T2518 Exploring Rugged & Remote Greenland & Iceland
- pmh0606617
- Sep 1
- 15 min read
Updated: Sep 2
7th - 22nd August 2025 MS Bolette
All images used in this blog were taken during the cruise. Click on the images to view them at full size.
7th August - Sailaway from Liverpool
The Ocean Wildlife Encounters (OWE) team, Martin Kitching, Paul Hill, Ian Hadwin and Dave McGrath joined Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines MS Bolette and her guests on the 7th August 2025, docked in front of the ‘Three Graces’ along Liverpool’s world famous waterfront. Before Captain Dubravica had got us underway the team had spotted a Grey Heron finding a somewhat unusual resting place on a disused pier high above the water and a young Peregrine did a few circuits of the Liver Building. One of the guests managed to see one of the Harbour Porpoises that regularly frequent the river over by the Stena Lines ferry berthed at Birkenhead across the river.
Our sail way was in ideal conditions, warm with some cloud and a slight sea. As we exited the mouth of the river Common Terns from the nearby Seaforth Nature Reserve colony went back and forth in numbers, good to see they’re recovering from severe Avian Flu outbreaks in previous years. While passing Antony Gormley’s ‘Another Place’ statues on our starboard side anyone looking to port would have seen two dozen Atlantic Grey Seals hauled out on a sandbank.
Sailing further into Liverpool Bay towards the Isle of Man brought us into the realm of Cormorants sitting on the buoys and lightship, plenty of Gannets, several hundreds of Manx Shearwaters but oddly only a few Black-legged Kittiwakes.
8th August – At sea NE Atlantic
Overnight the weather had deteriorated badly. A ‘challenging’ day ahead beckoned for many on board with thick cloud, poor visibility, a Force 9 gale gusting to almost 50 kts and a very rough sea as we passed well south of St Kilda heading towards Reykjavik. Two of the OWE team did well to stand on the rear of Deck 3 most of the day watching the many Northern Fulmars relishing the stormy conditions, other birds were few and far between with no more than 20 Gannets and only three Manx Shearwaters, although also seen were three Cory’s Shearwaters. A couple of very lucky guests had the briefest of glimpses of a dolphin while eating in The View while other guests saw a Black-legged Kittiwake and a, not unsurprisingly, unidentified petrel. Compiling the log in the Earth Room that evening didn’t take long!
'twas a tad rough © Martin Kitching/OWE
9th August – At sea south of Iceland
Fortunately, the storm abated and the following morning was bright, clear and much calmer. The team and guests were relieved to have better sea conditions and it would seem the whales were too, with Fin Whales being seen before breakfast. The cetacean activity continued right throughout the day and into the evening after dinner. By the end of the day good numbers of most of the larger whales to be found in the North Atlantic had been seen. These included half a dozen Humback Whales, around 50 Fin Whales, twelve Blue Whales, a dozen Sperm Whales, a Northern Bottlenose Whale, five Long-finned Pilot Whales, two Minke Whales and five White-beaked Dolphins. The birds didn’t disappoint either Northern Fulmars were constantly around the ship offering great photo opportunities, Gannets and Kittiwakes were in good numbers too but the stand out birds were a Sabine’s Gull, a Grey Phalarope and six Long-tailed Skuas. What a day!
10th August - Reykjavik
The industrial sights of Reykjavik harbour greeted us in the morning. Family parties of Eider Ducks pottered around the docked ships while Lesser Black-backed, Herring and Glaucous Gulls flew overhead. Meanwhile Ravens ‘cronked’ in the distance, Arctic Terns went on fishing missions. Most people give gulls little more than a passing glance and that includes many birders but OWE team member Dave is a bit of a gull afficionado so when one on the quayside close to the ship caught his attention a closer look was warranted. It turned out to be a juvenile ‘Viking’ Gull, not found in field guides it’s a colloquial name for a hybrid between a Herring Gulls and Glaucous Gulls.
After breakfast with many of the guests out on tours and excursions the OWE team had a wander around the city centre park lake and associated wetlands close to airport. Alighting from the shuttle bus a Redshank flushed from the water feature in front of the impressive Harpa Concert Hall was a bit of a bizarre sighting given all the people wandering around. Arriving at the lake it was somewhat odd to see Whooper Swans taking bread from children when, in a few months’ time they’ll have migrated to Britain where they will be unapproachable. Other waterfowl included Mallards, Gadwall, Wigeon, Tufted Ducks and the ubiquitous Grey-lag Geese. Passerine birds are under-represented in Iceland due to its remoteness but we did manage to find Blackbird, Redwing, Meadow Pipit, White Wagtail, Redpoll, Wheatear and Starling.
