Sailing through the Westfjords

by Judy Dickson

Editor's note: You can view the first leg of this sailing voyage in the previous article in this series.

Four members of our family toured on a 52-metre sailing yacht for 7 days in June 2019. We travelled with 25 passengers from Reykjavik through the Westfjords and disembarking in Akureyri. The following photos were taken on the Westfjords leg of the journey.

The first attraction on our tour was the Látrabjarg Bird Cliffs in the Westfjords. They are Iceland's largest sea cliffs at 15 km. long and 441 m. high. The world-renowned cliffs are home to a large population of Puffins and other species. Notice how steep they are and not much for fencing around the edge.

Látrabjarg Bird Cliffs in the Westfjords (All photos courtesy of Judy Dickson)

Látrabjarg Bird Cliffs in the Westfjords

Notice how steep the cliffs are and not much for fencing around the edge. We managed to snap some pictures of a puffin.

The next photos were taken as we approached Ísafjörður from the boat on a beautiful sunny day in June.

The yellow house is just a sample of how colourful their little traditional houses were. It is a sweet little town that was settled in the 1580’s and became a busy port for sailfish.

This picture features the Seamen’s Monument which was very striking.

I am in the next pic about to enter a lovely grove of trees which was something different in Iceland…they called it ’the forest’, all pine trees.

The above photo was taken in the Ísafjörður kirkja (a Lutheran church) and features the 700+ ceramic doves made by the children and adults in the community to illustrate the story of St. Thomas releasing captive birds so they might express their true selves.

Here is the view when we approached Hólmavík, a village in the Strandir region of the westfjords, populations 375, mainly a shrimp port.

A view of the church

The last is shot when leaving the little village with a view of the town's church.

We toured the Museum of Sorcery and Witchcraft which was quite modern and had wonderful displays but difficult to take photos inside because of the dark subjects it portrayed.

This final photo is of the farm we visited where the owner took 23 tourists on a large wagon attached to his tractor!