Venture II visits Iceland

[Music] sixty-four days and thousand three hundred and forty miles after leaving Southampton we had brought venture 2 to Iceland by way of Scotland and the Faroe Islands [Music] from our base in Reykjavik we hired a car and set out to explore the country many imagine much of Iceland to consist of volcanoes belching steam and ash but in reality the valleys are filled with lush and beautiful farms although not originally native to Iceland Lupin's our early colonizers of less fertile areas as landing horses are unique in that they have five gates instead of the usual four in ad 982 a law was passed forbidding the import of horses into the country so the breed has remained pure for over 1,000 years the best way to see the country is to head off the beaten track for good reason most routes are designated for four-wheel drive only and there are stiff penalties for venturing on them with a conventional vehicle [Music] [Music] there are plenty of rivers to ford and we rented a small four-wheel-drive Suzuki which served as well while flowers gained a tenuous foothold among volcanic rocks the star-shaped leaves a young lupins lava fields are frequently cloaked with strange velvety moss [Music] fast flowing streams carry silt from upstream before leaping over cliffs in a series of wonderful waterfalls [Music] the largest in the south is the Mikey Galvez [Music] near the town of Vic meaning harbour fields of wild lupins reach out towards Bazar rock formations these along with black beaches and fleshies Angelica bring to mind scenes from Jurassic Park the church at Vicky's different just three months earlier when this area caught the edge of the fallout from the volcanic eruption [Music] we saw plenty of evidence of the chaos wrought by the volcano and we headed into the affected areas to see some of the destruction for ourselves there were many streams and rivers to ford and a modest breeze lifted to find volcanic dust from the surface reducing visibility to almost zero the ash had the gritty consistency of carborundum but was as fine as talc making it hard to follow the track and eventually forcing us to turn back [Music] work was still in progress to repair the levees which have been swept away by snowmelt from the volcanic fires classier walks are among the many opportunities for exploration in the monochrome landscape which oftentimes resembled the surface of the Moon [Music] in case you steam floats above the wildflowers and boiling water bubbles from the ground all other geezers or geysers depending on your pronunciation and named after the original which sadly now has gone quiet leaving the main attraction to Strucker which shoots skyward every five minutes or so [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] other volcanic curiosities closer to Reykjavik include the famous Blue Lagoon which even on an overcast rainy day still managed to appear blue but it was time for us to leave Reykjavik and head up the west coast towards Olaf's Vic on the next leg of our circumnavigation of Iceland [Music] it was a beautiful day when we took our leave a small flotilla of locals went bobbing by as we passed through the harbor entrance [Music] just Chris and myself were on board for this leg of the trip this navels ice cap was prominent on the horizon while still 50 miles distant [Music] we turned into Olaf's peak Harbor which was very commercial and tied up against a wall of tires to which there was no charge we left the following day under a lowering sky we were soon passing the latter route cliffs 14 kilometers long and one thousand four hundred and sixty-five feet high this was the most westerly point of our trip in 1947 local farmers rescued all 12 crew members from a wrecked British trawler by luring themselves on ropes and hauling them 680 feet up the cliffs headlands are a magnet for rough seas and we found ourselves battling waves equaling those we had experienced on our approach to Iceland but this time it was only for three hours and we were more accustomed to this was normal weather for boats much smaller in size than venture towering mountains plummeted into the turbulence see u-shaped glaciated valleys were often home to a single isolated structure [Music] the way into town our Fuhrer is eased by range markers on the shore the harbor is protected by a sand bank which almost closes off the fjord making it very secure seaweed prevented the anchor from holding and the only place we could find a tie-up was alongside a fishing trawler for which we obtained permission formers were busy gleaning what they could from the nearby waters we were now further north in Fairbanks in Alaska when we left the following morning the stack from an abandoned Norwegian whaling station stood out on the horizon for a several of these discarded structures around the coast and all that is left is a tall chimney and rusted boilers along the Bleak shoreline once out of the protection of the fjord we were again exposed to the rough conditions in the Davis Strait dividing Iceland from Greenland [Music] conditions calmed as soon as we began our approach into e sophie order the town huddling at the base of huge mountains is the jumping off spot for boats heading to Greenland [Music] we were allocated a place on the floating pontoon which was a rare treat in this part of the world [Music] ISA fjord is served by an airport and we were joined here by David who had flown out from England the rough conditions had scrambled the chain and we used this opportunity to clear the jumble there was a strong wind and the weather was cold Greenland was only a hundred and thirty miles away and to the north there is nothing between here and the cold a severe weather system with the lowest pressure for ten years was forecast and we were lucky to be moored in such a snug location gulls hang on the strong wind blowing 30 knots even within the Inner Harbor venture 2 was a heavy boat for the smoke on to him and Chris added extra lines from the nearby jetty to relieve the load the wind was still strong when after a delay of a couple of days we got underway and passed the hanging Valley that overlooks the town [Music] the skyline was dominated by the shimmering dragger ice cap we were heading for horne strand here the most remote area in all of Iceland where there are no settlements no roads and no communications our immediate destination was the unsurveyed and uncharted fjord of longer Fielder which had been recommended to us by a local yachtsman the magic of Google Earth allows us to make a virtual flight up the fjord but the real world version was a place of pristine beauty untarnished by the hand of man [Music] a major waterfall at the head of the fjord filled the air with a soothing lullaby as soon as the anchor was down we launched the tender to see a diminutive venture dwarfed by the grandeur of her surroundings that evening we celebrated with an excellent dinner of roast pork served with wine as evening approached the skies