Heimaey Iceland

I had an awful night and felt like I'd been dragged through a hedge backwards when our steward delivered the coffee. Once my feet hit the deck and I'd completed my morning routine I felt a bit better, Dorothy did her 10 laps then we went to the Lido for breakfast.

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After breakfast and after our room had been serviced I tried catching up with a nap but to no avail so checked out the Explorations lounge and had a go at today's Sudoku. Big mistake, I drove myself mental for about an hour and was happy to see some of our group show up for a chin wag. After that I found a quiet corner and read for a bit, I'm well into my forth book now. My eyes were getting heavy so back down to the cabin I go but as soon as my head hit the pillow, the committee who hold regular meetings in my head were going at it gangbusters, I tried not to get involved but nary a wink did I get, then Dorothy, who'd attended the talk on Greenland came by to tell me it was lunch time already.

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We could see the Icelandic mountains from our lunch table, and watched a school of Minke whales showing off about 50 yards to starboard. We went out on deck for a better view, and watched their antics till they tired of being the main attraction and swam away.

Now we’ve arrived at Heimaey where we can see the two volcanoes Eldfell and Helgafell. Eldfell last erupted in the 70's and added two square miles of new land albeit black volcanic lava in contrast to the green of the mountains adjacent to it. We are told that the people of Heimaey are the friendliest of all Icelanders, it is so isolated and gets very few visitors, the harbor is small so only small vessels and ferries can enter the narrow entrance.

The Maasdam has drifted as close as local regulations allow, we'll be tendering in but can't drop anchor for fear of damaging under sea cables and cutting of power to the town. The ship will stay in place using it's thrusters and screws thus giving a shorter tender ride.

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This port is a first for Maasdam, and Holland America for that matter. The queue for tender tickets was a mile long so we waited until what we thought would be a good time to go. Well what a dogs breakfast that was, the Rembrandt lounge where the tickets were handed out was a zoo we finally got our tickets and waited for our number to be called.

It was 1450h when we entered the lounge and 1605h when we decided not to go. Had we gone we would have had very little time there, and then queue up to come back :( It was a hard decision but the right one we felt, at least we saw the whales and took some pics. Those who went ashore enjoyed their visit.

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Perhaps you'll remember the movie, "Free Willy"? Keiko the whale was the star and lived for a while in the Heimaey harbor until he was ready to be released back into the wild. It really is a beautiful area, the ocean a lovely shade of green and with it being such a glorious day, if we hadn't know better it could have been the South Pacific. The air is so clean and the mountains thrust up out of the sea, their sharp green edges etched in a blue sky.

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Barb, our travel guide informed us that the Puffin colony is watched over by the locals, who created a sanctuary for injured Puffins some affected by oil and other contaminants that occasionally wash up on the shores of this little island. She also said that Puffin is a delicacy that the islanders feast on from time to time! Imagine, a Puffin muffin for breakfast.

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The dining room was not too busy at early seating, most passengers were still ashore. We could see a small passenger vessel docked there, it had to be small as it was too shallow for Maasdam and she's not a big ship. Our captain did mention that in another life she was named the Stockholm who infamously hit and sank the Andrea Doria, just out of New York in 1956 with a loss of 46 passengers.

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It is only a hundred and a bit miles to Reykjavik where we'll overnight tomorrow, we left Heimaey on time and will inch our way there, I guess.

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Time to see if we have satellite connection! Grrrrrrr Will try later

hooray i have satellite