Olafsvik Monday August 3rd 2015

Olafsvik

Monday August 3rd 2015

We arrived here this morning at 8 o'clock from Reykjavik after an uneventful but very pleasant sail.  It never gets dark and we had a full moon the whole way.   Olafsvik is a small but surprising town. It is located on the North side of the Snaefelljokull peninsula.  Snaefelljokull is a 5,000 foot conical mountain covered in snow.  It is the first sight we had of Greenland when making landfall from Greenland.  It is also very obviously a volcano but one that has probably not erupted in a long time.  Olasvik has a population of about 500 and exists almost entirely for fishing.  The harbor has been created on an open coastline by building large stone breakwaters out to protect the inside from the frequent strong northerly winds.  It is spacious but quite crowded. with both big and small fishing boats (not as big as the ones at Vestmannaeyjar).  We are moored next to a small fishing boat tied to a floating pontoon.  The alternative would have been an open section of face dock but the tidal range here is about ten feet which makes both getting off the boat and getting the mooring lines the right length difficult.  We have stopped here to get fuel because we were unable to refuel in Reykjavik - I left it too late and when the fuel truck arrived his hose was not long enough.  Anyway the floating dock we are on has a fuel pump on it and it looks as if the hose might be long enough to reach where we are..  We have to wait until tomorrow because today is a national holiday and almost everything is closed.

Olasvik is remarkable for such a small town.  It has the usual assortment of shops and restaurants some of which are open today - we had a very nice lunch.  But it also has a new and modern church - they claim it is the first church built in Iceland with a modern Icelandic theme.  It is shaped like a boat when viewed from the side, like a dried fish when viewed from the air - I can't verify that - and is constructed entirely of triangular planes.  Next to the church is one of the nicest and best kept football (soccer) fields I have ever seen it has beautifully kept grass, perfectly marked white lines and seating around most of it. 

Looming above the town is a large mountain (about 1,400 feet) which blocks any view of Snaefelljokull.  A waterfall runs into a stream that empties into the harbor; very picturesque.

We will leave here tomorrow morning hopefully after taking on fuel, for another overnight sail to Islafjordjur in the Western Fjord region of Iceland.  It should be about an 18 hour sail and if the wind stays where it is now will be a beam reach for much of the way,  Last night was a beam reach in 18 knots of wind and we breezed along at a very respectable 7 knots plus for most of the way.  We are approaching the 65 degree parallel and so are less than 100 miles South of the Arctic Circle.  We hope to officially cross that later this week.

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