Sumara of Weymouth Blog

Position N57,59 x W011. Wind force 5 – 6 South easterly.

Last night we had pasta with reindeer meat balls. At least we hope they were reindeer meat balls and not reindeers balls. Come to think of it the reindeer on the can did have a surprised expression on his face. As the journey nears its end the food becomes more exotic. All the M and S curries have been eaten and we are left with cans of bear meat, smoked whale, dried fish and catfish balls (lets not go there). We also seem to have sheeps
head onboard. I can only think Gudrun sneeked it in the shopping trolley in the same way John used to do with Haribo Gummi Bears. As a special treat, Gudruns mother boils a couple of sheeps heads as a treat for her when she visits Iceland. What a lovely thought. I’m not sure if the eyes and teeth are still in but I suspect they might be.

Now I am wedged horizontally in a place free from spray while the boat beats into a lumpy sea. We dropped the staysail a few hours ago and are back under two deep reefs and a reefed yankee with the lee rail under. The barometer plummeted a few hours ago but seems to have steadied now. Our course is rubbish so it is unlikely we will weather Barra Head on this tack. We will plug away at it. Rounding a headland and bearing off is one of those amazing feelings, the harder the beat the better the feeling. Well that is my hope! Alasdair

Sent at 15.34GMT on 12th August

Gudrun arrives with tasty treats for the crew

Dan doesn’t even like fish so rotten shark meat didn’t go down to well.

Earlier in the trip I tried to take a picture of all the crew looking miserable. Everyone looked very sad indeed, apart from Dan. You see Dan is always happy. His catch phrase, no matter what absolute chaos is happening around him, seems to be, “It’ll be fine”. Well I have discovered probably the only way to catch Dan without a smile is to feed him a bit of Icelandic Rotten Shark Meat. Within seconds the smile had gone and he hurtled out of Sumara’s cabin heading for the cockpit.
Yes, Gudrun has arrived bringing us some tasty local morsels to eat and how we all enjoyed the whale blubber, smoked whale meat and rotten shark. Thanks Gudrun.

Apparently these sharks have no kidneys and the meat is poisonous unless it is rotten. Some think its poisonous when its rotten too.

“Bursting Body” 1948 – Louise Bourgeois.

Tim and I went to the Island National Gallery on Thursday. There was an exhibition by Louise Bourgeois and some of her pieces felt strangely familiar. There were disturbing nightmarish shapes. Many were ghastly un-namely things of no colour and some were puce. Frightening bulging shapes bursting out. Then I remembered Tim’s splendid duff that we had last night!

A Russion Raft in Reykjavik attemping to Circumnavigate the North Pole – and you thought we were crazy.

Stuart has now left for Ullapool. He really enjoyed the trip but commitments back in Scotland meant that he needed to fly back. We will miss him. Stuart’s industrial yellow Wellies were often the only way the Sumara crew knew where the Thembi crew were. They could be spotted from several miles trudging through the moss on the hillsides around the anchorages. It was strange that on the single occasion when Stuart wore “proper” climbing type boots he got blisters.
Last night we were invited to “Beer ‘n Bergers” on Thembi which was “nailed down” with a massive duff in true Tilman fashion. It was a seriously good duff with bits of ginger, well done Tim. There was a degree of excitement about the evening as we had failed to check in with customs in Isafjordur and they weren’t too happy about it. Thembi had actually tried but the local officers were on holiday. The Reykjavik Customs Officers said they would come and see us between 2100 and 2300 and we must be onboard. Because of the danger of polar bear attack in Greenland I am carrying a .375 rifle and because of the possibility of a serious accident on Beerenberg we have stocks of morphine in the first aid box. It could have been tricky! When I said I was carrying a rifle they simply asked if I had a licence to which I said “yes” and that was that. They were very friendly but customs are taken much more seriously in Iceland than many other countries and it is worth trying to search them out immediately on arrival. They also like you to log in with the Coast Guard and give a passage plan.
Now I am alone on the boat in a windy and drizzly Reykjavik. The crews have hired a car to see the sights but I felt I needed a “Boat Day” to tinker with things and look at charts etc. I think I have slightly miscalculated the amount of time needed to complete the voyage so I may push on to Vestmann Islands or Grindavik and meet with Ray there. Laundry is the next task, the Laudrymat Café has WiFi, fantastic coffee, a bar and a restaurant so it’s no hardship really. Tonight Icelandic Jon, who sailed on Sumara in 2006 from the Faroes to Iceland is coming to visit. It will be good to meet up again.
Tomorrow Sarah flies back to England and Gudrun flies out. It’s all change on Sumara!