Isafjoudr, Iceland

Wednesday August 30th – Isafjordur, Iceland

 

The Plan:

 

This is another port that we visited in 2010 during our “Top of the World” cruise. We had booked a boat excursion to Vigur Island to visit the Puffins with a walking tour of the small island, before our tour we walked the village and visited the maritime museum.

 

Being on a larger ship this visit, our itinerary indicates that we will have to tender ashore. We have no other plans but to just stroll the village and possibly visit the Maritime Museum again.

 

The Reality:

Last evening our captain announced that we would be docking in Isafjordur instead of tendering….sometimes King Neptune gives travelers on his domain a break, true sailors never ignore his gifts.

The weather, everything depends on the weather, looked like it might turn out to be a nice day….if you are from the Northwest, any day without rain is a gift, even though you might encounter a little wind….that’s a gift.

 

After a leisurely breakfast and some great conversation with our hosts, Wendy and Steve, we spent some catchup time in our room and then headed ashore.

After about an hour of strolling the streets, we stopped for a coffee, tea and snack break, after which, Barbara continued her explorations and I worked my way back to the ship, taking a route along the commercial fishing boat harbor that would lead me to the Maritime Museum.

Throughout Icelands history, driftwood has been considered amongst the most valuable of assets.  It was used for building houses and boats; as well as for making fence poles, various furniture, traditional wooden dinner bowls, dishes, and other useful items

Driftwood that washed ashore on a privately owned land became the property of the land owner, while wood that washed up on communally owned land could be used freely by any one living in that area.

Years at sea both hardened the driftwood and made it less susceptible to rot. Although this made it very difficult to fashion objects from, it made perfect material for woodworking.

 

The wood that washed up on Icelands shores began its journey in the rivers of Siberia.  The rivers carried the wood out into the ocean where the northeastern currents would carry it to the ice cap of the North Pole. It then journeys around the North Pole before the East Greenland Current carries it to the shores of Iceland. In 1971 oceanographers calculated the speed of the drift to be 400-1000 km per year, meaning that the wood travels an average of 4-5 years before arriving in Iceland.

The Maritime Museum is a valuable caretaker of the history that this Icelandic community shares with the bounty and the hardships in its dependence on the sea for survival.

I hope you enjoy what I found here.

My Farewell to this interesting part of our world.

Jack W Cummings VOV 2017 – anticipating another day at sea tomorrow