Arrival in Iceland | #80 | DrakeParagon Sailing Season 5
A German boat that's coming to the weather station. Maybe we'll see you in Reykjavík! 319 miles away from the waypoint. We need to get the CPT back online. We need to take the belt off. But we have bad weather coming our way. We took a huge wave It filled this cockpit up to the seat level.
Everything in the engine room is completely soaked. ♫ When we wake... ♫ ♫ Hear the birds and see the sun... ♫ ♫ ...our fears are gone... ♫ ♫ Oh the good times just begun... ♫ ♫ Oh, we know... ♫
♫ what we have is held on tight ♫ ♫ found what we're looking for in life ♫ ♫ Call us crazy ♫ ♫ but things are finally right ♫ ♫ with you and I the future is bright. ♫ So it's 6:26 in the morning and we are just heading into Reykjavík in Iceland. There's a magnificent sunrise. and I'm going to keep this short because our batteries are...
We're unable to charge them. We're just going right over there. It's not that far at all. We should be there in about.. 2 hours. Or so.
So I'm going to sit here and watch this beautiful sunrise and then go wake Drake up. We'll walk into port and customs will just go EEEwwwwww!!! (laughter) Usually we like people to check in first, but you guys go take a shower. That's ok, we'll talk to you later. (laughter) Now welcome to Iceland. Just go wash. It's been a hellish trip.
At least the first few days out of the gate were really bad. A couple of days of really strong wind. As high as 40 knots.
Mo: 45!!! Sustained 40 knot winds. Coming from behind. Éanna saw 48.
Éanna just said he saw gusts.. Up to 48 were the highest that I saw. 48 knot gusts. And we were under sail! Ya. I can remember it. Like..
One of the worst bits that we had It was like.. It remember you shouting at me going It's 46 knots Éanna, It's 46 knots! and I'm like "I'm sewing as fast as I can!" (laughter) I'm sewing in 46 knots. I was just like... I'm like... This is the worst. It's no time to make little... potholders and doilies.
Oh look I'll just do these socks. (laughter) Really quickly. Craft time on Paragon. Oh geez.
So.. What do you think about the trip? How was the trip? How ya feeling now? Any thought? It was a hard trip. And I haven't been well. Today, and yesterday. So, not feeling great. But uh...
The trip? It started off hard, And then we had like one or two days respite. Which was nice. I'm looking forward to getting to Reykjavík. Ya! And just kind of... Get my feet on dry land. and being able to go...
(exhale) So you guys want to just turn out and go to Ireland? Your turn. What do you think Mo? How ya doin? How ya feeling? What do you think of the trip? I thought it was hard too for entirely different reasons. Spent the first 3 days like throwing up everything. That I had eaten. How ya feeling now? I feel good! On day 4 I started feeling better. It helped that it wasn't 45 knots and waves like crashing over and... craziness.
Éanna: Ya! The waves! I remember I came in to do something with the staysail and I was up for about 30 seconds. Cause I'm like.. All right. Go up. I'll.. furl it in a little bit or let it out or do something.
and in that time you get this PFFFFF!!!!! come in. It came like at force through these little holes. And it would go "PSSSSS!!!!" All over you.
So you're like.. Uuaack!! Ok. And then I'm wet. And then so you spend the rest of your watch trying to dry off.
How are we looking out there? Uhh... fine. I'm going to take it off of autopilot. You're going manual? Manual override? (laughter) You're disengaging the autopilot? (laughter) Would you mind disengaging please? Disengaging autopilot now.
Boop. Autopilot is on standyby. (laughter) The sun... like where we're supposed to go The sun...like, BRRWWWKKKGGG!!! Do you want some sunglasses? No because then I can't see. Ok.
I have sunglasses,. Do you want sunglasses over your glasses? I think that works. Take the wheel. (Drake complaining) TAKE THE WHEEL!!! (laughter) We're all gonna die!! (laughter) (uncontrollable laughter) Ok! Gimme that thing. I went around the... Give us a look Mo! And give us a side angle there as well Go on.
Ok, so you've got glasses on top of glasses! So what does it say about Reykjavík? and berthing? Contact the harbor control Call "Pilot" on channel 12. You'll normally be directed to a berth. Pontoon for visiting yachts in the west corner. Large yachts can lie along the outer side. But the inner side is more protected from harbor traffic wash.
Water and limited shore electricity supply. Water would be awesome. We are just coming into the harbor of Reykjavík, Iceland. After a 7 day sail from Prins Christian Sund, Greenland. The first few days of the trip were.. were pretty bad.
We had some extremely strong wind. Sustained of 40 knots. And saw gusts as high as 48. This wind was always coming from directly behind.
So rather than hove to in it. We ran with it. Because it was pushing us in the direction we wanted to go. In the strongest wind. We just had.
