Blog Archive

Tuesday 11 August 2015

Down wind to Reykjavik


At midnight the wind suddenly died and by morning we had flat seas and some sunshine. We chose not to take shore leave as this destination was too good to rush and warranted a return trip by road. Instead we took advantage of the northerlies for our day sail to Reykjavik. Incredibly in the last 1000 miles of sailing we have rarely seen the wind forward of the beam.

We motored South East until the wind increased and then put out the genoa which carried us downwind at 6 knots in gentle seas for the rest of the day. With 16 miles to go the wind died and the motor came on but it had been a lovely day of sailing with the Snaesfjell as our backdrop and reminder of the wild north of Iceland. Already Ronnie is talking of an expedition to the north west fjords and we will be bound northwards again with Shimshal in the Spring. But for now I think we are all relishing the thought of Reykjavik living for the next few days.


Boat jobs, of course, abound but hopefully we will find some time to explore the environs and get the bikes out before we fly home Sunday.

I have been sailing for 3 weeks with crew addicted to lists, order and punctuality. So here is a list of dock side boat duties purely for their benefit! You may infer from this that I am not really into 'lists'.

1. Put Shimshal in her winter berth securing her safely with the massive fisherman's warps we bought in Isafjordur.
2. Enquire about a diesel engineer to do a thorough service, winterisation and fit new 12 volt alternator if available.
3. Enquire about Raymarine dealer to seek a solution to our networking problem.
4. Remove pilot and take back to UK
5. Clean top sides and fit fender blanket
6. Fit cockpit tent
7. Remove staysail and genoa 
8. Move all diesel cans to the cockpit 
9. Remove the broken steering spindle and take back to UK
10. Remove wind sensors and stow safely
11. Complete wiring for sat phone and solar panels.
12. Boracol decks
13. Major clean up below decks.
14. Laundry 

We are back in Iceland in September so the rest of the winterisation jobs and the winter cover can be done then.

Good that I'm sailing with a couple of self professed 'completer finishers'!