Sunday 11 August 2019

Voyage North - a photo essay: (22) leaving Reykjavik

We left Reykjavik in the evening with a long section of sailing alongside the peninsula (heading south west) before reaching the open sea and turning south east.

The pilot saw us out of the mooring and went ashore, and we can see distantly across the bay to the city skyline. Bottom right, the tall spire of the church and the rectangular block of the concert hall can be seen clearly:


Along the coastline there are active hot springs and I noticed that the late, low rays of the sun were making rainbows in the drifting water vapour rising from the thermal vents:


Now alerted to this, I noticed that the same low rays were making even more ephemeral rainbows in the spray from the ship's bow wave. Here on the left, the colour is barely a faint smudge against the sea; on the right, the colours can be seen more clearly:


Further out along the peninsula, as it starts to get dusk, the steam itself can be seen rising from the land:


Approaching the open sea at last, and with the light fading, we pass Eldey Island. This was the last known location of the now extinct great auk. It is still home to many colonies of seabirds.


As we reached the open sea and turned south east, the sun was setting behind us. In the centre (below) is the very distant, hazy view of (I think) Heimaey, the largest of the Vestmannaeyjar (Westman Islands):


We were now bound for home, with three consecutive sea days ahead of us; some of us were out on various parts of the deck, 'saying goodbye' as the sun sank:





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