Day 14

Sailing is always unpredictable, seldom easy and inevitably requires compromise on the basis of what the weather is doing. Today is proving to be no different. The wind angle has veered round more to the North and is expected to go even further round as we approach the peninsula, combined with the big swell, this is making progress under sail tortuously slow. Of course, we can continue sailing the angles and we will get into Reykjavik as planned – just four days late!!!! Alternatively, we can resort to the engine and plough into big seas and strong winds by the shortest route – however the rough seas seem to be impacting the fuel pick up and giving us spurious fuel readings that I’m not happy to trust.

Reluctantly we make the call to sail into Grindavik, a small fishing port on the south coast of the Reykjavik peninsula. As we approached under full sail we had one more surprise as a small drone appeared behind us and started circling us. Beaming away for photos we soon realized this wasn’t just a photo opportunity and the drone belonged to the coastguard who immediately came up on the radio demanding to know why we had changed port of entry. Having been buzzed by a Coastguard Helicopter the previous day we were beginning to feel the Icelandic coastguard was taking things a little too seriously – little did we realize the same helo had been involved in a special forces boarding of Paul Watsons Greenpeace vessel yesterday just a few miles away from us. They were understandably a little extra sensitive.

Grindavik may not be the glitzy end to the leg that we anticipated but given the challenges we’ve had along the way it is a fantastic result. Almost 1000 Nm sailed through the North Atlantic in conditions experienced sailors would find demanding, four countries visited and confidence resoundingly built – Phase 1 of Ex Greenland Legacy complete - now we refocus on changing boats for the sail to Greenland and then the crossing itself.