SKIRR Adventure: Sailing with legends and into the uncertainty

It is Sunday, 28th of July. It is rainy in Reykjavik and when looking at the forecast for wind, seas state and general weather conditions there is a lot to worry about. But I will come back to that later. It is time to think about joining on board and it is time to make a plan how to move my kit from the hotel to the boat. It is just vis a vie of the hotel, but around the old harbor basin an 1.1 km walk. I was pretty sure that I will not be able to make it in one go with all my gear sat once. So as our Whats App Group got established for Leg 3 of the SKIRR Adventure 2024 I contacted Sascha, our first mate. There was no instant response but I did not worry as I was sure they were busy going shopping to keep us fed over the next two weeks. When she came back around noon I was given permission to bring at least my large bags to the boat. It was raining. It was cold. It was windy.

At the boat I met Pedro from Mexico. He did already leg 2 and I met Adam L from Cayman Islands who had just arrived. After dropping my bags it was 12:45 and we decided to go out for lunch and spend a bit of quality time together. Really nice chaps both they are and I was really looking forward going to sail with them. Especially Pedro had some good stories about leg two. Some of the findings – this summer the weather has been weird and unpredictable. After lunch it was still time till 18:00 where we were allowed to come on to the boat. I went back to the hotel and jumped into my laptop. All of a sudden a British lady approached me. „Are you doing SKIRR?“. She introduced herself, Sara from Great Britain. „See you in a bit“ and off she goes with her husband to buy a few more warm socks.

18:00 we meet at the boat to learn whom we will be sailing with. Let me introduce you first to the professional crew. At the forefront there is „Wavy“ Immelmann. To say the least, a sailing legend by himself. 670.000nm experience, I mean that is 3 times to the moon and back. Holder of multiple world records of which he is still holding on to one, single handed rowing across the Atlantic in 67!!! days. So we can’t be in better hands. He sailed almost every campaign and race there is on this plant and he sailed with all the big sailing legends of the past.

Second in line Sacha, first mate and well into the organization of Clipper. She does sailing for her joy and loves it. Obviously was racing in the Clipper Round the World races and manages refits of Clipper boats. Actually she did the refit also on our CV11 68ft racer. So what more expertise about the boat can you ask for.

And last but not least Kitty. She raced as an onboard reporter in the Clipper 19/20 race o „Seattle“ and is now working as mate for the Clipper organization. She is also a professional photographer. So we have the right support on board to prevent us from doing stupid things.

And my fellow crew members introduced themselves in our meet and greet session this evening.. Result, tons of sailing experience on board. The right mix for our adventure out west and up North. The crew is Deborah and Sara, our two power girls both from the UK, Arno from Germany, Adam L, Cayman Islands, Pedro Mexico, John from the US, Adam from Poland and Alex from the UK. Nice and well balanced crew. After the introduction and a first brief by Skip we discussed how the trip will work out. And there was a very big issue between us and Greenland.

Off the South coast of Greenland, where the Labrador current and the Gulf stream hit each other a very low pressure system developed fast. DWD forecasted the system to be at 975 mb. That is close to Hurricane level. But the worst, the prediction showed that the system would be stationary over a long time. The anti clockwise movement would shovel ice down the cost of Greenland blocking our two potential destinations for the time being, Scorsby Sound and Tasiilaq. But before we discuss our options we go out for dinner together, a good opportunity to share all the good sailing stories.

And after coming back skip and his team had a chit chat with an exploration crew bound for Greenland locked in Reykjavik for more than a week because of the ice conditions on the Greenland cost.

Next morning we went into a briefing about our options. And other than last night Wavy saw a weather window to sail overnight into Grundarfjördur and from there we are looking for the next small window to go West or North. Breakfast, very thorough safety brief including MOB Routine with „Bob“ our casualty dummy. These briefings are very thorough. Wavy, Sascha and Kitty took this very seriously, a policy that Clipper is famous for and a reason why they are successfully routing so many non sailors through the organization without major incidents. I have to say that these briefings and trainings are one of its kinds. I alway appreciate it a lot as I learn a lot for my own sailing.

The forecast for Greenland did get worse over time. But Wavy saw a window to go North. So we preped the boat for our first overnight. Perfect, out to sea. We slipped lines 14:30.

Reykjavik falls back, a small lighthouse to our starboard side and the main lighthouse to port. We are heading West and everybody is already excited. Out to new destinations, not yet Greenland but something new. And the first night sail. Skipper has devided us into three watches, „Mountain“, „Fjord“ and „Hot Springs“. During daytime we would do 4 Hour watches, 06:00 till 10:00, 10:00 till 14:00 and 14:00 till 18:00. One watch is on watch, means on deck, one is on standby means in gear to go on deck any time and one watch would be off. Standby watches prepare meals. They are the next to go on watch and prepare meals before going on watch. The watch going off watch is responsible for cleaning dishes. At night we go to 3 hour watches due to the cold. 18:00 till 21:00, 21:00 till 24:00, 00:00 till 03:00 and 03:00 till 06:00. As there are no meal preps at night standby and off watch are in bunks. So without maneuver you might sleep 6 hour a night when lucky.

