Velvet

We’ve just arrived at our second base in Iceland, Akureyri.  We have spent the last 10 days sailing here from Isafjord.  If we had come direct it would have been 180 nm but with weaving in and out of narrow fjords and exploring out of the way places we have logged 345 nm. 

Iceland is known for its geothermal activity and natural hot springs.  Many areas harness these and they are the source of the hot water for the houses and local swimming pools and hot pots.   Richard has spent hours pouring over guide books to see if there were any ‘natural hot pools’ on our route.

We thought we might have found one with the following description of Gjogur:  Legendary fishing centre at the mouth of Reykjarfjordur, now almost depopulated, but once renowned for its heroic open-boat shark fishermen.  15 – 18 boats at a time would brave the elements to catch shark for liver oil and its meat, what was cured.  North of the lighthouse are geothermal springs.

Hidden away at the end of a completely unrelated paragraph we nearly missed it, but there it was.  No matter how much we scoured the other guide books we could find no more mention of Gjogur or the springs.

It did not take us long to find Gjogur on the chart, and plan a visit into our itinerary.  The weather was kind to us for our visit to Reykjarfjordur, with slightly overcast skies and not a breath of wind.  We set off and motored from our anchorage in Trekyllisvik around the headland with the lighthouse and into Reykjarfjordur.  On the way Yvonne and I scoured the headland with binoculars looking for signs of steam rising, whilst Richard prepared a fantastic packed lunch for us to take on our search.

The anchorage at Gjogur is about a mile from the lighthouse, but the airport and runway are in the way so we had a bit of a detour.  We had no idea what we were looking for, and so tested every puddle or stream we came across – all disappointingly icy cold.  We searched the entire headland to the north of the lighthouse, but could find nothing!   We decided to start from the lighthouse and walk north, across the black stones and rock pools filled with sea water.  There amongst the rocks, we found a slightly elevated part and here the water seemed to feel warm.  Was it wishful thinking?  We continued on and found a pool of water with steam rising.  This must be it, but how disappointing, the thermal pool was being constantly cooled by sea water making it tepid and was full of multi coloured sea weed.  We certainly did not feel like stripping off and heading in.

Not to be deterred, Richard continued his scour of the area, and decided to climb higher up the rocks for a better vantage point.  From here he could see the steam, not from below him but actually from higher up!  There was a magnificent natural rock pool, which had been well dammed off with loose rocks, and retained the water to make a hot tub about two feet deep. 

Yvonne and I quickly scrambled up the rocks after Richard and found somewhere to change before joining him in the pool.  The water was luxuriously warm, unless you sat above the main heat source where it was scalding hot.  We enjoyed ourselves relaxing in the pool for about half an hour before turning pink.

This was definitely one of the highlights of the trip.  We continued from Gjogur to see the herring museum in Siglufjordur, the puffins on Grimsey Island, loads of whales in Skalfandi bay, the whale museum in Husavik, the abandoned island of Flatey and the nature reserve on Hrisey before sailing south down Eyjafjord to Akureyri. 

We will be doing this trip in reverse from the 9th to 19th August.  Iceland Highlights 2 on our website.  There is now a special offer on this trip of 33 per cent off making it £900 for 10 nights – why not join us and sample the hot pool for yourself.

White tailed eagles and Arctic fox are rarities amongst the spectacular wildlife that it is possible to see in Iceland.  We were lucky enough to see both on the same day last week.  We had been at anchor in Hesteyrifjord in 50 knots of wind, waiting for it to die down as the forecast promised.  Mid afternoon with the wind averaging only 20 knots we decided to go for a short sail to the next fjord.  As we poked our heads out the shelter of the fjord we were met with further blasts of wind of 50 knots, and decided to head back to the shelter of our anchorage.  It must have been really windy the day before with icy wind blasting off the glacier!

As we turned and headed downwind, I saw Richard gazing curiously at the back stay, wondering what he was looking at I turned to see a fabulous white tailed eagle, hovering above the dinghy, just looking at us.  I think he was sizing up how tasty the aeriels would be.  Unfortunately we couldn’t get hold of the cameras soon enough.  We continued on to our anchorage which was in the Hornstrandir national park, and as we lay the anchor saw the most amazing fox, with a huge bushy tail walking along the waters edge.  No cameras again. 

There were however many opportunities during the week for the cameras to come out as we sailed in an out of the fjords of the westfjords.  The scenery was made even more spectacular than usual as in a flat calm we could see whole mountains reflected in the water.  This time although the cameras were out it was hard to do justice to the scale of the beauty.  We had a great time, and although we only had one guest this did not take away from the enjoyment of the trip.  Mary enjoyed ‘gulping in the fresh air’ and felt like we were in a lake at the top of the world!

