First sight of Iceland 8-7-2020

Around noon board time we caught our first glimps of Iceland! A shiny icecap in between the clouds was hard to distinguish at first, but became clearer as we made our way closer. We reckon this must have been the icy surface of Vatnajokul, the largest glacier in the South.

All day we hardly had any wind, so we did not have a chance to sail, but it was perfect weather to sit outside and  enjoy the sunshine and some good music during the watch. It was also perfect weather to spot whales! First sighting was far in the distance and were believed to have been Pilot whales. Later we saw a back fin of possibly a Minkie Whale and then all of a sudden we were surrounded by 5 families of 3 Pilot Whales, all of them two bigger ones and a small one along their side. Their black shining round noses would come up out of the water followed by their easy to recognize rounded dorsal fin. We turned of the engine for a while as they passed us by on all sides, not bothered by our presence and some of them even a little nosy and playful.

After that we spotted several other pods, but none came as close as these small families. It was so beautiful and serene!

As the 00:00 to 04:00 came on watch they got the last glimps of a bright orange sun setting behind the hills of Iceland. A very nice day!

The wind has sadly turned against us and increased making it hard for us to go fast or even go straight to our goal. A very large high pressure area is moving in to the South of us and has robbed us from the prevailing North East wind we were hoping for.. But the atmosphere on board is still good and the music during watch is debatable!