Once clear of the main shipping lines we are all ready to set sails up. Nobody is downstairs, all on deck for the work and to sniff the fresh cold air of Iceland waters. It is 10 Degrees Celsius. Initially you do not notice as you are working to get sails up. But step by step the cold tends to creep in and bite you. Therefore there is the routine to fist of all dress up properly, one or more base layers, a proper mid layer and if need be two of those and on top foulies. In addition proper hats gloves and scarfs are absolutely essential when sailing in cold conditions, because once you got cold it will be extremely difficult to get warm again. There is also the routine to serve hot drinks whenever possible, mainly tea and coffee.

And once sails are up everybody can relay and enjoy the sailing.

As the day goes on we are heading into the evening. Only a cruise ship is overtaking us sailing to the north, same direction as us. It appears that the really bad weather situation in the West has caused a lot of ships to re route or wait in Reykjavik for a window to head over to Greenland. The cruise ship is overtaking us. In the meantime we have the delight of spotting two Minkie Wales.

Our watch is heading into the night. On port we can see the Snæfjell peninsula sticking out West from Iceland. At the end is the Snæfjellfödur mountain, plus 1400m high and covered by a glacier of 10 square kilometersi. Only 10 years ago the glacier had twice the size. The scenery is mystic as the sun goes down around 22:45.

At 24:00 we were off watch and looking forward to a 6 hour sleep in case we were not needed during our standby time. There was still light outside so that we had to pull our light covers down in our bunks to find sleep. Next morning coming onto our next watch at 06:00 am we were already heading East towards Grundafjördur. This is an epic spot in Iceland and considered to be the most photographed spot. And I have to say coming from sea was breathtaking. First morning fog over the mountains which turned the area into a mystic spot.

But the sun turned out to be strong supported by an Easterly blowing the fog and the low hanging clouds away given us a spectacular site for the arrival. Too good to be true.

Everybody enjoyed the scenery as we sailed into the small harbor staring at the landscape.

And wildlife everywhere

After we were on the dock we had lunch together.

And as this is an exploration trip most of us took the chance to take a walk finding out what is around us. We found out that the small village with 800 inhabitants was in its full season with tourists. Almost everybody was tempted to walk over to the large waterfall, one of the 15.000 in Iceland, that could be seen on our approach to the harbor. Most of us did it right away but I stayed a little on board reading Emails about what is going on at home. So when I started to head over the weather had turned quickly and light rain accompanied my walk. And again, the scenery turned out to be magnificent. Light changed every minute, whenever a cloud moved by or the sun lured through some of the rare spots in the clouds.

Hundreds of seagulls nested in the steep cliffs of the waterfall making their nest very secure. On my way home an Oystercatcher followed me into town jumping from one road light to roadlifgt yelling at me all the time.

It is very interesting to see that houses are not very colorful . They are simple. Two building materials are commonly being used, wood and metal. It seems important that everything is strong against the odd weather in winter. I asked locals how that would be and to my surprise they shared that winters are not super cold, and also they have less and less snow.

In the evening we had another meeting. How would we go from here. And our friend, the static Iceland low was fixed between Green- and Iceland. It was getting more energetic without any option for us to head out for Greenland. Wavy pointed out that we cannot go West due to the potential ice hazard.

Looks our sailing options were not bright. Another day in the harbor and another day to explore the area. In addition the SKIRR team did an amazing job in order to offer us an alternative. A sightseeing tour got planned for us so that we could explore more distant places on the peninsula. But that was just for tomorrow. Today we strolled out on our own.

And after such an exhausting day of exploration we needed a good dinner. It was Schnitzel day. Amazing with mashed potatoes and marinated broccoli. What could have been better?

In the morning Wavy had no new news. Weather will be bad. It blew the night over and now it was raining….all the time. Best for a road trip to the hot spots of Snæfell peninsula.. But even more depressing the low pressure sat still between Greenland and Iceland. So the new idea was a weather window permitting that we would try to make our way up North the next day. So let’s enjoy the sight seeing first. Frist we want to a volcano crater, a small one. It was created by one explosion…about 3000 years ago.

Then we drove to a black beach within the volcanic area of Snæfellsjökull. At this beach an English ship wrecked itself with the whole crew being lost. Metal remains were all over the beach.

No surprise as the sea was constantly pounding against the shore. Surely one mistake in foggy weather and it is all over.

Further down the lighthouse of the peninsula rising high into the sky warning ships of the dangerous cliffs and unsure shore situation.

From here you could have a glance up the glacier

And finally we went to the Snæfell beach where the first settler landed giving the place its name.

And during this trip we were able to meet snow foxes. One single one at the volcanic beach.

And a family of four close to the lighthouse.

When came back skipper had good news. He found a weather window that might allow us to go North. There was a bit of uncertainty if the window would be big enough. But he decided to give it a try next day. So bear with men for the next stories.