We had a visit from the coastguard.  A fast rib was launched from the coastguard cutter and we were boarded (with permission) by two of the local coastguards.  They were interested in who we are and what we were doing, and also enjoyed a fine sail as we were reaching along at 7 knots.  They were telling us that they want to encourage all visiting yachts to take part in their ‘yacht monitoring scheme’.  As we were already part of this, they didn’t have much explaining to do, and instead told us stories about the two polar bears that had recently been found along the coast in Skagifjord.  The ice cap is now more than 50 miles away and they were investigating where they had come from and how they had come ashore.  When we get there in two weeks time we will have to keep our eye out!

Velvet Lady in the sunshine in Iceland 

It is now 2 weeks since we arrived in Iceland and in that time it has rained for 1 day and been cloudy on a second.  The rest of the time it has been bright and sunny, with blue skies and crisp dry mountain air, wonderful.  We are having to remember to slap on the sunscreen and sunglasses.

Last year the weather was better than we could have imagined and the Icelanders said that they had had their best summer for years, this was due to large areas of high pressure over the island, forcing the depressions south over UK

Long range forecasters here in Iceland, and the locals themselves are expecting much the same kind of weather this year.  I was speaking this morning to Siggy, the skipper of the Icelandic sailing boat Aurora, who said, this summer is going to be great again, we are going to have bright sunshine and UK is going to have horrid weather just like last year!  For those of us sailing in Iceland lets hope he is right.  He certainly is for the next week as the barometer remains high.

Interested in following the forecast - there is a great website that I use at the Icelandic Met Office which gives a forecast for the next 5 days

Still spaces available to join us in the sunshine in Iceland this summer

I have just finished uploading our early 2009 sailing schedule - January to April.  This follows much the same pattern as last year, but added is a new ‘Canary Island Dash’, visit all 8 of the islands in 14 days.

Also New for 2009 - cruise the spectacular fjords of Norway, and visit the Lofoten Islands situated within the Arctic Circle

The spectacular fjords and islands of northern Norway are our destination for the summer of 2009.  Here the islands rise majestically from the sea to a height of 1000 metres, and white sandy beaches line the waters edge.  These stunning mountains are interspersed with many narrow fjords and home to isolated and serene anchorages.  Fishing is the industry here as this is the worlds richest cod ground, and  there are many picturesque small fishing villages to visit nestled at the bottom of the steep mountains. 

The flora and fauna in the area are unforgettable, and we hope to see sperm whales, puffins and sea eagles in their natural habitat.  We should even have a chance of catching our own dinner!

I have sailed this area previously in 1999 and 2002 running adventure holidays on a challenge yacht.  There are many special places that I am looking forward to ‘revisiting’ and plenty of new places to visit in Velvet Lady, who is not as limited in both draft and size that a challenge boat was.  This photo was taken during 2002 from the top of the hill in the picturesque fishing town of Reine.  A steep and exhiliarating climb which led to a breathtaking view.  Our boat is the one on the jetty in the picture.

Our base will be Bodo, 500 miles north of Oslo and just north of the Arctic Circle, and our cruising ground will be the islands and fjords of the Vestfjorden including the ‘sailors dream’ the Lofoten islands.
 
As with all our destinations, this area of Norway still remains unspoilt and off the beaten tourist track.  Getting there is easy if not direct – fly from UK to Oslo on a variety of carriers, and then take an internal flight from Oslo to Bodo  (www.sasbraathens.no , www.norwegian.no).  The airport in Bodo is a mere 20 mins walk from the marina, or 5 mins in a taxi.  As with all our destinations we will be adding  a full travel information and kit list page to our website.

Dates and detailed itineraries will be on the website shortly.  To make sure you receive this information as soon as it is available please e mail us at voyages@velvetadventuresailing.com and let us know of your interest.  You can also sign up for our newsletter at any time, or leave a comment on this blog

Outline Schedule

May 2009 – Plymouth to Oban – 7 days - £650
May/June 2009 – Oban to Bodo via Faeroe islands – 15 days - £995
June/July 2009 – Experience the wonder of the Norwegian coast and islands in the midnight sun - 7 days for £750
August 2009 – Bodo to Oban via Shetland islands  15 days - £995
August 2009 – A week exploring the outer Hebrides - £650
August 2009 - Oban to Plymouth - £650

7 days from Falmouth to the Westmann Islands in Iceland!  Lots of gybing but not a single tack!

