Iceland & Greenland to Canada, Looking for info


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Dick
Dick
posted 7 May 2015 HOT
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My wife and are planning to return to North America (currently in Lerwick) in a couple of seasons and are thinking that a north route has real interest and possibilities. I would like to start a conversation here with anyone with experience/knowledge of these waters and islands as a beginning to data collection on the sorts of challenges to be prepared for.
Thanks, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy
Simon Currin
Simon Currin
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Dick,
Sally and I are starting on this route next week but we plan to take at least 2 seasons over it and have already booked a winter berth in Reykjavik. So next week we sail to Ullapool where we will leave the boat for a month (returning to work). Then in June we sail to Torshafn in the Faroe 's where we leave the boat again. In July / August we go anticlockwise around Icleand to our winter the berth.

In 2016 we will go onto Greenland.

Do let us know how your plans develop.

Simon
Dick
Dick
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Simon,
Thanks for getting back to me.
Perhaps we will catch up with you in 2016 in Iceland or Greenland.
Is it early or late June you look to get to Faroe from mainland Scotland?
And when leave Faroe to go around Iceland?
At what point will you start to get ice reports? And how are you planning to get them?
Enough for now. Thanks for your thoughts, Dick
Simon Currin
Simon Currin
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Dick our dates are constrained by work but here they are:
Ullapool to Faroe 's June 20th to July 5th 2015
Faroe to Reykjavik July 20th to August 16th 2015
We have SSB but no modem so will access ice reports via Iridium GO
Simon
Michel Tabusse
Michel Tabusse
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Hi Simon, hi Dick,
We are considering a westbound North Atlantic passage (Scotland/Feroe/Iceland/Greenland/Newfoundland) in summer 2020. Shorthanded (2 persons aboard). Are there any navigation notes that you would like to share ? Relevant blogs maybe ? I'm primarily looking for recommended dates, routes, where to rest, etc ...
Thank you,
Michel, sv Velvet
Dick
Dick
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Will do Michel,
I am writing up my notes relevant to making safe passage for another boat considering this route and will include you/OCC Forum when done. Please write me (Alchemy128(at)gmail.com) for log/letters of more general comments which might be of interest. Dick
Simon Currin
Simon Currin
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Michael
Here is the link I wrote up for the Forum on the Viking Passage: https://forum.oceancruisingclub.org/topic2148-the-viking-route.aspx
There are links on the OCC’s Cruising information Map to all of the anchorages we used in Iceland Greenland and Labrador.

Do come back to me with any queries.

Timing is determined by ice which is highly variable but my post contains links to all the various ice information websites which also contain decades of previous ice archives should get a feeling for the variability. In 2017 we couldn’t get into Prins Christian Sund from the east until early August whereas in 2018 boats were transiting in June!
Simon
WilliamStrassberg
WilliamStrassberg
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Good day Dick and SImon, and hello Michel.

Michel, I am planning to travel the route you posted this summer, 2019. Plan for now is to sail from Carrickfergus, NI through Hebrides to Stornaway, departing around May 10th. Around the the end of May head to Faroes and after some time exploring the Faroes, I hope to arrive in Iceland somewhere around second week of June planning landfall on the west coast north of Hofn. Then sail anti-clockwise around the north coast to Isafjurder. After 7-14 days there, depart for [font=sans-serif]Prins Christian Sund (PCS), [/font]Greenland. I have understood that the entry to PCS is "usually" open around 15th July, so that is my (flexible) target arrival date. I hope for 2 weeks in Greenland before heading south when I will try to return to my home port in Maine before end of August.

Let's keep in touch.

Best regards,

Bill Strassberg
Visions of Johanna
Dick
Dick
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Hi Bill,
Sounds like a good plan with, perhaps, the going through PCS in mid-July: my sense is that you can start to plan to go through PCS with some degree of certainty only in Aug. Before that: sometimes yes, often no. Simon may have a better historical sense of this.
In 2017 it was open for a very short period in July and then closed up again. We left Iceland hoping it would open, but it did not and we anchored in a fjord. It was not until Aug 6th when we left our anchorage of almost a week 30+nm north of the entrance to PCS. With Shimshal, we went to the entrance with the idea that if it was closed, we would go around the tip and to the west side of GL, something we were loathe to do. We did not have to: with shift-ing and shimmy-ing around a lot of ice we made our way in and once past the entrance, there was still a lot of ice and icebergs about, but we were mot in any danger of being closed in or of proceeding.
I am writing up more details which will be available in the future.
My best, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy
Simon Currin
Simon Currin
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Bill
In 2018 PCS opened in June and stayed open. We were with Dick in 2017 and were the first boats to enter (August 6th). So yes keep your plans fluid.

A lot of people make for Hofn but if you are going anti-clockwise then Seydisfjordur is the better landfall in my view. Much safer harbour to approach if the weather blows up.

I think we are seeing you at our place on the West Coast of Scotland in May? Looking forward to it.

Simon
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