SV Kiviuq

We enjoyed Husavik, despite the fact that after the lovely weather on arrival and into the following day it went seriously downhill for a couple of days. A cold northerly wind brought heavy rain and snow on the surrounding mountains. However this didn't stop us doing a bird watching walk in a wetland area just outside Husavik where we saw whooper swans, snipe and a small family of one the northern divers, probably loons. But it is now late in the season for birds in Iceland and we suspect that even a month prior we would have seen much more. The other wet afternoon activity that we thoroughly enjoyed was a visit to the Husavik outdoor swimming pool and 'hotpots'. The geothermally-heated 30C pool and the 38C and 41C hotpots made for a pleasant interlude in the cold wind and rain. Being keen to visit the Myvatn area, Myvatn being quite a large but shallow lake about one hour's drive to the south of Husavik, we decided to wait for an improvement in the weather. The Saturday forecast was promising (but optimistic as it turned out) so a car was hired and off we went with a volunteer guide to the Myvatn area, a young German woman and veterinarian who is working in the Husavik whale museum. She proved to be pleasant company and a good guide without whom we would undoubtedly have missed a lot. As it was, we walked around pseudocraters formed by steam explosions under surface magma, true volcanic craters and visited several hot spring areas. These and the ultra-modern geothermal power stations with their outlying boreholes and spider webs of surface pipework across the Martian landscape really do give parts of Iceland an 'other world' feel. It is not surprising that it was here that NASA astronauts trained and tested equipment. Indeed there is ongoing training of potential Mars explorers in Iceland. Sunday morning was much brighter and slightly warmer and so we slipped from our harbour wall berth shortly after midday and made our way out in Skjalfandi Bay with the whale-watching boats to do some whale-watching of our own. We did see a pod of pilot whales, but none of the larger species that can frequent the bay, especially earlier in the season. Apparently June is a good month to see blue whales here and humpbacks are also summer visitors. With little wind we then motored westwards along the northern Icelandic coast and the engine provided our propulsion through the night. It wasn't until we were approaching Horn near the NW tip of Iceland that a SW wind began to make itself felt, which quickly built to give us quite a hard beat (a sail into the wind) around the corner for the turn southwards. In the brisk upwind conditions Marilou competed with the autopilot for the 'helm of the day' award. Marilou won. And she can now say she has helmed around the Horn. The wind quickly fell away as we entered the fjord complex in which lies the secure harbour of Isafjordur and we motored in and through the narrow fairway into its sheltered bay under blue skies and evening sunshine. We nosed into the small inner harbour where the owner of Bella Donna, a heavy local cruising yacht, waved frantically to invite us to berth alongside. This we did, and were secured and snug by 1930hrs yesterday evening after a good afternoon of sailing.