We left Falmouth early on Sunday prepared for the 1300 mile sail to Iceland.  The weather forecast was for winds in the east, which would give us a good start around the Lizard, Lands end and North through the Irish Sea.  Unbelievably the east wind held, and we continued to reach north past the Isle of Man towards the Mull of Kintyre.  We arrived here with perfect timing to catch the tide, and glide past the majestic headland at 10 knots.  On a long passage like this it is pot luck where you have the tide with you and where against you, the wind and tide gods were smiling on us this trip.

The wind stayed in the east as we left Barra behind and 4 days later made landfall at Heimay, a small Volcanic island off the South Coast of Iceland.  Our fast passage time meant we had plenty of time left to explore ashore.

Our 5 days cruising along the coastline are best described in the words of our guests

‘I’ve seen the Vestmannaejar, dolphins, whales, a thunderous waterfall and astounding fjords’ 
‘the ports we visited were a fantastic experience in themselves and the scenery was out of this world’
‘I don’t know what I expected of Iceland, but this is serene’

We arrived in Lonafjord for our last night at anchor, and Sakis got busy with the fishing line.  There were hoots of delight as he caught the first fish, and by midnight we had 20 decent sized brill.  Not only did Sakis catch the fish, he spent a good deal of time cleaning and gutting it, then cooking it too!

Our welcome to Isafjord was fantastic, with good wishes from many of the people we had met last year.  It is good to be back and as spectacular as ever.

We are now here until mid August, and very much looking forward to exploring our favourite places again and discovering some new ones.  Disappointingly bookings are less that we would like.  Our short time in UK reminded us that things are tight at the moment and the holiday industry seems to have been hit hard along with many others. 

We would rather have more bums on seats than sail half empty and to help your pockets and our cashflow we are offering a 2 for 1 Special on all our sailing trips that start and finish in Iceland if booked before the end of June.  Booking is easy on our website, and when booking your 2 berths enter 2for1 in the discount box get the reduced price.

For more information read my blogs from last year to get a feel for what sailing in Iceland is like and see some of the many pictures that we took of spectacular scenery, wonderful wildlife and secluded fjords

Land Ahoy. 

In the pitch black with the wind gusting 45 knots, we spotted Bishops Rock Lighthouse in the distance, exactly where we expected it, fine on the port bow.
What a welcoming sight, after sailing 1300 miles in 9 days  we only had 120 miles to go to Plymouth!

For 2 days we had been waiting for the promised wind shift to the north, and expecting it to blow hard.  Barry our barometer had fallen 19 millibars in the last 24 hours and 14 millibars in the  24 hours previous to that, dawn this morning we had been greeted by the most fantastic deep red skies that I have seen in ages – Red Sky in the morning– Sailors Warning!
The wind finally shifted 4 hours before sighting Bishops Rock and we were reaching along at 9 knots.

With everyone settled into the watch system, we took this ‘new wind’ in our stride.  Reefed down to very small sails, togged up in warm clothes and oilskins, clipped on in the cockpit, we were prepared for whatever was to come.  This was not Velvet Lady’s first storm, and as usual she behaved impeccably – taking the wind and waves in her stride.  Only once did we fill the cockpit up with water, and set all the bilge alarms off.

The wind continued to howl right up to our arrival in Plymouth, only 5 miles from the breakwater did it finally give up, turning off like a switch and causing us to motor.  We were safely alongside in Mayflower Marina 16 hours after passing Bishop Rock.  What a trip.

So what is it like being at sea for such a long time.  The first 2 days are unsettling as people try to get used to the motion of the boat and an unfamiliar sleep pattern.  Day 3 the body is used to the unsettled sleep and starting to acclimatise, Day 5 onwards you are so used to the strange routine that you find it normal.  Life seems to be one long round of sleep, eat, wash up, go on watch…. 

We work a staggered watch system which means there is always something going on and new faces up and about.  It sounds very complicated to explain, but after 3 days the pattern becomes obvious.  Each person does 6 hours on and 6 hours off during daylight hours, followed by 4 hours off and 4 hours on during night hours.  One night you do two watches and the following night 1 watch.  This system of dividing the day into 5 slots ensures that each day you do alternate times.  The staggered watch is a bit harder to explain.  Cabin 1 changes watch at 5 am for a 6 hour shift at the beginning of the 24 hour cycle, Cabin 2 changes watch at 7 am, and Cabin 3 changes watch at 9 am.  It took me a whole day with an excel spreadsheet to work this one out, but the end result is that you spend time on watch with everyone on board apart from your ‘cabin mate’.  This is good for the social aspect on board the boat – and as both Simon and Dave (cabin mates on this last trip)commented, this makes you feel like you have a cabin to yourself.  It is great to have your own space for a while.
Kelly the kettle seems to be almost constantly on the boil, as each new watch member is greeted with a hot drink. Meal times are staggered, with a help yourself breakfast, lunch in the middle of the day, and dinner in the evenings.  Drinks and snacks are also consumed constantly during the day and night.

