To the Arctic Circle

Skipper's update

Lionel H - 7/06/2026

We motored West from Torshavn in light rain to Vágur, St Brendan’s “Bird Island”, where we picked up Charles from the end of the runway. He was waiting on a pontoon in the inner harbour “not suitable for yachts”. It was, indeed a little tight for our 57’.

Leaving the Faeroes at 15.30; annoyingly, we had to motor until 04.00 the following morning, then we had a very pleasant beam reach for a day and a night to the Iceland coast, seeing snow on the mountains on either side of Seydisfjordur through low cloud, with many waterfalls and some farms on the low ground further into the fjord. We made up alongside at 08.00 hours after an effortless and trouble-free 40 hours at sea. We were in the midst of very dramatic scenery; but it was cold, 6 degrees C. and the boat’s heater is not working. Our definition of a cold boat is when the fridge is warmer than the cabin! The town offered a shop, a good restaurant for dinner and an all-you-can-eat buffet breakfast, which the crew abused. There was a lovely waterfall and a herring museum near the quay.

We enjoyed better visibility of the snow clad mountains heading north to Vopnafjordur. There is a magnificent munificence of sea birds, including many puffin. We slowed at the entrance to the fjord to catch our first cod, which Charles landed at 14.00 and Mark provided for lunch at 14.30. We made up in a tiny inner harbour. There was very little life ashore and certainly no bar or restaurant. Luckily, stores from Normandy are still holding out; plenty of wine aboard and some smelly cheeses. Pont L’Eveque pongs at the best of times; ours has been aboard for 5 weeks now!

Thence; in a pea soup fog to Raufarhoefen, the most northerly settlement on Iceland, a sheltered natural harbour with a sandy beach, covered in Eider (down) ducks and a haven since the early days of the Sagas.

Here we passed a cold damp day, exploring the Arctic Henge, a strange stone circle, clearly inspired by Stonehenge, constructed in the 1990s to reflect the sunlight (some hope) and to celebrate ancient mythology. Happily we found that the shop would sell beer in a lean-to annex and we managed dinner ashore once we had worked out how to get into the Hotel.

Visibility was good the next day and there was even a hint of sun as we rounded the northern tip and dropped the hook beneath it in Hraunhofn, a Viking anchorage. Flat calm in a cove at 66.23 N. a mile South of the Arctic Circle. On to another anchorage, with a tricky entrance, in a lagoon at Leirhofn for lunch; our third Viking haven of the day. The fourth was Husavik, the first settlement in Iceland, founded by Gardar Svavarsson in around 850. I do not know why they settled there; because it stank of fish and the next day we were deafened by the noise of a dredging operation. However it had charm and provided a fine dinner. A remarkable sight on entry was of steam rising from a waterfall. Closer inspection revealed the thermal baths close by. Cultural exercise was undertaken in the morning in various museums, studying whales, maritime history and ethnology. We also met our first Polar Bear, shot for having the temerity to come from Greenland on an ice floe.The weather had also turned for the better and we were warm for the first time in a thousand miles.

Yesterday we crossed the Arctic Circle in sunshine, enjoying the view of snow covered mountains to the south of us. The moment was celebrated with Sussex sparkling wine, Ambriel of course, opened by its maker; our first mate. Greatly appreciated and enjoyed in the sunshine. Thousands of Guillemots accompanied us.

Grimsey Island straddles the Circle and we made up on the fishing boat quay in a small harbour and were glad to hear that the first Sunday in June is a celebration for the local fishermen and they do not go out (or in). We enjoyed the midnight sun in the company of puffins.

Unbelievable numbers of puffins were on the cliffs and on the water when we walked up to the Arctic Circle marker, a round stone, the following morning and in the air were an equal number of Arctic Terns. Puffin was also on the menu where we lunched before setting off for the snowy mountains of the mainland on a brisk broad reach.

We are now about half way along the North coast of Iceland. We have a crew change in Akureyri on Wednesday and another in Isafjordur before heading to Reykjavik. It is a little lonely up here; two sailing boats were in Seydisfjordur, where we landed in Iceland; one Dutch and one French and there was one, a German, in Húsavík. We have not seen a sail at sea since Baltimore; but we have heard of a Squadron member coming round Iceland towards us wth the Rear Commodore of the St Mawes YC on board. That should be some party! We have now sailed just under 2000 miles from Caen and morale remains high.