Guano apes open your eyes bass5/22/2023 ![]() On our way home we had a beer in Bildudalur before driving back to Patreksfjordaur. We had a picnic lunch at the lighthouse here and then drove across to the Amsfjordur for a soak in a very hot thermal spring. ![]() Between us we probably have enough Puffin photos to fill an album. Our favourites are the Puffins with their colourful beaks, squat bodies and large webbed feet. The main species are Guillemot, Brunnich's Guillemot, Razorbilled Auk, Puffin, Fulmar and Kittiwake. In early summer it is estimated there are 1 million birds nesting along its length. Up to 400m high and 14km long, the cliffs provide a breeding roost for seabirds. The highlight of the day were the cliffs at Latrabjarg. The long strip of sand enclosing the lagoon is better described as golden rather than red. 22nd July A still overcast day beckoned and Cathie organised a hire car and we drove around to Raudasandur to visit the "red" sand beach. We moored in the harbour with a German Dufour called "Ruby Tuesday' moored outside of us. 21st July Departed Bolungarvik at 10.30am and had a good sail down the coast with a fresh breeze to Patreksfjordur. Apparently it is illegal to fish for Halibut in Iceland, but many people do including the owner who recently pulled in one weighing 98kg, so it is served here on the menu as "Big Flat Fish" rather Halibut. It also serves as the local's pub and restaurant. It is a wonderfully comfortable relic with a marine theme and the salvaged wheel from the French wreck of the "Pourqui Pas" which foundered in 1936 on the south coast of Iceland. Unfortunately, all the 12 children and his wife died of T.B. This old building was prefabricated in Norway and housed the large family of a fishing fleet owner. After dinner we wandered the town and were asked in for a drink with the owner of the Einarshusid guesthouse. In the evening we stopped in the small fishing village of Bolungarvik to fuel up. Almost immediately 7 cod were on the deck. Under way Ashley trawled for salmon, but they didn't take the lure so he changed the rig and stopped the boat for bottom fishing. We sat in front of the old farm buildings and enjoyed a cup of tea and some homemade cakes, soaked up the sun and watched the antics of the birds and a whale blowing out in the bay. Black Guillemots were nestling in nooks and crannies all over the property. Hundreds of Puffins were fishing for Capelin off the beach and had their nests in the grassy banks behind. Also nesting on the island are thousands of Arctic Terns which dive bombed us as we walked past their nests. It takes about 60-80 nests to produce one kilogram of down. On Vigur they produce 60kgs of eiderdown each year and it the whole of Iceland around 3,000kgs are produced each year. The very light, fine down is cleaned by machine and hand after heating to disinfect it. ![]() Part of this down is collected 2 to 3 times during incubation which encourages her to produce more. The female Eiders plucks down from her breast to cover her eggs and keep them warm. This island private island used to be a sheep farm, but is now a sanctuary for nesting birds, particularly Eider ducks. ![]() Leaving Isafjordur under a brilliant blue cloudless sky we motored across the still fjord waters to the island of Vigur. Then across the Indian Ocean to Chagos Islands and Maldives and then on to Thailand in late 2021.Ģ2 July 2016 Isafjordur to Patreksfjordur - IcelandĢ0th July This morning Ashley and Cathie filled the gas bottles and we cleaned the boat. The next leg was through the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean in early 2020 and then the Seychelles where we spent Covid lockdown, then to Tanzania and back to Seychelles March 2021. We then sailed to London, through the Caledonian Canal to the Scottish Isles, the west and south coast of Ireland, across to Brittany, eventually making our way down to the Mediterranean where we spent 2 years. We wintered in Newport Rhode Island in 2015/2016 and in the summer sailed to Labrador, Greenland, Iceland, Norway and down through Denmark and Northern Germany to spend the winter of 2016/2017 in Amsterdam. In 2015 our journey continued back across the southern Atlantic to the Caribbean, Cuba up the east coast of the USA to Maine and Nova Scotia in Canada. Then across the South Atlantic via the Falklands and Tristan de Cunha to Cape Town. In 2013 we sailed to Cocos Islands, Galapagos, Easter Island, Juan Fernandez Islands and then Valdivia in Chile.Ģ014 we sailed south through the Chilean Canals and Patagonia, Cabo Hornos and The Antarctic Peninsula.
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