lounge tonight featured Benidorm singer Asa Elliott again, and we enjoyed his show very much. Afterwards, we were torn between going to the Morning Light for the trivia quiz at 10 o’clock, or going to the Observatory to play “Jukebox Bingo” which is a lot of fun. We settled for the latter, and made our way upstairs. On the way, we saw Steve and Sue and said we were going up there, so they agreed to join us.
Jukebox Bingo is similar to numbers bingo, except you are listening out for tunes instead of numbers. We were each given a card with 15 songs on it, and you had to listen carefully as each clip of music was played, then mark off the tune if you had it on your card. The winner would receive a bottle of cava, but there was an additional bottle awarded to one lady who had not marked off a single tune even after 10 minutes of playing! I was down to my last tune and waited with baited breath for them to play it, but someone called a full house before me. So no prize once again. 🙁
Trevor and I then remained in the Observatory to enjoy a couple more cocktails and listen to the music of the fabulous Cosmic Lemon; they really were an excellent trio of musicians and singers, and the dance floor was full.
We had had a great day today and we returned to 3388 around midnight and got washed and changed into our jammies ready to settle down. The Bolette had sailed at 5.30pm, so we were well underway, but the North Atlantic was calm and the movement of the vessel was barely discernible.
Tomorrow we were due to dock in Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik, and we looked forward to whatever the day would bring.