66:04.23 N, 23:07.37 W

 

An uneventful run round the headland to the main town and port in the NW of Iceland, Isafjorður. In the bay there was a small cruise ship at anchor with the usual ugly little orange bum-boats ferrying the passengers back and forth, and alongside the quay in the outer harbour another rather larger one. We later discovered that this had suffered some sort of mechanical failure while trying to manoeuvre and had to be towed in stern-first by harbour tug. Whether it’ll be allowed to leave again with only one of its twin screws working wasn’t clear.

 

We’re tied up to the wall near to but not at the visitor’s pontoon because it’s full and we don’t yet know if rafting is acceptable. It suffers the same problem as the Falmouth town visitor’s pontoon: actually it’s taken up with local boats which never move and are maybe partly abandoned. There is only one genuine visitor there, a French boat of around 45’. The harbour master wasn’t around to advise us and we later discovered that he’s also the pilot and so presumably had been involved with the cruise ship berthing and is generally a busy man.

 

We replenished some stores, and intend to visit the Vinbudin – the government run wine shop – tomorrow.

 

In the evening we went for a stroll around hoping to fond a beer but without success. We did come across a couple of students just arriving for the new term at the oceanographic college here; they’re from Falmouth.