"Viking" Gulls in Reykjavik © Paul Hill/OWE
While in the queue to get back aboard a gull was sitting atop a skip on the dockside, one of the aforementioned young Viking Gull’s parents. It remained on the skip and gave us close views from Deck 3 enabling us to appreciate its unusual plumage.
Sail Away from Reykjavik was at 18.30 and almost as soon as we’d left the harbour whale blows began to be seen in the distance and not long afterwards a message on the WhatsApp sightings group reported “Absolute whale and dolphin soup” referring to the plethora of whales to be seen in the bay. These included at least 25 Humpback Whales, a few of which were breaching spectacularly although unfortunately distantly on the port side, three Fin Whales, four Minke Whales, three Sperm Whales and half a dozen brief White-beaked Dolphins.
Humpback Whales as we left Reykjavik © Paul Hill/OWE
11th August – At sea SW across the southern Denmark Strait
At sea en-route towards southeast Greenland a blustery wind and choppy sea made for difficult cetacean spotting conditions. However, the lack of whales was easily made up for by the large numbers of shearwaters with all four species being recorded. 500 or more Great Shearwaters gave the photographers a field day, 50 Manx Shearwaters, 10 Sooty Shearwaters and two Cory’s Shearwaters made their way onto the log sheet. A rather unusual association of birds included individuals of the usual Black-legged Kittiwake and Northern Fulmar and also a Sabine’s Gull and the first Iceland Gull of the trip.
Only seven cetaceans were recorded all day, two White-beaked dolphins, two Sperm Whales, two Long-finned Pilot Whales and a Northern Bottlenose Whale.
12th August – Cruising Prins Christian Sund
Patchy fog and low cloud accompanied Bolette on the approach to the entrance to the remarkable Prins Christian S(o)und. It’s still a little unnerving to see icebergs as big as buildings looming out of the mist. Minutes before entering the sound OWE team’s Martin had the great fortune while looking at a couple of Fin Whales behind us to find a pod of six Orca, not far from the whales but sadly very distant from us resulting in very few guests being able to get on to them. Once in the sound we soon came upon a very obliging sub-adult Humback Whale which we seemingly awoke from its slumbers as we cruised gently past.
OWE team member Dave had done this cruise before and wanted to see a seal on an ice-floe which hadn’t been spotted last time. OWE’s ‘Speakers Curse’ happened again when his talk in the Neptune Lounge was rescheduled from a sea day to the beginning of the Scenic Cruise through the Sound resulting in --- yes, you’ve guessed it a lovely Bearded Seal was seen loafing on an ice-floe. Not long later a group of Harp Seal were seen porpoising along.
The scenery is spectacular, truly awesome, in fact one guest was heard to say it was even better than the Grand Canyon. Bird life, however is limited. A few Black-legged Kittiwakes and Iceland Gulls graced the tops of some of the larger icebergs, Black Guillemots were fairly numerous, a tiny Red-necked Phalarope paddled around a small ice-floe and a Wheatear came aboard had a fly round and briefly landed on a guest’s head, too briefly for that all important comedy photo. About halfway into our Scenic Cruise we could see a bit more ice ahead and minutes later Captain Dubravica announced that we would have to turn back as the Ice Pilots aboard advised against pushing through it. The return journey did give us a chance to see a White-tailed Eagle soaring around the mouth of the sound as we headed for the open sea to round Cape Farewell at the southern tip of Greenland and sail on to our next port, Narsarsuaq.
Scenic Prins Christian Sund © Martin Kitching/OWE
13th August - Narsarsuaq
Icebergs and MS Bolette in Narsaruaq © Paul Hill/OWE
Narsarsuaq is a small town dominated by its large airfield and Viking history. Those guests, and OWE team members Paul and Martin, leaving the ship early to explore the town and its surroundings were treated to sightings of Arctic Hares in a small boat yard only a minute’s walk from the tender dock.
Further exploration of the shoreline habitats revealed Wheatears and Lapland Buntings, while a Blackbird was a most unusual find in the low shrubs below the huge fuel bunkers. Those shrubs also held a good number of Redpolls. Guests exploring the town found Snow Buntings flitting around the residents’ gardens. Guests on tours further afield also saw Peregrine, Merlin and an Arctic Fox.
