Sunday 24th August. On passage
Awelina of Sweden
James Collier
Sun 24 Aug 2014 13:08
66:24.70 N, 17:14.30 W
We have come 2/3 of the breadth of Iceland between 6 pm last night and
midday today and are bound E and then SSE before jumping off for the Faeroe
Islands in a day or so.
We left Isafjordur at 11:15 after various chores in town for which we had
to wait until opening times (10 for the supermarket, 11 to get a refilled gas
cylinder) on a grey and overcast morning and passed the Horn around 7pm. Since
then the wind has been from SSW between F4 and F6 off the land so quite a smooth
passage, and on a reach, which is why it's been so fast. The visibility isn't
very good and it's raining, but we gather that it's the same in Cornwall (it is
a bank-holiday!). When we do get a glimpse of the land to our south we can see
snow-capped mountains. We did see Grimsey about 8 miles to the north in a
temporary clearing of the visibility.
En route we’ve had two excitements. While rounding the NW tip of the
Hornstrandir peninsular we saw huge breakers ahead, like one sees on a hidden
reef. An abrupt change of course before we realised that it was from a huge
whale jumping out of the water and slapping its tail down. We still gave it a
respectful distance! The second was that, during Fiona’s watch in the small
hours the gas strut of the vang (fancy name for a fancy kicking-strap) came
loose. She managed to recover most of the little bits from the scuppers and
re-attach it, but it will need proper repair and some new bushes when we’re next
in port.
Leaving Isfjordur
Tip of Hornstrandir peninsular (where there were whales)
The Horn itself, seen from the north. |