Anchored after a long day
Saxon Blue's Blog
Harvey Jones and Andrea Stokes
Sat 19 Jun 2010 22:29
Well, that was a long but successful day.
We left Siglufjordur soon after 0800 with no wind and a bit of drizzle. It was a shame to leave such a lovely place without exploring it properly but we've got a long way to go. It was so much quieter than Akureyri where we always had waves slapping on the hull and cars zooming around so we all had a deep sleep.
The wind gradually built and we were soon sailing close-hauled on Port tack looking back at the mountains along the coast. We saw one small pod of White Beaked Dolphins but that was about it for wildlife. Gradually, the wind veered so we weren't able to sail our course so we had to motor. We had too far to go to start messing about tacking.
The weather improved in that the clouds cleared away but that meant the wind picked up too and it got a bit uncomfortable. Kali had been asleep for much of the morning so she took over the watch after lunch and I had a refreshing few hours kip. Kali woke me up as we approached our waypoint outside Nordufjordur. We were still getting hammered by the wind and waves, even so close to the land which had Kali and I worried that it would be too exposed inside for us to anchor. There are two possible places to anchor in the bay but neither were very well described in our pilot book and the charts are getting pretty vague as well. We dismissed the first option as far too exposed which left the end of Nordufjordur itself, just off the village of Krossnes.
As we rounded the point, we were still getting hit with 30 knot winds which were picking up swirling water from the surface of the sea. We could see a fishing dock but it wouldn't offer any security from the wind and I didn't fancy getting pushed onto it all night. We started to think about heading back out to sea but that wasn't a very attractive prospect as the next anchorage is a long way away. As we approached the very end of the fjord, the wind dropped a bit and the fetch reduced so there weren't really any waves to worry about. I did a quick survey with the forward-looking sonar and satisfied myself that the seabed was level so we anchored up and veered about 60 meters of chain. It's a much better anchorage than I was hoping for - not exactly sheltered but safe enough.
Since then, we've been moving around a fair bit but the anchor is holding well and we've concentrated on showers and eating a massive dinner. The Kittiwakes are still bobbing around outside, hoping that we're going to come up trumps and start gutting some Haddock. We're surrounded by scree-covered hills with small patches of snow on the tops. Every now and then, a 4x4 rushes along on the shore road. We're not really sure where they're going as this is very nearly the end of the road. From here north, it's walk or boat as there are no more roads.
So that's us. Sitting around now chatting quietly. 72 miles knocked off today and just over 3000 on Saxon Blue altogether since she was launched. Hopefully, we'll have a shorter day tomorrow and a run ashore at the end.
Harvey
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