We declined the 41+km crossing of Hunafloi from Gjogur light to Kaifshamar light or thereabouts largely because we are here to see Iceland not plug away for hours on end with nothing but sea to look at, we can do that at home. Also the weather would need to be perfect and it wasn't.
The weather forecasts from Icelandic Met Office have been brilliant, generally very accurate, even a few days ahead. This what we look at a couple of times a day.
It's very like the Australian Bureau of Meteorology 'Met Eye' except the wind strengths are in meters/second. 1 m/s equals 1.94 knots so easy to convert to the more familiar knots, though we've virtually stopped doing so.
We had hoped to get to Drangsnes on Friday, with northerly winds forecast to give a hoot of a downwind run all the way from our camp in Norðurfjörður. Unusually though, the winds were stronger than forecast, 25+kns and very steep confused seas on top of a 1m swell had us pulling ashore in Kaldbaksvík having covered the best part of 30km in 2 1/2hrs! We know it's windy when things are getting a bit out of control in the double with only one sail up, so down it came and even then we were hitting 10kph at times!
We found a campsite just in case we needed it, had lunch and lounged around for a few hours in the sunshine until sure enough, the sea looked a little less white as the wind eased off a bit. So we continued hurtling south, surfing at times for 100m or more. As the sea built again and maybe the wind picked up, down came the sail again and our frayed nerves calmed as we returned to usual steady paddling rhythm.
It was still about 15km to Drangsnes and we had to cross Bjarnarfjordur and get around the next point. The sea was not looking any less white so we pulled in to the first beach with some shelter from the wind and some flat ground for the tent.
With a more reasonable strength northerly on Saturday morning and with both sails up it was another fast, but more controlled run, and we were pulling the boat up the beach at Drangsnes at 9.30.
So here we hang, plenty of time to wash bodies and clothes as from here the crossing of Hunafloi is about 28km and the 20kn northerly doesn't look like abating until Monday night/Tuesday morning.
The boon of 24 hour daylight especially as the wind often dies away during the 'night' is that we can just go when the conditions are right and we only need a four hour lull.
So we've a comfy camp out of the wind, squeaky clean bodies and clothes and free hot tubs right on the shore of the village.
We're camped in what we've nicknamed the 'Forest of Drangsnes', some of the biggest trees we've seen out of the city. With the earth bank they make up the windbreak for the campsite, thank goodness!
The kayak waits on Drangsnes Point. The mountains in the distance, centre, are the next destination, about 28 km.
Hours in the free communal hot tubs on the shore!
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