Sumara of Weymouth

Positon N70,58.189 x W008,41.469. Anchored in 8.2 m
Kvalrosbukta, Jan Mayen

We have had a truly amazing day. Gentle winds with occasional calms wafted us north towards the east coast of Jan Mayen whilst being entertained by Northern Bottlenose Whales, Fulmars and Puffins. The Mighty Beerenberg Volcano has been very shy and hid all day behind low cloud cover and drifting mist patches. However the sail around the North Cape of Jan Mayen was stunning. The cliffs are the wildest imaginable covered with patches of soft green moss, snow, and black lava ash and then slashed through by ice blue glaciers calving off into the sea. The rock is bent and twisted and piled up and broken off with patches of rust red and piles of grey scree. It was just so so beautiful! As we ghosted along towards the large rocky hill sheltering the anchorage from the North we saw the unmistakable sight of the Thembi crew standing on the hill crest waving!

Soon Thembi came into sight looking gorgeous against the rugged cliffs and we luffed up and set our anchor in 8 m. Tim, Dan, Charlotte and Stuart rowed out from the beach to greet us and we were soon all snugged in Sumara’s cabin drinking fortified hot chocolate. The whole sail from the Faroes about 600 nm south has been a real pleasure at times almost unbelievably comfortable with the yachts gliding silently through calm seas. We must be the luckiest sailors around.

Anchor Tackle – Boring Technical Stuff
We are using a Rocna 15 kg bower anchor and carrying a Fortress kedge and a folding fishermans. The chain we are using is 60 m of 8 mm grade 70 galvanised which is about twice the strength of most yacht anchors chains (normally grade 30 or 40). It is called Aqua 7 and I brought it in from Italy. There is more information about it on the gear section of the website. We use a nylon three strand snubber with a Wichard anchor hook fitted with a plunger. Our chum is about 15 kg of bronze with a Davy and Co anchor shackle. We position about half way down the chain. The anchor has a tripping line connected to a spare fender. We lay out 12 x the square root of the depth. Sumara’s samson post has heavy slotted stainless plate on the aft side to snub the chain. It can be very useful for getting a stubborn anchor to break free by snubbing the chain while the yacht is pitching forward and allowing the swell to drag the anchor out – thanks for that Terry, it works a treat! Sumara is also carrying 100 m of 16 mm polyester octoplait anchor warp and 100 m of nylon 16 mm octoplait and 60 mm of 14 mm three strand. We are hoping that this ground tackle will be bullet proof as there are no secure anchorages in Jan Mayen and we have to expect bad weather at some point.

Sent at 22.21GMT on Tuesday 5th July