There be gods here

Listening to "Walking On A Dream" by Empire Of The Sun

The voyage has stopped...at least for the moment.  Drake and I find ourselves in Reykjavík, Iceland where we will *possibly* be staying for the winter.  The first two weeks here were tumultuous to say the least.  We had planned for Iceland to be a pit stop on our way to Ireland and, therefore, were poised to take off as soon as the first weather window presented itself.  The first couple of days everyone was simply recovering from the beating we received on the journey over from Greenland.  Fierce winds and big seas plagued us, and making landfall had never been so sweet. 

Stormy days

However, as the days passed with no good window in sight, we began to wonder if we had simply stayed north a bit too long.  When does a risk become too risky?  One afternoon we suddenly realized that we were talking about sailing off into the remnants of a hurricane...and stopped.  We unclenched our guts and admitted that leaving Iceland at this particular time of year meant sailing off into weather that posed an unacceptable risk to us.  How many people tried to keep to a schedule and ended up instead courting disaster?  So, despite our best intentions of reaching Ireland this year, we have decided to stay in Iceland.  

We have moved from Brokey yacht club where we first landed and are now staying in an extremely protected corner of the Reykjavík harbour just off of the maritime museum.  Besides being in a spot that is extremely sheltered we also have an auspicious neighbour, the Coast Guard Vessel Óðinn.  It was involved in all three of the Cod Wars with Britain, towed almost 200 ships to safety, and is credited with saving countless crews from sinking or grounded ships.  Every day we look out and see its magnificent hull to our port side.

Our neighbour Ódinn

We've also begun to explore our new neighbourhood.  Just down the street, to our initial delight (and my thighs horror), is an amazing homemade ice cream shop.  Within walking distance of Paragon.  And open late.  Every. single. night.  (this could be bad…)

The library with free, if slow, wifi is ten minutes away, as are numerous grocery stores.  A wonderful internet cafe, with fresh baked bread and FAST wifi, is five minutes away.  I've also discovered the coolest resale/antique store ever which may occupy many a rainy afternoon.

The library

Frida Frænka Antiques

There are more galleries than I could explore in a year, not to mention amazing street art and sculptures.  

Things are not completely settled here.  Drake and I will be heading over to Immigration on Monday to see if we are able to extend our initial entry visa and stay the winter.  We are hoping they will understand that we intended to leave, but were waylaid by the weather.  We have no intention of becoming one of those cautionary tales you read so often on the forums or various news channels.  Could we have left and made it to Ireland?  Perhaps yes, but the alternative was not a risk we were willing to take.  I'd rather live to tell the tale...

So now I sit in a cafe, pet the dog who has meandered over (this is one of the reasons I LOVE Europe!!!), and look forward to exploring my new home.  

Home for now and ready to explore!

p.s.  While we were traveling in Greenland I was having a lot of trouble gaining access to my blog.  I have a back log of posts that I will begin to upload, but I will most likely mix in more recent posts from Reykjavík as well!