Moving West

It was difficult not to extend our stay in Siglufjordur especially since we were leaving on Iceland’s national day but the weather window we needed to make the 140 miles to Isafjordur was limited. Valgeir Tomas at The Harbour House Café reminded us of the old Viking saying, “The king wants to sail but the wind decides”. After having a taste of the delicious traditional cake that Tomas’ niece made for the national day and saying goodbye to friends, we got ready to leave.

Before heading out of the harbor, we blew our foghorn and waved to our friends at the café. We raised our mainsail for stability and prepared for the hours of motoring ahead of us while we waited for the light tailwinds to fill in. To our delight, they already had and we were able to sail once we left the fjord.

The wind strength stayed constant during our overnight passage until we rounded Horn, the northwest tip of Iceland. We decided to take advantage of the calm conditions and stop at Adalvik, 25 miles outside  Isafjorur. We were both tired from the passage but decided to go for a hike since we did not know how much longer the light winds would last.

There was nothing to tie our dinghy to on the beach so we carried it to the high tide line, thankful that we had rowed to shore and did not have the extra weight of the outboard. Frances pounded a few pieces of wood into the sand to secure the painter. We knew the tide was going down but did not want to take any chances incase we were delayed.

Adalvik

The valley was lush with flowers, including several types of wild orchids which we did our best not to step on. In the center was a lake with several whooper swans and their young. We decided to make our way around to enjoy the bird life and see the church on the other side. There was a couple working on the church and they kindly let us take a peek at the inside. The church was over a hundred years old and had very unusual curved pews. It had been the center of a village that had been inhabited for hundreds of years. By 1952 the lack of road access and the isolation began to take a toll on the residents and they decided at a town meeting to abandon the town. Today descendants of these residents use the remaining houses as holiday homes during the summer.

We returned to the beach several hours later and found our dinghy right where we left her and the water at low tide, exposing numerous rocks. Luckily we had both brought our rubber boots and were able negotiate the partially submerged rocks, before climbing into the dinghy.

The southwesterly that we had been expecting arrived the following morning and Snow Dragon danced around on her anchor in the 35 knots of wind. By the afternoon the wind reduced to 25 knots and we decided to make a run for Isafjordur. It was the most rigorous sailing that we had done since leaving Norway and could very well become the norm now that we are on Iceland’s less protected West Coast.

Arriving In Isafjordur

For more photos please click on Siglufjordur to Isafjordur Album.