Thu
15 Jun
2017

Natu­re has pla­ced a lot of open sea bet­ween Ice­land and Jan May­en. It is about 460 miles from Isaf­jör­dur to Kval­ross­buk­ta, and a sai­ling boat is not a race hor­se. Expect the crossing to take three days, and that is exact­ly what it was for us. Three days in a 60 foot boat on high sea are not everybody’s cup of tea. Peo­p­le can grow their sea legs or find out that they do not have any, and it does take some pati­ence, espe­ci­al­ly if you find out that rea­ding a book does not make you feel bet­ter while the boat is moving. Occa­sio­nal­ly, we see some dol­phins or a wha­le. The con­stant head­winds are not too strong, but still, they do not make the boat fas­ter or our life on board bet­ter.

Ever­y­bo­dy sur­faces again after three days, as Jan May­en appears from the clouds. Not more than a shadow to begin with, the shadows turn into slo­pes and cliffs, and final­ly we have Kval­ross­buk­ta ahead of us, the desti­na­ti­on of our dreams, or rather: whe­re our dreams are to start.

Peo­p­le and mate­ri­als are soon brought ashore and tents are put up – as men­tio­ned, solid archi­tec­tu­re is important, and quite a few lava rocks and drift­wood logs are moved to anchor the tents safe­ly.

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

It hap­pens that we are not alo­ne, at least for a cou­ple of hours: the sup­p­ly ship of the Nor­we­gi­an sta­ti­on is in the bay, the bow park­ed on the beach which is sur­pri­sin­gly calm. Pal­let after pal­let of sup­pli­es and mate­ri­als of all kinds are taken to the shore and trans­por­ted to the sta­ti­on, which is on the other side of the island. In the evening, the ship lea­ves and we are on our own in our litt­le base­camp.