Sue declined our offer of continuing on to
Greenland with us as she did not want to miss the unusual hot summer weather in
England. She survived flying out of the dramatic runway in Isafjordur and had a
glorious view of Rekjavik from the plane. Halldor left the following day after
cooking one last meal for us and commenting on how much humor Sue had brought
to the trip. It was a pleasure to have both of them onboard and we miss their
company.
We had planned only to spend a couple of days in
Isafjordur before setting of for East Greenland but the ice charts showed ice
was still blocking a good portion of the coast including Ammassalik, our
intended destination. Since we will see a lot of Greenland when we sail West
Greenland next summer and love the area around Isafjordur, we decided to give
the ice another week to breakup. In the meantime, we enjoyed a few days of carefree
hiking in Jokilfjordur before arriving in polar bear country.
Dolphins On the Way To Jokilfjordur
After a peaceful night’s sleep at Grunnavik, a spectacular open bay with little protection near the mouth of Jokilfjordur. We woke up to erratic 30+ knot gusts funneled by the mountains. The anchorage had excellent holding and we were able to go for our 5 hour hike as planned after Frances spent the morning making rhubarb jam from the rhubarb she picked in Isafjordur. The ‘trails’ marked on the map are just a suggestion of a route and except for an old horse riding track we walked across flower filled hillsides. The last part of the hike followed a spectacular cliff edge with sweeping views across the fjord.
Frances With The Rhubarb She Harvested
Grunnavik
In the morning we moved across to Hesteyrarfjordur
where we have fond memories of visiting the café at Hesteyri with out friend
David who joined us during our first trip to Isafjordur. After a brief walk, we
returned to the café for tea just as the passengers of a cruise ship were being
ferried back to Isafjordur. It turned that the cruise ship had been unable to
stop in Greenland due to heavy ice and had to continue directly to Iceland, its
next destination.
Krystina Walking, Hesteyri
We decided to move up to the head of the fjord for the night. Before we could decide whether or not to set off on an evening hike, Frances saw a bird struggling on its back in the water. The bird appeared to be tangled in fishing line and we dinghying over with a knife, a pair of gloves and a dish towel hoping to cut it free.
Guillemont
On closer examination we realized it wasn’t
tangled and appeared to have an injured wing or leg which was making it
lopsided and unable to float on its front. Krystina picked up the struggling guillemot
and we brought it back to Snow Dragon for closer examination. When we couldn’t
find an obvious injury, we took it to shore hoping it just needed to rest.
Krystina placed the guillemot on the grass but all it did was lay on its right
side and clean its feathers so we brought it back to Snow Dragon to keep it
safe from predators. Not having any boxes on board we decided the best place to
store an injured guillemot was in our shower with a towel for it to lay and a
bowl of fresh and one of salt water for it to drink. We knew guillemots ate
fish but we did not have any on board.
Guillemont In Snow Dragon's Shower
When the neighboring boat turned out to be out of
sardines and the guillemot was clearly not interested in the lamb’s liver pate
we offered, we decided to pull anchor and head back in Isafjordur where we knew
we could easily buy fish and maybe find someone to care for the guillemot. On
the way out of the fjord we spotted Aurora anchored near Hesteyri. Sigurdur,
Aurora’s skipper, invited us over for a glass of wine with the French film team
he had on board and gave us fish for our new passenger. He also explained how
to properly prepare a guillemot should we decide to eat it.
Aurora At Anchor And With Snow Dragon, Hesteyri
In the morning, the guillemot looked less lopsided
and had no problem flapping both wings when Frances sprinkled him with water.
We decided to take guillemot to shore and put him in shallow water. After a few
encouraging words in Icelandic from Sigurdur, the guillemot swam away now only
slightly lopsided and we returned to Isafjordur without a guillemot in our
shower. For more photos please click on Jokilfjordur Album
No comments:
Post a Comment