Only when you have been sailing for such a long period do you start to notice how much the weather changes in short periods of time.  No two watches are the same in wind strength, cloud cover, sunshine, moonshine, stars or rain. 

We had bright sunny flat calm days during which we had to motor, bright sunny windy days, really dim dismal windy days and also very wet dismal calm days!!  One night there was so much moonshine it was impossible to make out all the stars, the next night there was so much cloud there were no stars.  In Dave’s words ‘When it is good it is very very good, and when it is bad it is horrid” Anything else would be rather more boring.

We had plenty of time and opportunity to talk, tell stories, read, listen to music, watch the radar, interpret weather maps, bake flapjacks and learn the sextant.  We were totally separated from the ‘real world’.  No mobile phones, news bulletins, pressures of business meetings to disturb us from our peaceful world of sleep, watch, sleep, watch etc.  Countless times we were joined by dolphins playing in the bow wave, and escorted right into Plymouth bay by a very large pod of very lively dolphins.  We found a squid and 2 Portuguese men of war on the deck, all were returned to the sea, and finally as we approached land we saw birds.  Gulls were the most common, but these were joined by kittwakes, gannets and even a lone puffin.

We are now back in Plymouth having completed our winter season, sailing in the sunshine.  After 6500 nm, Velvet Lady is in remarkably good shape, and our jobs list is relatively small so we, Lin and Richard are looking forward to a few days off and spending some time with their family.

Our annual code inspection is due next week, and everything is in hand to be ready.  We will then scrub and clean, shop and stow, visit our lock up and swap all the charts and books with those for Iceland and get ready for our next adventure.   We leave Plymouth on 17 May again bound for Isafjord in Iceland where the scenery is beautiful, the wildlife stunning and there is endless daylight to explore.
 

Despite it being April the Azores was ‘hit’ last week by a ‘typical winter storm!!’

Louise, our hard working shorebased administrator, joined us this week for our Azores Island hopping.  When she rang from Lisbon to say her flight had been delayed and then cancelled, we were disappointed but not surprised, as it was fairly windy in the marina in Horta. 

SATA the Azores airline looked after Louise and all its passengers very well, booking them into a 4 star hotel in Lisbon and paying for all meals and transport.  Meanwhile we were in the harbour watching the wind speed increase, we had a steady 40 knots with gusts over 60 for 48 hours.  Louise’s flight was delayed a further 24 hours. 

She had no need to worry about us sailing without her, we were firmly attached to the harbour wall with as much mooring line as we had on the boat.  The local chandler was doing a very brisk trade in fishermans mooring line.  Just as suddenly as the wind arrived it stopped, and when Louise arrived there was a blue sky and sunshine. 

We have been in operation just over a year and this is the first time we have experienced such a delay at the start of one of our trips.  Wherever we go, we always build into the itinerary time for unexpected occurrences just as this and still have enough time to reach our destination.

We spent our first day sailing motoring in light winds to Sao Jorge, and spent the afternoon on deck in the sunshine.  The volcano on Pico managed to peek out from behind the clouds, it is so high here that there is still some snow on the top.

The wind continued blowing for the rest of the week and with very few sheltered anchorages we returned to Horta for a second time.  We ended up leaving Horta at 4 in the morning for a great 150 mile downwind sail to Ponta Delgada.  Despite missing 2 days of sailing early on we still managed 230 miles in the week,

We are now ready for our long sail 1200 miles from the Azores back to UK, the weather is looking favourable for the next 5 days at last and we are looking forward to coming back to UK.  There is nothing like making a landfall on your homeland after a long time away.

Thank you for allowing us to be the Azores guinea pigs, it added to the sense of adventure as we all came across anchorages and marina’s for the first time.
Thanks to Lin and Richard for meeting all of our sailing objectives, full marks for booking the weather appropriately.  Seriously thanks for all the excellent hospitality and care given especially in dealing with our allergy issues.  We had such a great time that we have already booked for next year!

Jim and Char joined us for Azores Island Hopping 1 as we sailed from Ponta Delgada to Horta.  As they are planning more long distance cruising in the future their objective was to gain miles and experience overnight sailing in varying weather conditions, that we did!!
 