A tiny tiny little bit of staysail out. The main and the jib were completely down. That enabled us to stay on course without difficulty.
with steering. The autopilot had no problem with it. But it was very bumpy. After a day of high wind. The seas became enormous.
and we got hit by big waves. More than a few times. At one point we got hit by a wave so massive that it took out the entire port side of the cockpit enclosure. And then swamped the cockpit. We must have got at least 100 gallons of water filling up the cockpit well. The water came right up to the level of the seats.
And the cushions were floating in about an inch of water This took about 10 minutes to drain. Through the cockpit drains. And during that time the wheel mounted autopilot as well as the engine control panel were submerged.
Luckily neither of those things were damaged. Unfortunately when that wave did hit it went through a vent that we have in the outside of the cockpit on the port side. When the wave hit it just right the water sprayed into the engine room with such volume and force with such volume and force became completely soaked with seawater. The inverter which was off at the time got completely doused with water and started sizzling and crackling. I disconnected it from the battery and looked at it a few more times since and it is fried. It's a real bummer because that's the only way we can generate A/C power and we need A/C power to power the computers and... uh.. and the...
camera battery chargers Fine. You go that way I'll go this way. So we stopped filming. We were also beat up and exhausted. Éanna: PEOPLE!!! Éanna: PEOPLE!!! PEOPLE!!! People! (laughs) Mo was terribly seasick for the first few days and through all of the really rough stuff in the beginning. She was just down in her berth and throwing up every day for 3 days straight. And unable to eat or get out of bed.
By the 4th day. She started coming out of it and by the 5th day she was able to do her first watch. And then now on the 6th day. she.. was able to manage the boat under sail by herself for the last half of the last day coming into Reykjavík. In calm conditions.
And that was great because both Éanna and I were totally exhausted. And we were able to sleep, soundly and she was bringing us into the harbor. She woke me up.
Said "We're here!!" (laughs) And it is a really breathtaking looking place. Check it out. Here it is. Down here we have all of these apartment complexes. Looks like we have a big church right there.
More apartment complexes. It's a very, very developed area. We're not in Greenland anymore. Looks like there must be a cruse ship ferry terminal down there. We see one docked. And then that's it. And then it turns to mountain.
On the night before we left Greenland we were docked at the weather station in Prins Christian Sund. And the wind picked up and blew a couple of enormous icebergs with shallow draft right into the little harbor of the weather station These icebergs were hitting Paragon and getting undneath Paragon because much of them were submerged. We spent most of the night trying to figure out how to prevent the icebergs from damaging Paragon. Pushing them off with big long wooden sticks.
With bolts that were put into the ends of them to dig into the iceberg and push it off. At one point I took a very very long line and I lassoed one of the icebergs and.. walked with the other side of the line to the other side of the land. the other side of the harbor. And pulled it away from Paragon and then secured the line.
Holding it away from Paragon. By morning that little nubby thing that I had lassoed had melted away. and the icebergs was once again hitting Paragon. Got up in the morning, after a night of not much sleep. and checked, weather, or rather went ashore, got internet, downloaded a weather report brought it back to the boat. Looked at it briefly and then more icebergs started coming in and we realised that we could not stay there.
It had become unviable. We looked at the weather report and we decided it would be safer to go for Iceland rather than Ireland. And we just left. There wasn’t time to even send out an email. to anyone saying that we were leaving. Well there’s another sailboat here.
Boat going out for a day sail in Reykjavík harbor. Beautiful. Pilot, Pilot, Pilot.
Paragon, Paragon, Paragon, channel one two, over. Paragon, this is Reykjavík pilot replying. Hello Pilot. We are an American sailing vessel.
We just arrived in Reykjavík after sailing from Greenland. Can we ask you for where we can berth? Over. Are you already inside the harbor? Yes, we’re about half a mile from the docks. Over.
On your port side will be a yacht club. So dock there. Roger, thank you so much.
We will tie up at the yachting club. Over. You will dock there and contact the person. There is a supervisor there. Is this your first port in Iceland? Yes, this is our first port. We need to clear in. Over. Ok. I call the customs. Wonderful. Thank you so much.
We will be there every shortly and we will tie up at the yacht club dock. Can I call the yacht club people on the VHF or should we just come in a tie up. Over. You should just come in. I don’t believe they listen on the radio.
What the name of your sailing vessel again? Our name is Paragon. Spelled P-A-R-A-G-O-N. Over. Ok. Thank you. Standby one two. Roger, Paragon standing by one two and one six. They know we’re coming! So we’re going right… right there ay? Ya we’re going right there.
We’re going to go in and motor around, motor round just a little bit. How are we going to do it? We’re going to motor around, motor around. I always like to do a little motor around, look around. See what's there. Especially if we’re anchoring, you know. But even if it’s a harbor.
