Back to Isafjordur to prepare the launch of Boreal after the Icelandic winter. For the first few days, I was gifted with a great weather.  But not much time to enjoy it as I had to press on with a lot of work to prepare for the launch: antifouling, new haylyard, deep cleaning inside tryinf to remove all the fiber glass dust left by the winter work in the shower. …

After sleeping off the rigours of our crossing back to Isafjordur, we all set about the huge task of preparing Boreal for winter. Apart from the obvious cleaning out of the cabins and living space, all sails had to be dried and folded, ropes rinsed and wound, and a multitude of equipment cleaned and stored. The sailing fraternity in the harbour were very social, ready to lend a hand and …

Although the previous blogger rose early with Guillaume and Greg as they got Boreal out to sea, in the grip of the rising gale she became somewhat indisposed and so handed this blog over to someone more sturdy …. After a windy night at anchor, we left Kap Dalton on Monday morning, 6:30am, with a Southerly wind. Not the best direction to head back to Isafjordur. The weather files forecasted …

Next morning, heading out of Turner Sound we spotted three hump-backed whales – two adults and a calf – moving lazily on the surface. It was fantastic to see them blowing water high in the air and raising their huge tails as they dived deeper. We followed them in the fjord for some time. It was a wonderful sighting and we all got some good photographs Our destination was Kap …

Itto is just within the vast fjord system of Scoresby Sund which is 350 km long and covers 38,000 square kilometers – one of the longest fjord systems in the world. It was named by William Scoresby, a whaler from Whitby, in 1822, when he came to this uncharted coast in his ship the Baffin. He was the first person to survey and map this shore, though many of his …

After a much needed lie in and a brunch, we launched the tender and went to Itto across the bay. The settlement consists of about 150 buildings, all painted in brick red, ochre or blue with white windows, hugging the rocky headland and surrounded by patches of snow. It is a rugged, bleak landscape – an isolated and tough life for the 350 or so Inuit inhabitants. As we tied …

Our apologies for the lack of news since Tuesday. We could blame it on the satphone poor reception, but as a matter of fact, we have been rather lazy or, to put it more positively, somewhat focused on other tasks. Also we realised that the live GPS tracking went dead due to the battery unit having ran out of juice. It should all be back online now.So let’s catch up …

After 221 nm and 31h, we are anchored in Høst Havn, a narrow bay South of KapBarclay. The crew is looking forward to a nice dinner – grilled fish on the barbecue is on the menu – and then a restful night.  We had a relatively swift passage from Isafjordur thanks to a jolly good north easterly breeze. Leaving the main fjord, we had an attempt at cod fishing but …

That’s it. We had the clearance to go. Boreal and its crew are now heading to Greenland. The Vestfjords are shrouded in dense fog this morning and we had to find the green channel marks one by one to avoid grounding Boreal on the airport runway, which happens to be by the sea side.  Since 5 am, a loud fog horn has been sounding waking up the population of Isafjordur. …

Today we’ve been waiting for a weather window to leave for Greenland but we have made the most of our day.  Rodolphe, Stephanie and their two children joined us on board. First a great stopover in Vigur Island, where we could not find any puffins. Puffins come to nest in Vigur mid-May/early June. At the peak, there are supposidly 30,000 puffins on the island. Too late for us, they were …