After the anchoring excitement of Tuesday evening we woke quite late to sunshine and a Northerly wind. We headed down the fjord to the old whaling station at Hesteryi. Here we anchored in 7 metres of water and rowed ashore to go and examine the old whaling station - disused since the 60's we believe. Peter, Tom and Plum then formed the Awelina shore crew while James and Fiona headed back to Awelina to do much needed laundry and another go at the outboard.

The old Whaling station – a very dismal place.

 

James stripped down the float chamber of the carburettor and cleaned it all up, but the problem isn’t there so he had to row to fetch the others from the shore. It took two trips, the second one rowed by Peter in very gusty conditions with a lot of choppy water making rowing extremely hard work. This exploration and late start had delayed our lunch - to 4 pm actually and we did not start back to Isfjordur until after 5 pm. The wind, changeable as ever died away and what could have been a gentle run under the cruising chute turned out to be a motoring experience across to the pontoon in the inner harbour. At least this renders the fridge cold for the Gin and Tonic! And the views were as beautiful as ever.

 

The wonderful weather continued for the next 2 days as we left Awelina tied up safely in Isfjordur and went south in a hire car to explore Iceland's "Golden Circle" of natural attractions. We called in at Geysir, had a look at the rift between the two continental plates at Pingvellir and at Gulfoss were deafened by the wonderful waterfalls. South to view Heimay in the distance from the seashore and then round to Grindavik to drop Peter, Plum and Tom off for a soak in the blue Lagoon before their fight home. James and Fiona took the car back to Isfjordur and were back on board by 9:30 pm. A good land-based break and we show a few snaps below. We're now headed out to sea round the north western side of the Hornstrandir to hopefully start returning east along the North coast. The daily blog for the sailing positions will now be posted as we start the trek home. Pictures when we next get to the internet.

 

Geysir. Enough said.

 

Crew at Gulfoss

 

Crew photographer caught on camera also at Gulfoss.