Cruise day 8 - day at sea …

… with the whales.

The ship has been out in the middle of the ocean all day today and we have mainly been up on deck, shivering. It was very cold and grey for most of the day but we were rewarded with a few sightings in the distance. Then at 5.30pm, when I had gone inside to finally warm up, the ship stopped as there were three fin whales and one minke whale in close proximity. Of course I dashed back out and saw the fin whale surfacing, blowing, then diving again, several times. I didn’t see the minke but did see a couple of dolphins earlier too. Wonderful to see these beautiful animals, a fin whale grows to 20-25m and is the second largest mammal in the world and listed as vulnerable to extinction, sadly Iceland, where we are heading, has granted a licence to Europe’s last whaling company to kill 128 of the animals this year.