Island 2004

- Fra her til der og tilbake igjen-

- A sailors tale -

Iceland 2004 was our longest expedition so far. With departure in the beginning of July, the original plan was to make it to Iceland and back in a time span of 5 weeks. However, out at sea timetables are not easily followed, and with constant lows hovering over Iceland, the trip home proved to be most trying. Ironically, with the lows stationed over Iceland, a high over Norway provided a beautiful summer back home, whilst we got all the bad weather! Both at the harbour of Reykjavik and at the harbour of Heimey we measured 40 knots of wind whilst laying at quay. At the South-East of Iceland, although the forecast said 20-30knots at the time we set out, we measured steady 50knots with gusts of over 60 knots (which is the maximum our vind gauge is able to mesure). This was later confirmed by the weather charts we downloaded after our strategic retreat back to Reykjavik. At the end, we were so tired of having wind in front all the time that we almost decided on sailing to Greenland - just to get the wind from the right direction! However, in the end we managed to return to Norway with almost no casualties… The only injuries the crew suffered were 4 stitches in the head (Ove) and a broken foretooth (Joachim). Paradoxally this occurred whilst in harbour! Participating in a local regatta at our return, we made a marvellously bad race, greatly due to the fact that we didn't reef whilst tacking, and thus drifting off way too much. Indeed, sailing in the local waters inshore, it seemed to blow so weakly… (although several boats broke the race due to too much wind)

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