Day one on the Tecla …. The morning started with breakfast and an initial briefing – partially safety and partially plans for the coming weeks. The short-term plan though was still in some doubt. The one definite was that the weather was not obliging! The debate was really over the extent to which it wasn’t going to oblige. A nasty system is tracking east – heading across southern Iceland and bringing winds of 50-60 knots, so there seemed to be two possibilities. The first was to try and head south fast and get to the south of the worst of the depression, then tracking east across to the Faroes. The second was to set off before the depression comes and shelter in the Vestmannaeyjar islands (often anglicised as Westmann islands).
We set off not quite sure which option the skipper would take, but slow progress past the Reykjanes peninsula sealed our fate. The name, Reykjanes, translates literally to “smoking point,” from the two words reykja ‘smoking’, and nes ‘point’. Recent volcanic activity on the peninsula has ensured that this name is still very apposite. The Sundhnúkur eruptions are a series of volcanic eruptions on the peninsula, near the town of Grindavík. Between December 2023 and August 2025, there have been nine eruptions. This followed an intense series of earthquakes in November 2023. There was no evidence of this as we sailed past, but we wouldn’t have expected it anyway. In fact, all we saw as we sailed past was dolphins!
I ended up on the watch from 12-4, so at 4pm headed below when we were just beyond the Reykjanes peninsula. After dinner I tried to get some sleep before heading back up for the midnight to 4am watch. By this time we had turned much more towards the east and with a fluctuating wind and occasional squalls we made rapid, but very lumpy progress and by the end of the watch, it was quite a relief to head below, back into a warmer environment. No such relief for the skipper though as he had to stay up to navigate the intricate passage into the harbour on Heimaey island – a secure all-weather harbour.