We left Ponta Delgada in the sunshine, and with light westerly winds forecast to shift to south westerly we decided to sail the long way around the island.  We gybed downwind all afternoon to the eastern end of the island, motored north past the steep cliffs which stole the breeze and cleared the north coast of the island just in time for a glorious sunset.  The wind filled in from the south west and continued to shift, allowing us to close reach all the way to Terceira.  We fell into a four hour watch system for the night, and filled the time telling stories under the stars. 150 nm later we motored into the scenic bay at Angra de Heroismo and into the marina.

We spent the next day exploring Angra and walking to the top of Mount Brazil for some spectacular views.  Due to strong southerly winds the next day we continued to explore the island by taking a bus to Praia de Vitoria.

The wind shifted to the north and we left heading for the island of Sao Jorge. The wind continued to increase during the afternoon and reached 35 knots as we reached in the flat water in the ‘lee’ of the island.  We arrived in the shelter of Vila das Velas early evening and anchored for the evening at sunset.

Squally rain stopped us from leaving too early on the last morning, but once the squall had blown through we had a great downwind sail to Horta on Faial.  Mount Pico eventually peeked out of the clouds to show us it’s snow covered summit, and we arrived in Horta in sunshine.

250 nautical miles sailed in the week, in a mixture of wind conditions, upwind, reaches and downwind in strengths from 10 to 40 knots.  We were joined by various types of dolphins for much of the time, right up to arriving in Horta bay.   Although we always kept our eyes open this week the whales did not come out to play.

Just been flicking through the pages of our guestbook for the last year, and thought it would be good to publish some of the comments!

Here is a sample of what our guests have to say about us

…thank you for a fantastic weeks sailing and your great hospitality aboard Velvet Lady I’m sure I’ll be back…….

…we enjoyed Lin and Richard’s professional and welcoming approach to sailing and never stopped learning…………….

……….lots of varied sailing, good food and interesting company………

………You have been warm and welcoming and we have felt at home and had great fun….

……A well found boat with a knowledgeable and hard working crew lots of good food…….

Why not join us on Velvet Lady and find out for yourself.

One of the joys at the end of an ocean crossing is making landfall in new places.  When that island is a mere 8 miles long by 4 miles wide nestled mid Atlantic almost half way between Europe and America the sense of achievement when land is first sighted on the horizon is terrific. 

Santa Maria, in the Azores was first discovered by the Portuguese somewhere between 1427 and 1432.  As we set off from Madeira north westwards into the Atlantic, armed with our sextants, tables, books, GPS and chart plotter we had all the equipment to make sure we wouldn’t miss this tiny island.  After 4 days at sea when we first spotted the land from 30 miles away (a distance confirmed by the GPS and radar) we couldn’t help but wonder how the sailors of years ago felt when they first sighted ‘new land’!!

We got our taste of what it might feel like to arrive somewhere totally new as we approached the anchorage at Vila do Porto and discovered that a new marina has been built at the north end of the old harbour.  This was a pleasant surprise, and although not yet open for business we were allowed to spend a quite night alongside the pontoons.

We had arrived on Easter Sunday or Festival of Pascoa as it is called in Portuguese and so everywhere was quiet.  The whole population of 6000 people seemed to be indoors as we walked along deserted streets to the centre of town. After spending a day in Santa Maria, the most southern of the Azores islands, we headed north to San Miguel and Ponta Delgada our destination for this trip.  We could see both the island of San Miguel and Santa Maria for the duration of this trip so not too tricky on the navigation side.

The Azores are recognised as being a good spot for ‘whale watching’ and we were not to be disappointed.  About half way between Santa Maria and San Miguel we spotted the tall thin spouts of whales ‘breathing’ and headed towards them.  We found a group of 7 or 8 false killer whales (falsa orca) and spent an hour with them, one surfacing very near the boat!   The tourist whale watching boats are lined along the quay in Ponta Delgada and during the past week they have seen the same group of falsa orca and also some sperm whales, blue whales, and humpback whales together with lots of dolphins. We seemed to have an escort of Atlantic white sided dolphins almost all the way across from Madeira who surfaced regularly and played in the bow waveThere is still chance to see the Azores as we now spend 3 weeks exploring the central islands of the Archipelago.  The weather is forecast to be sunny and 19 degrees for next week with moderate winds, what could be better than sailing in the sunshine watching whales and making landfall at new islands!!  Still a few spaces for you to be able to join us on Azores island hopping 2