Weather:

Driving Rain

Report:

The team and I have been in Reykjavik now for 48

hours, the physical and emotional battering we all took in the last leg is still very much with us. We have been advised by various weather experts that by no means should we be leaving for the Faroes until later in the week as force 7 winds are running in those waters. This might hopefully change in the next few days and we are seeing the Icelandic weather and coastguard services on Monday to get a more detailed localised update to run alongside Mike Town's - our UK meteorologist. Due to the high in the UK there is an increased low here in Iceland which is bringing strong winds and rain that we hope will move off soon. The 2000 miles so far have shown us that the sea can get very nasty for a small boat even if the force of the winds is not astronomical. No one is interested in any more close calls or heroics - and we are all aware we have been let off the hook a few times coming through such difficult conditions. Getting this final forecast right is crucial. The good thing is that we are now in waters that are covered by much more detailed weather charts, unlike the remote waters we have been in so far. We are currently revising our last leg by including a stopover in the Vestmann Islands which are 80 miles out from Reykjavik. This will enable us to edge our way towards the Faroes even if the weather isn't perfect and wait there for the all clear to head to out into what would then be a shorter distance to the remote Faroe Islands (then a distance of some 420nm).

Over the past two days our time has been occupied with fault finding on the boat and drying and repairing kit - from broken seals on drysuits to cameras. Our main problem on the boat was the total loss of power for our 12v electrical system which resulted in the loss of all our comms (Sat phones and VHF radios) mid-way from Greenland. This could have catastrophically affected the engine starting as well had we needed it - hence the importance of repairing this and finding out the main cause - (apart from the raw pounding and wet that the boat was subjected to). This fault finding will continue tomorrow with Andy and Nige down in the harbour assisted by local experts. So many people have been fantastic so far (from friendly Icelanders in bars who have watched about the expedition on the Icelandic news to Bogi our local boating enthusiast opening up garages to recharge batteries). We feel confident that the boat will be ready to begin again in a matter of days.