SKIRRy unrest and bubbling impatience

Our sightseeing tour around the peninsula (see previous blog entry) was quite nice although it was covered in rain. But we are still in Grundafjördour waiting. The weather, a nightmare. Skipper is tearing his hair out what to do with a crew that is not doing what is supposed to do – go sailing, explore, freeze and all the other good stuff. Skipper is a bit unrestful in order to find a solution. When he got up in the morning you could hear him grumbling „never saw this“, „what is it“, „can’t it stop being miserable“. During the day we would enjoy his advice on our interpretation of the Windfinder weather map trying to see something that he did not see. But he proved to be the master of weather interpretation. And at night you could hear him saying „f…ing impossible“.

In expectation that something would happen soon we decided to treat ourselves going out for dinner to the best in town. There are three restaurants and one coffee shop in Grundafjördur. We did choose the best one – an experience!

It is this type of restaurant where you can experience excellent meals and well thought out dishes, where you can enjoy selected Icelandic beers and reputable wines. You can also explore Icelandic Cousine. It is this type where you cannot pronounce the dishes name and you know what you are eating only after the explanation from the waiter. I went into exploration mode and tried what was sold as the best starter from Iceland, fermented Shark and dried Haddock. Besides the sticker shock I still cannot get around the taste. Fermented Shark, 6 month old and rotten, considered better than ousters and Caviar was tasting like urine to be honest. And the more you chewed on it the more intense it got. The Haddock was like eating the door mat slightly salted. So for me this expedition into the delicacies of Iceland failed. But all the other stuff was heavenly good. Filled up with food, tuned to expectation about what should come we trolled home. Next day, next opportunity.

Never mind, any static situation comes to an end. Next morning skip stood in the galley and said we must go now. Quickly. „I saw the light! There is a weather window, hurry up, we must go!!!“. Really? We looked at the map and saw red and purple all over the Danish Street. Purple means 50 to 60 knots. That most likely comes with towering waves and ice. So what window? Guys there is a window of about 4-6 hours where we can head North. No, I am not talking Greenland. That would be suicidal and at the end I would have to deal with all the paperwork. But instead of looking for another bus tour or another hike to one more of the 15.000 waterfalls in Iceland we can go North to Isafjördur. It would give us a better jump off position to Greenland if this „bloody“ low pressure system finally start moving to the East.

So the plan is to sail out into the Fjord. Skipper had spoken with locals about whale spotting spots in the Fjord. We would do the SKIRR all inclusive whale watching watch and after that head over to the Northwest corner of the Fjord sticking our nose around the corner. In the evening the window was promising us 25 knots Easterly winds which would allow us to sneak around the corner, sail 10 miles North in exposed sea state and than head East into the next Fjord. And we could do this cape by cape, Fjord by Fjord until we will have reached Isafjördur. Good plan. Very good plan to make a snipping move against our friend, the Low Low Pressure system between Ice- and Greenland.

And an impatient crew served with the „window“ news created a sizzling jump start in the morning. Breakfast fast, deck preparation super fast, dressing up with light speed. We are going sailing, tourist version first by hunting whales and tuff shit later (excuse my French) when we will exercise our nose sticking procedure to sneak North beating the rested low in the South.

Yes Grundafördur, you treated us well. We enjoyed your pool and hot tub. We are taking your waterfalls home in memory. But we must say good bye now and get closer to what we want to explore. We sneaked out of the harbor into the fjord and immediately spotted a whale watching boat.

So whales can’t be far. I was surprised that we might see any as the water is not particularly deep here. But it was Orcas that we soon spotted. What a sight!

After an hour or so spotting these whales skip made clear that we need to go about 40 miles North now for our nose poking and window opening plan. Yes, lets go sailing. Windfinder forecasted the window to be only a finger wide open with a clear shift of the wind from North to East. Ideal to sneak up West and North.

Skipper was conservative. Two reefs and the staysail. As we go closer to the North coast of the Fjord we would see cliffs a few hundred meters high. There were very good chance of katabatic winds.

After four hours we reached the cape and poked our nose around the corner. WHAT A SURPRISE.

The wind had shifted not to the East but to the West. It was blowing 40 knots. Breaking waves. WE GOT BEAT UP. We turned the boat around and sailed into the shadow of the cape, hived to and waited. Skipper wanted to give it an hour to see whether the window will open. After 30 minutes we tried again. WE GOT BEAT UP. Back to the shadow position and hiving to waiting was the best. It was just 10 miles we need to go North into the next Fjord. !0 miles. Nothing. But with a Northwesterly the coast was in lee. So one major issue or one mistake and we would get smashed against towering rock walls. Nose out again and bang, we got the next hit.

Skip came up with the idea to sail free from the cliff by going West trying not to sail closed hauled but with a fine reach. Great idea. We headed our bow to West to a 60 degree true wind angle. The boat jumped forward. As soon as we came free from the wind shadow we got beat up again. I mean the boat did fine. But 40 knots and waves up to 5m breaking was not to everybody’s liking. We tried for an hour or so. Whenever the boat jumped off a wave it crashed into a hole, the mast screamed in shivering motion, the sheets yanked around and the crew had trouble to hold on tight. Breaking waves smashed against our starboard side. It was fun, it was wet, very wet and it was cold. Skip came to the wheel and made a comment. „The boat will handle it. But I dont like the cost line being leeward. And the crew, another three hours like this and we might see it break“. There is no way we will make it North against the wind, against the strong current at night in these conditions. „Helm to leeeeeeeeee“. The boat veered to port. A breaking waves smashed against the stern. Keeping control was hard. So skip jumped up and took the helm. Wild ride. most fun. And as we sailed on a brought reach now we had the main still pinned to the middle so that directional control was still tough. Skip fiddled a cigarette out of his pocket and lit it up. All under control now. We attached the foreguys, eased main and surfed back into the direction where we came from. „Guys, I am sorry, we are heading back. Weather has still control over us. Safety first., We will sail back to where we came from and see what the weather will offer the next few days. THIS WINDOW TODAY NEVER OPENED FOR US. TOUGH LUCK!“

In order to make the next wait and see period not too boring Wavy decided to change port. We headed to lovely Olafsvik, a place that cannot be more exciting. Fishing harbor. Main attraction waterfall with Kiss sign, swimming pool and one open restaurant.