Just to, familiarise ourself aa little with the area. Sounds cool. Cars Drake! Cars! Cars! And people! Toss him a a line as soon as he can grab it; Get him a spring line. How was your sail? from Greenland? Rough! Well, a bit rough. (laughter) Good to see you again! Ok! We just docked.. Oh they gave us rolls! Thank you so much! Wow! We'll just stay rafted up. We'll go to Germany.
(laughter) There was a boat right here, but they just pulled out after we rafted up. And now that that boat is gone. Wappen von Bremen is moving aft to get closer to the gangplank and also the water faucet. Because their water hose isn’t long enough to reach the faucet. So nice of them to let us raft up to them. Is there enough room for us on the forward part? After they’re completely secure, then we’ll inch forward and tie up here.
Is the spring line secure? Yes. Ok! Great! Then we won’t go further aft. Thank you so much! Your welcome. Thank you! So nice of the Germans to give us the bread. It’s like curry bread.
Really? They are so nice. Or maybe cranberry. The Germans are very nice.
They’re all about to be replaced with an entirely new crew. But as a group they all sailed together on that boat on the upcoming voyage. Reykjavík to Germany.
They said they don’t need to do that one again. But it was the same group and it was two years ago. We’re in Reykjavík! (laughter) What? We’re in Reykjavík! And it’s sunny! mmmmhmmm!! God it looks like such a place to like settle down in.
Looks more attractive to me just on the surface looking at the coastline than I think St. John’s. mhmmm. I like it here. Let’s get the boat organized and cleaned and stowed and.. The laundromat. I’m going to be on the engine room. The engine room was destroyed by salt water.
Everything. 100% of everything was coated with saltwater. There are pockets all over the engine that have already started to rust. Ya. So sort the boat today. mm.. Sort the boat today, and then tomorrow is Reykjavík day.
All the Reykjavíkians.. are like “We have a day?” “We have a Reykjvík day? We never knew!” This is exciting. It is exciting. You gotta do a music video for uh..
for uh.. where are we? Iceland! ♫ It’s gonna be great. I’ll tell you maybe. ♫ ♫ Gonna have to get a new inverter. ♫ (laughter) ♫ I tried religion then I’m going to converter. ♫ (laughter) ♫ We’re gonnaa get laptops up and running! ♫ Wicked. Look at you go with your big bad self.
Look at that! That’s cool. hee hee.. What was that? (laughter) That is very cool.
♫♫♫ (humming) Should I put chafing? Let's go get a drink. (music - and lots of humming) This is what sleep deprivation in high winds will do to you. (laughter) Ok. Let's see what we can see. The new hair gel. Don't bother buying hair cream. You can go offshore for 6 days.
Have your hair staying in position with a 6 day offshore voyage. (giggling) Hey look it's a rainbow. Ya, where's that from? No, no don't get distracted. Well, just for a minute. I mean, we are here to check the place out. Is that coming from underneath the water? It's from the reflection on the building.
What is it from? The reflection of the building! (laughter) Just stepped off the boat. And it's about 2 in the afternoon. It's like a nice day. Sunny.
I think bar is in that direction. hmm.. Check out the vehicle. I've never seen anything with tires that big.
That's ridiculous. Like an IKEA store. Do you feel like you’re in an IKEA store? Ya. First things first. This is one street. He said the next street over is lots of bars.
Wow. And it's not like it's got your name on it. (laughter) Mo. Ready for a picture? One... two... three! This place is wild.
You know what was wild? Greenland. That was pretty wild. That was very wild. This is extremely civilised. (laughter) Bells. woman: "My first like 2 days here were an absolute disaster!" I was like, I was going to go Oh look. Lovely Icelandic wo...
Hang on, that's not Icelandic women. Do you think you could spend a winter here? Oh ya! I think so too! Whisky bar. Ya. I'm kind of..
I didn’t think it would happen. But I’m a little bit like.. ooohhh... Ok. I'm just like.. a lot of people here! ha ha.. ya. It's a a big change. Could we have a seat outside? You can of course.
There we are,. Thank you. Here's to congratulate you guys on another long offshore passage. From Prins Christian Sund, Greenland to Reykjavík, Iceland! YES! Cheers! Here's to life guys! Wow! Welcome to Iceland. We made it! We made it. Tough voyage, but we made it.
Tough voyage, but we made it. And we're 700 miles closer to the final destination. Ireland! And we're sitting in sunshine. Watching cars go by! Ya! The last place we were sitting down was the weather station. Ya! And they didn't have cars.
(laughter) Smoked salmon. Thank you very much. Bon Appétit! Wonderful, thank you.
These are halves! Oh sorry I'll give you the good light. Roast beef with the egg. That looks wonderful. I got half and half.
That's very clever. mmmm After a long voyage like you've just had. We've been at sea for a whole week! mmmm The lamb is good. Wonderful.
2021-03-25 03:48
