You can't fight the wind

We remain in Seyvisfjordur waiting for a change in the weather. Which may not happen till Friday or even Saturday. There is a low parked just to the east of Iceland which will retreat south but then is likely to drift back north Thursday night. This low and the moderate high to the SW of Iceland are creating a zone of high winds directly over the east coast of Iceland...and Visions of Johanna.Here is the GRIB file from this morning. Hint: we are the green boat symbol at 3 o'clock around the circumference of Iceland.

 We are tied along side an old wooden wharf that has seen better days.

Seydisfjordur is known as a historically interesting and picturesque town, made up of multi-colored houses and "surrounded by snow capped mountains and cascading waterfalls". The harbourmaster said that 75-80 cruise ships will stop here this summer; there were two  cruise ships and a ferry here yesterday.

The wind at the head of the fjord here has not often been the 35-40 knots predicted outside - although we have had our moments. Curious, I went to one of the cruise ships and asked to speak to the captain. After introducing myself I was immediately invited up to his quarters and learned that the weather outside indeed was as forecast. In here I'd say that 2-4  times a day, when wind direction lines up with topography, we really get hit with a brief period of high (35-40 kn.) gusts but as a rule our local wind has been 5-20 knots. Still, it is challenging to balance our dock lines against the 1.5 meter tide and shifty winds on a fixed wharf that is in modest disrepair.

The cruise ship I went aboard (located low center, blue hull in picture above) was a smaller ship, 200 passengers, that goes around Iceland in June and July and on to Greenland in August. The captain Herve' promised to look us up when/if  we found ourselves in the same port again.

We did some nice hiking yesterday, mostly through the valleys, as the wind was relatively docile during the day but it is more or less howling cold today.

Now, I need to go and check on that weather again...

Best regards, Bill and crew