Isafjordur lies only 30 nautical miles south of the Arctic Circle and Hornvik is only 5 miles from the circle. AURORA has crossed the Arctic Circle a few times and we have an opportunity to cross it on our trips to the Hornstrandir Nature Reserve.
More

This morning (August 30th) the first snow of the fall had fallen in the mountains around Isafjordur. We have had 5-15 m/s northerly winds for a few days. In town it's raining and the temperature is only three degrees celcius. This doesn't deter a few hardy American ladies who are leaving for a short trip today. We will be bird-watching in Seydisfjordur fjord and the surrounding areas.
More

Our good friend and former owner of AURORA, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, is getting ready to race single handed around the world. He was the first person to sail single handed and non stop around the world in 1969 on his 33 ft wooden ketch Suhaili. His record voyage then was 312 days and is described in Robins excellent book "A world of my own".
More

We´ve added some great pictures from Greenland in the gallery and the travel story in the log book. It was a great but short trip. It is clear to us that it´s very easy to sail across from Isafjordur, Iceland in 30 hours or less if the ice cooperates. It´s just the Polar bears that are the problem!!! Read the story for more details.

After long discussions, it was finally time to head West to to the promised land, Greenland. The drift ice from the North had been unusally dense this summer but the latest forecast from the Danish Meterology Institute, looked promising. No ice was supposed to be to the South of Scoresby Sound, the shortest distance across (180nm) from Isafjordur Iceland. We left at 18:00 from Isafjordur against 20knots of headwind doing 4-5 knots. After about four hours, we saw the sun setting in the West with Gannets diving from high in the air. Quite a magnificent sight. We were four in the crew; captain Sigurdur Jonsson (Siggi), Runar Karlsson (that´s me), Smari Karlsson his brother and Asgeir Sigurdsson (Geiri), the brother´s nephew. We changed shifts during the night and did three hours per shift. Me and my brother together and then Siggi and Geiri. The night passed pretty fast and we were still making quite good mileage despite the headwind.
More