Circumnavigation of Icelan - July 31 to Aug 07, 2019

DAY 6: Hornbjarg Cliff & Vigur Island
5 th of August 2019 - By Dorte A. Christiansen, Hiking Master
From the Voyage Log
The morning started with a very early sailing beside
the steep Hornbjarg sea mounts, covered in
romantic mist. Most of the guillemots had left their
nest on the steep cliff, but some were still moving
around on the waves. The ocean was rather calm
and eventually the sun showed her warm rays and
made the stay outside on deck a great experience.
The ships hotel staff treated us with an excellent
Barbeque buffet on the aft deck.
Page 14
© Yuri Choufour
© Yeti
An hour later, we sailed into the fjord and anchored
opposite the village of Súðavík on the southern part
of the island Vigur. Vigur means a spearhead due to
the shape of the island, with a sharp point. Zodiacs
with a dry landing took place in this wonderful island
where the four groups landing were staggered in
order to facilitate the work of the local guides, who
are from the family living on the island. The fifth
group who had been on the kayak activity offered
by our Kayak Master Slava and Steve also joined the
island later to enjoy the splendid view on the fjord.
©Yeti
The walk started at the Eider down workshop
located just next to the oldest seaworthy boat in
Iceland. The ship being 200 years old, was used
recently to ship out the last 70 sheep from the
island to the mainland. Tourists are now the new
“sheep” on the island and provide an income for the
inhabitants. The down from the eiders is mainly
exported to Japan where it is used for down
comforters, selling at very high prices. There are
3.600 eiders nesting and they produce about 60
kilos of eider down annually.
We later walked toward the windmill, where while
facing the fjord a fur seal appeared on the surface
on the water and by further observation we noticed
another one resting on the beach.
During our walk around the island, apart from the
big artic tern colony we were fortunate to see
ravens, puffins, black guillemots and a few Gyr
Falcons roaming above us. Terns tried to protect
their nests by flying close to our heads, so in order
to keep them afar we all had sticks to hold up into
the air. At the end of our walk we were invited into
the owner's cafe indulging in rhubarb pie, date
bread and home baked bread as well as a delicious
cup of tea and coffee.
The weather could not have been better today and
engulfed in sunshine we were shuttled back on
board. We got the amazing show of 2 or 3
humpback whales showing their fluke many times
and several breaching. A perfect end to a perfect
day.
31 July – 07 August , 2019
Volume 1, Issue 10