Lapland Bunting © Paul Hill/OWE
Dave and Ian from the OWE Team didn’t have much luck with the birds but Ian with his botanical hat on found some interesting plants including Northern Green Leafy Orchid, or is it Leafy Green Northern Orchid, maybe better to call it by its scientific name Platanthera hyperborea. The Common Moonwort is a very odd looking fern, not at all like the familiar Bracken, all around lovely colour was provided by the common Dwarf Fireweed, a close relative of our Rosebay Willowherb. Scattered around the dry dusty ground rocks glowed with bright orange patches of Elegant Sunburst Lichen.
Our Sail Away from Narsarsuaq was late but there was enough daylight left to enjoy the multitude of shapes of the iceberg in the fjord. One of which had hundreds of Black-legged Kittiwakes and Iceland Gulls which lifted off in a flurry of ‘snow’ just like a child’s Christmas snowdome toy. Also seen along the fjord was a sizeable pod/herd/flock of about 50 Harp Seals. I’m not sure what the collective noun for seals is but one comedian aboard suggested a ‘greasegun of seals’; hmmm.
Iceland Gulls - top left ©Martin Kitching/OWE. Remainder © Paul Hill/OWE
And then came an announcement from the bridge – we couldn’t get into our next destination, Nanortalik, due to fog and heavy swells so an unscheduled detour ‘round the corner’ was made over night to a rarely visited small town, Narsaq.
14th August - Narsaq
Morning broke to find Bolette moored up most conveniently outside the oldest, and one of only two, brewery in Greenland, providing fabulous beer made with ancient glacial water to hundreds more thirsty drinkers than it’s normally used to. The brewery was soon drunk dry so an ‘expedition’ was mounted to find the pub over the hill. With beer being sampled from early morning who knows what wildlife the guests and OWE team might have spotted!
The OWE records committee disallowed Polar Bear, Muskox, Walrus and Narwal from the log book (even though all were seen on the bottles)
A family party of well grown Mallard ducklings was possibly the highlight although you can never discount two sightings of White-tailed Eagles.
Once again our Sail Away featured icebergs of many shapes, sizes and shades of blue as we headed for Qatortoq, by far the largest town in this region of Greenland.
15th August - Qaqortoq
Fog and heavy rain were the order of the day here and by heavy rain we mean biblical rain. There was even a brief thunderstorm something that is so rare here that a 30+ year old woman had never heard thunder before! With the rain so bad all day land and the town more familiarly urban it’s not surprising that almost all todays wildlife sightings came from the ship either while docked in the harbour or on the Sail Away back to Prins Christian Sund. The highlights being a Wheatear flitting around the ship, a few Northern Fulmars including a ‘Blue phase’ northern one and what would prove to be the trip’s only Brunnich’s Guillemot.
16th August – Scenic cruise through Prins Christian Sund, west to east
Our tenth day saw us cruising back through Prins Christian Sund, this time from west to east showing us all the magnificent scenery we missed out on earlier. The only cetacean or pinniped seen was a Humback Whale as we reached the far end of the Sund.
Cruising through Pins Christian Sund © Paul Hill/OWE and Martin Kitching/OWE
17th August – At sea NE across the Denmark Strait
The sea day back across the Denmark Strait towards Isafjordur was action packed. Plenty of seabirds included hundreds of Great Shearwaters and 20 Long-tailed Skuas. Meanwhile the cetaceans kept everyone busy, a Humpback Whale, Fin Whales, Sperm Whales and our first Sei Whales were noted for the log. Late morning gave fairly close views of Sowerby’s Beaked Whale while the afternoon and into the evening continued to provide more whale sightings including a lunge-feeding Fin Whale close to the ship.
18th August - Isafjordur
If yesterday was good the approach along the Isafjardardjup fjord into Isafjordur was even better with three dozen Humpback Whales being recorded before breakfast! Whale watching trips were order of the day for many guests and a ‘busman’s holiday’ for the OWE team. While waiting to board our boat over 50 Purple Sandpipers were counted roosting along the harbour wall. Heaven only knows how many whale photos were taken by the OWE team and guests that day!
