Blog Archive

Thursday 11 August 2016

Shimshal's good looks make her a minor celebrity in these northern waters

On the 10th August we dropped anchor in the Hestyri Fjord after a smooth and uneventful crossing of the Denmark Strait. According to our log we had anchored in the exact same place on 5th August 2015 so it was good to be back in familiar waters.

After supper a couple of sport fisherman motored over to us in their RIB and, complete with whisky, came aboard. Heimi (the chief fire officer from Isafjordur) and his friend Caterin (a retired Icelandic GP from Angelsey) had recognised Shimshal and, it turned out, had been tracking Shimshal's lonely voyage to the far north. It turns out that few of the rugged boats that muster in Isafjordur for the brief Arctic summer manage to penetrate so deeply into Scoresby Sound. Such is the miracle of the Internet they knew exactly where we had been and what we had done.

We had a great evening swapping stories of Greenland, learning lots about Iceland, hunting and fishing. Rod had caught a flounder for supper which he generously divided into three! Our visitors checked out his bait and decreed it too conservative for these waters and gave him a parting gift of a massive lump of pink lead sprouting all manner of treble hooks and brightly coloured plastic. So Rod the pressure is on!