The festival started well with the whale museum staff, and members of the public, building a 33m-long blue whale in the sand. After using a digger, several spades, a few watering hoses from the local firebrigade and a whole lot of sandwe were standing next to a live sized replica of the largest animal ever to have existed. Complete with a curious smile and rather generous tail. The Grimsey trip was cancelled unfortunately due to the choppy sea, but for those who were disappointed, there was excellent entertainment at the museum, with a music performance by guitarists of Husavik school.

After a stroll down the beach carrying a full sized Orca, blow up replica of Keiko the late famous Free Willy movie star, we weighed the people involved, on a pair of fish scales and achieved the weight of a dolphin or for greater effect, a small pod of harbor porpoises. We had several entries into the sand castle competition, despite the grey sky. The judges found it hard that only three prizes could be given out. Hogwarts Palace was the winner produced by an Icelandic family with the help of a couple from Holland.

North Sailing and Gamli Baukur ended the festival brilliantly by taking everyone to a deserted part of the mountains on Knorrin and the beautiful sailing boat Haukur. During our travels, a minke, humpback and a pod of dolphins were spotted much to everyone’s delight. The people from Gamli Baukur restaurant had arrived on the beach an hour before hand, fed us all very well. On the way back, some people on the boat were very merry, slurring old Icelandic songs below deck... It was a great weekend!