Humpback Whales - Top row © Martin Kitching/OWE; middle row © Paul Hill/OWE; bottom row © David McGrath/OWE
Out and about other guests had seen several Red-throated Divers and a large flock of Eiders in the bay and juvenile Black Guillemots paddling around the boats moored in the marina. Further afield three Merlins were found, one of which was giving chase to a Meadow Pipit
The Sail Away took us back through the fjord past the whales some of us had already seen twice already but there’s nothing wrong with a third look at Humpback Whales. A large flock of Sooty Shearwaters loafing on the sea dead ahead was rudely awakened and scattered hurriedly under Bolette’s bow. The sunset that evening was quite beautiful however, with many guests had apps giving Aurora alerts for tonight a late night beckoned as they stayed up to witness a display of shimmering shapes and colours.
19th August - Akureyri
Bolette’s final port of call was Akureyri, a town with a much more homely feel to it as it’s architecture is not so utilitarian as the other towns we’d visited. It’s greener too with plenty of trees to be seen above the colourful rooftops.
While guests went on their respective tours into the hinterland, yet more small boat whale watching or just explored the town the OWE team took another ‘busman’s holiday’ and had a mooch around the waterfront to the lake towards the airport. We’d only passed through the port gates by a few yards when a juvenile Black Guillemot was seen loitering beneath Bollette’s mooring ropes. A few yards further on two brown ducks flew towards us and landed right next to the small pedestrian bridge. As they flew in we could see white facial patches, so no not Eider but one of the two ‘Holy Grail’ ducks of Icelandic birding, two female Harlequin Ducks. Obviously some time was spent in their company.
The other ‘wanted’ duck, Barrow’s Goldeneye, we hoped would be on the lake. Arriving at the lake we saw there were plenty of Eurasian Wigeon and among them was a sleepy young Slavonian Grebe, behind the fountain another young Slavonian Grebe was being fed by mum or dad. Beyond the island in the middle of the lake half a dozen Long-tailed Ducks loafed among about 50 Tufted Ducks who had two Scaup secreted amongst their ranks. A Snipe was almost trodden on at the water’s edge.
The opposite side of the lake is residential with mature gardens, it was here we had good views of a Redwing and Meadow Pipits, we wouldn’t consider the latter a garden bird in the UK but here they were poking around parked cars on peoples’ driveways. Guests returning from scenic tours inland bettered our sightings with news of a couple of Short-eared Owls.
The scenic cruise up the Eidjafordur fjord to the open ocean and the Arctic Circle beyond meant an early afternoon Sail Away. At first conditions were good and keeping an eye on the whale watching tour boats we picked up some more Humpback Whales and a Minke Whale. A herd of 250 Whooper Swans lined the port bank at one point. There were plenty of auks in the fjord too, lots of Puffins and Guillemots and hundreds of Razorbills. The shrill cheeping of the chicks could be heard from the Observation Area high up on Deck 6 as we passed them.
Nearing the mouth of the fjord the wind now had a bit of north in it and was being funnelled down the fjord making viewing conditions on the forward looking decks uncomfortable. Down to Deck 3 it was and just in time to see an unidentified dolphin slip past us very quickly. So far on this cruise dolphins had been notable by their absence, yes we’d had a few sightings but we were expecting to have seen far more by now.
20th August – At Sea off eastern Iceland to Bill Bailey’s Mount
Two sea days were ahead of us before docking in Liverpool early morning on the 22nd. The first was mild, bright and clear with a slight sea, great for spotting. Blows were reported before breakfast, followed by distant Blue and Fin Whales a little later. The seabirds weren’t too shabby either. As the day progressed all four skuas were seen with Long-tailed Skuas outnumbering the others 3:1. Migrating waders well out to sea included Knot, Dunlin and a single Sanderling. Among the numerous Black-legged Kittiwakes and Northern Fulmars Gannets, Puffins, Sooty Shearwaters were recorded along with a single Leach’s Storm Petrel. There was a bit of a lull in cetacean sightings which was eventually broken by a pod of about 20 Long-finned Pilot Whales.
In the evening Speakers Curse occurred again. Ian and Dave went to do last minute work on the Round-Up talk for the following morning when it all kicked off. Almost the full field guide was seen, including a pod of, the seemingly impossible to photograph Atlantic White Sided Dolphin – the only ones not to turn up to the party were the Orcas. Inside and oblivious to what was happening outside the window Ian and Dave missed Bottllenose Dolphins, Risso’s Dolphins (although they had seen two of these from The View while at dinner), White-beaked Dolphins, Humpback Whales, Fin Whales, a Minke Whale, Sperm Whales, Northern Bottlenose Whales and Sowerby’s Beaked Whales. What an action-packed evening. A flock of about 50 Black-legged Kittiwakes kept us company the whole day persistently circumnavigating the ship.
