Frank & Wriley

     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. 










 
                                     They burrow deep into the topsoil to make their nests. 




The fulmars nest down in the crags. This photo shows the 2 distinct areas of nesting: puffins in the topsoil at the cliff's edge, and fulmars below them on cliff nooks. 



                                              Some fulmars not pleased to see me. 




Grimsey is a paradise for birds. Terns, black guillemots, golden plover, Arctic bunting, eider, and many others.


Here we picked up another crew - Wriley Hodge, 22, from Bar Harbour Maine. An avid ornithologist, he was camping on Grimsey for a few days. 


                            Wriley is wearing the Icelandic sweater. He has just caught a large cod for supper. Not a great pic of him. Frank's photos are much more interesting than mine, and I will ask him to put up a proper pic of Wriley. 

Tonight we are in Siglufjordur. The previous 2 nights at Olafsfjordur, a small village in a spectacular valley at the head of the fjord. 

The ice of east Greenland is broken up & the coast is wide open in many areas. There is a long term strong northeasterly blowing down the Greenland coast, and I think we have to wait until Saturday or Sunday for these winds to moderate. 



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