began to clear and a lingering sunset here filmed at midnight settled its silent wings over the fjord the following morning dawned clear and absolutely calm large numbers of beautiful jellyfish trailed their delicate tentacles through the polluted water we retrieve the anchor using the built-in nozzle to wash the chain my solo excursion and the tender along the full length of the fjord the film venture in her natural environment was a thrilling ride of sheer exhilaration never to be forgotten [Music] [Music] we ducked into another branch of the fields were reencounter the only other cruising yacht we had met underway [Music] here was a scattering of buildings catering to hikers along the shore the remains of another abandoned whaling station we continued north along the rugged uninhabited coast the small structure is one of a series of Refuge Hut's marked here in red on this map [Music] [Music] [Music] this beacon marked our furthest point from Southampton about 1550 miles as the crow flies and just over 100 miles from Greenland it would have been perfect weather to make the 12-hour crossing but alas we had to press on we've passed a series of towering cliffs each home to countless numbers of seabirds the shoreline in holmvik bay was littered with driftwood which had amazingly originated in Siberia and reached these shores by way of the polar ice this headland is the northern Cape Horn and these cliffs also home to millions of birds drop vertically 1760 feet share into the Greenland Sea [Music] we were now only a couple of miles south of the Arctic Circle and three weeks past the summer solstice in a glow that never faded from the sky a delicate sunset morphed into a matching sunrise with the over the Sun skimming the horizon as the Sun rose higher above the burnished surface of the sea its golden rays painted the peaks of the nearby mountains we headed south 40 miles down the long fjord leading to a cure Airy this attractive City lying in the shadow of the mountains as the capital of the north and venture was allocated a convenient berth right in the city center [Music] this is a port of call for cruise ships one of which is seen here beyond the local boat club [Music] a cure area is surrounded by lush farmland with many horses [Music] haymaking was in full swing and fields were dotted with white bales resembling giant marshmallows [Music] in boggy areas the fluffy heads of cotton grass nod and flutter in the breeze [Music] we hired a car and toured this part of the country we visited the fishing harbor of alice fielder [Music] local gulls clearly believe that the catches for their benefit but no one seemed to think it was worth the hassle of driving them away enroute to Lake Nevadan we visited gada Foss into which legend hazard a local chieftain through his pagan gods when he converted to Christianity in AD 1000 [Music] just north of the lake is a vast volcanic area where steam hisses out of the ground and mud pots bubble and spurt [Music] [Applause] [Music] closeby thermal energy has been harnessed to generate electricity steam roars out of the vents [Music] [Music] this monster could be heard three miles away the human figure on the hill gives scale to this explosion crater fields of frozen lava stretch to the horizon and we meander through an active volcanic area where wisps of steam rise all around we now headed 40 miles offshore to remote grimsey island only two miles an area with just 100 inhabitants its main claim to fame is that it lies on the Arctic Circle [Music] we arrived over a weekend so that we could tie up at the ferry terminal the tiny harbour is built like a fortress against the fury of the ocean most of the male population came to look at venture and one kindly offered to drive us around the island our first stop was the marker for the Arctic Circle our guide is on the right with Chris and crew members brian and val who had joined us from vancouver all along the shore was more driftwood from siberia and at last we were able to see close up the puffins who had been eluding us on every stage of our journey his comical little birds live in burrows in the ground our guide then led us by the hand partway down the cliffs to what he called a secret place [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] the following day we circumnavigated the island so we could observe these same cliffs from the sea one of the fishermen was very insistent we took him along we crossed the Arctic Circle which is generally considered 66 degrees 33 minutes [Music] he was also very keen to take the helm after dropping him back at the harbour we continued on our way this church on grimsy was built using driftwood we entered the busy and attractive town of husavik and picked our place to tie up as usual someone appeared out of the blue to take our lines husavik is a center for whale watching and many traditional boats filled the harbor but sadly we did not see any whales we had been told in grimsey that the warming ocean temperatures had caused them to move further north from here we drove to dettifoss billed as the most powerful waterfall in europe its waters were gray was sediment from the glacier which fed it [Music] [Music] slightly downstream were a pair of smaller Falls which anywhere else would have been major attractions in their own right [Music] [Music] [Music] back at sea we rounded the northeast tip of Iceland and once again across the Arctic Circle this time slightly north of our previous position we celebrated the occasion by adding champagne to our orange juice from now on we would be heading south all the way back to Southampton we visited voltner fjord where we passed a large fishing trawler on our way into the harbour the chief engineer and two others came to call on us after we tied up and invited us to visit their ship which we were delighted to do [Music] [Music] the following day we continued south into Satan's fjord on our last fjord and final port before leaving Iceland [Music] Sage's Florida is the destination for the weekly car ferry between Iceland and Scandinavia so if you bring your own vehicle to Iceland this is the port at which you will arrive [Music] the ferry only stayed a few hours this is a ship which has to cope with some tough sea conditions [Music] the season was advancing and we had to be back in Southampton by the end of August in time for the International Boat Show we topped up our fuel from a tanker truck which had brought fuel over the mountains from the next fjord we headed out into the North Atlantic for the 500-mile crossing director Scotland time to go is shown on the plotter as 2.2 days [Music] total time taken for the trip to and from Southampton was 134 days during which we had covered four thousand six hundred and seventy seven nautical miles [Music] you

Channel: Fleming Yachts

Views: 207,525

Keywords: Iceland, Fleming, Cruising, Venture, Adventure

Id: TBv8OOstPmo

Length: 36min 20sec (2180 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 13 2019