21st August – At sea Hebrides to the Isle of Man
Our final day broke calm and clear with good visibility and a slight sea as we passed a visible St Kilda away to our port side, it promised to be a good day…and it didn’t disappoint, unless you were Ian and Dave, who were once again suffering a bad attack of Speaker’s Curse, giving the Round-Up talk in the Neptune Lounge when all the action started. The previously absent dolphins turned up in force with pods of Common Dolphins and White-beaked Dolphins being seen and more Risso’s Dolphins too. Dave appeared outside 30 seconds to late for a fabulous photo a Minke Whale which crossed Bolette’s wake only metres behind her stern.
Common Dolphins © Martin Kitching/OWE and Paul Hill/OWE
Passing the Uists three fishing boats were trawling on our port side and had attracted quite a following of gulls, Gannets and Northern Fulmars, one of them had no fewer than 5 Great Skuas in attendance. Another of the boats had an Arctic Skua wading into the gulls trying to steal a meal. Common and White-Beaked Dolphins were also in the area chasing fish. While watching the trawlers at work it was soon obvious that there were also many tiny black dots out there – European Storm Petrels, sadly none came close enough for us to get a good view of these seldom seen tiny seabirds. On the opposite side of the ship guests had spotted an Atlantic Grey Seal not too far away and again there were a couple of European Storm Petrels the ‘wrong side of it’. While watching those and hoping they’d come nearer a Leach’s Storm Petrel flew between the seal and the ship offering a few hasty shots.
Guests showed photos of a Meadow Pipit grounded aboard ship, not looking too well, a Pied Wagtail and a Wheatear were also on board and somewhat bizarrely a Chiffchaff flew over the bow, possibly after taking off from the ship or about to land on it for a rest.
Best of the rest for the day was a Basking Shark that narrowly missed being struck by Bolette as it dawdled its way across her bow.
The final log took some writing!
Here’s a table of all the sea mammals we saw along with the forty four species of birds seen from the ship.
SPECIES | NUMBER SEEN |
Whales and Dolphins | |
Humpback Whale | 89 |
Fin Whale | 81 |
Long-finned Pilot Whale | 70 |
Sperm Whale | 26 |
White-beaked Dolphin | 25 |
Minke Whale | 13 |
Blue Whale | 12 |
Harbour Porpoise | 11 |
Northern Bottlenose Whale | 8 |
Dolphin sp | 9 |
Sei Whale | 7 |
Killer Whale | 6 |
Sowerby's Beaked Whale | 3 |
TOTAL | 360 |
Seals | |
Harp Seal | 62 |
Grey Seal | 50 |
Bearded Seal | 3 |
Harbour Seal | 1 |
TOTAL | 116 |
Whooper Swan | Arctic Skua |
Eider | Long-tailed Skua |
Red-throated Diver | Black-headed Gull |
Fulmar | Common Gull |
Cory's Shearwater | Herring Gull |
Great Shearwater | Great Black-backed Gull |
Manx Shearwater | Lesser Black-backed Gull |
Sooty Shearwater | Black-legged Kittiwake |
European Storm Petrel | Sabine's Gull |
Leach's Storm Petrel | Glaucous Gull |
Gannet | Iceland Gull |
Cormorant | Arctic Tern |
Grey Heron | Common Tern |
White-tailed Eagle | Puffin |
Peregrine | Black Guillemot |
Dunlin | Common Guillemot |
Knot | Brunnich's Guillemot |
Sanderling | Razorbill |
Grey Phalarope | Meadow Pipit |
Red-necked Phalarope | Pied Wagtail |
Great Skua | Wheatear |
Pomarine Skua | Chiffchaff |
Acknowledgements:
The Ocean Wildlife Encounters team would like to thank Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines, and the crew of MS Bolette for their support.
Most of all we would like to thank all those old and new friends who took the time to share the incredible wildlife that helped make for such a memorable cruise. Thank you all again for shouting “BLOW”, “FIN” and “SPLASHES”. We hope to see you on another cruise sometime soon.
Your Ocean Wildlife Encounters team - Dave, Ian, Martin & Paul.Under Construction
Wow what a phenomenal amount of information and beautiful photographs to go with it . Thank you so much for this ,as well as the talks on board the ship, the advice you gave daily about where to look and what to look out for in the seas every day . It was much appreciated and I learned so
Much from you all. A truly memorable trip of a lifetime.
Rachel Schofield-Newton