Teddytoarctic2024.blogspot.com

  I have the feeling Nick doesn't post many pics of himself. So as a guest blogger on Teddy to Arctic, I'm going to take some liberties. He makes a great gentleman mini-golfer, although Wriley won handily. I came in 5th or 6th place. The second is Nick in his Shackelton pose. It's crazy to think we're on the north coast of Iceland, sitting in hot tubs, mini-golfing, soaking up incredible scenery and working on Teddy.  This is only my second deck hand position on a sailboat. Teddy is an incredible boat. Very simple and stout. The interior is of dark honey brown wood and warmed by a wood burning stove and a diesel heater. It's rather unique. I boarded Teddy in Djupivogur. We've worked our way up the east cost, rounded the northeast corner at  the basalt cliffs of Langanesbyggo and headed to Grimsley Island. On the way back to the "mainland", the jib halyard jumped it's sheave and got jammed. This meant repairs in Olafsfjordur. Being the lightest guy ...

     A selfie pic of Frank, nice grin. He loves the sailing, the whole thing!    We just completed an adjustment at the mast head , and are going down on the hired crane. Switching from a jib that is hanked onto the forestay to one that is not hanked on (can't go out on the pole bowsprit) changed the forces involved. Hoisting up the unhanked jib puts an enormous lateral load on the wildly flapping jib, forcing the wire halyard to jump off the sheaf and jam up. Not something one wants far from shore. The adjustment should correct this.    We stopped at Grimsey Island, through which the Arctic Circle runs.  Grimsey is a low lying fragment of basalt from the ancient sea floor. I'm guessing it was pushed up with the volcanic eruptions that formed Iceland 30 million years ago. Grimsey may be far older than Iceland. The mid Atlantic rift runs through Iceland and is driving the current eruptions at Grindavik in the southwest.  Loads of puffins....

 The tracker was activated. This shows our location, updated every 4 hours. Same as in past years. The link is  share.garmin.com/teddytoarctic

 The repairs went really well & I realized that it is not a problem to sail on, rather than immediately to return to Ireland. The mast is 9 feet shorter, which is stronger. The full mainsail won't fit, but double reefed it will. The bowsprit, a pole of stainless steel with a traveller ring to haul it out, is rock solid. Photo of it under assembly: it is now done. It is much more seaworthy than the old A-frame bowsprit in that in a heavy chop this is much more suitable.            The photo makes it look much longer than it really is. 2.5 meters long. Skuli who made the bowsprit took the time to etch onto the tip an image of the local mountain                                            The etching is inked over.  Because of the shortened mast, the genoa is too big. But I have a working jib & a spare staysail, both new and never used...

 Getting there. Main mast is capped. The new bowsprit is nearly done - pickup tomorrow.  Kranze iron type tip, to receive four stays: forestay, the whisker stays, bobstay. The traveller ring sits behind it - this hauls the jib out and back in. I won't be walking out on this bowsprit.                                                 Skuli making the traveller ring   With the bowsprit on we will measure the bobstay, a 28 mm diameter solid stainless rod Skuli will cut to fit. Parts are coming in from Reykjavik: turnbuckles to tighten the forestay and whisker stays; thimbles; bulldog clamps; shackles; and Dyneema to strengthen the jib's luff. Then I can finish up the rigging, which won't take long. This work makes Teddy's rigging - the main mast & bowsprit - a lot stronger than the original. I could actually go straight to Greenland from here. I invi...