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Update

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 A lot of adverse winds. We worked our way down the Atlantic side of the Isle of Lewis. Then to Harris Sound which lets us into the Sea of Hebrides: at Leverburgh, the ferry port there, a fisherman advised us to move to a better harbour because of an imminent storm. We promptly hared off to Lochmaddy, North Uist, to a quay where we could step out & go to the village. The storm blew through for two days: many broken branches & a few trees down.                                Mimulus, aka monkey flower.  Down the inner coast of N Uist, to inside of Floddeymore island. A wild place. Lots of deer. Clusters of great blue herons, among which were a Golden Eagle. It seemed that the eagle and the herons kept each other company.  The next day, to Lochboisdale harbour, South Uist. A few days waiting for a weather window to run south to Tory Island, 120 NM.  With the window we passed between...
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Smallness, the Man and an Adventurer, Magic, and Gifts (Post by Michael)

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Seems each movement in my life is thematic. My passport struggles resolve before Nick's and while Nick is in boat arrest, I hitchhike to see Iceland's giant glacier. On the way, two or three cars stop to say that they have no room for me. Who does that? Holy cow,   I am not only tiny in front of  the glacier, I am small in the warmth of these Icelanders. The continuing of the gifts. So we're sailing from Djupivogur (which I now can pronounce, btw.) and lo and behold, a giant vessel births a tiny boat filled with official looking 30 year-olds sporting uniformed dry suits. I am at the helm and while smiling quizzically at Nick, I head into the wind so we can be boarded by the Icelandic Coast Guard. An hour later and after much confession and explanation, they release us after determining it is indeed Nick's choice to either go to jail, pay the fine, or go to court. Curiously and after being interviewed/interrogated/quizzed by one young officer, he declares, "so you a...
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Isle of Lewis

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   Jonina, Jon's wife, gifted Michael one of her home made sweaters. Last year she gave me one too. Here we are, in full royal panoply.     We left Iceland & promptly got stopped off Papey Island by the Iceland Coast Guard who wanted to know every which way from Sunday all about my passport lapse & related issues. Eventually they let us go, and we raced off south into the growing darkness.    Many lost songbirds on the way south. Most flew on from us, but one stayed on board and died in the cabin at the base of the main mast. Fin whales. Pilot whales. Dolphins. Skuas. Stormy petrels. Manx shearwaters. Great shearwater. Gannets. Puffins. The occasional freighter making its way to the New World, or from. Thunderheads, overcasts, blues. The Aurora Borealis and the North Star. The pelagic world.     Not far from St Kilda the winds headed us, a friend sent me by satellite text an adverse weather report, and we bore off east for the Is...
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                                             It arrived! The passport brouhaha is coming to an end!                                                 Gudmundur stamped me into Iceland.                   My ancient cast iron wood stove badly needs repair. We took it off Teddy, and it is behind Skuli the steelworker, flexing his muscles. Next year I'll return to pick it up.  Jon gave us a tour of his fisherman's museum.  Smocks & boots                                             Longlines, and small ring buoys for nets  The hub of a cart's wheel, worn down by the sea. What a find for the b...
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Texan at sea

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                                                                       King George III So here I am aboard Teddy. That's me in the bosun's chair helping to mend a  halyard. And like our little bird friend, King George III, I am taking a brief respite on Teddy. So I'll be some weeks on board this craft moving deftly through the waves toward understandings and hopes and conversations and other assorted magic. I am a walker. I've sauntered a buncha long through hikes, but this whole seafaring thing is new.   Our definitely Viking-looking-with-heart-of-gold policeman. And Teddy functioning as a house, er  . . . boat arrest, location. Aside from seeing Northern Lights, whales, dolphins, and gloriously colored sunsets, and along with seeing seals popping their almost-human faces out to the water, we g...
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Iceland

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 We left Clifden on the 12th. Stopped in Bofin to sort a halyard problem. Anchored at Inishturk North for the night. In the evening a fisherman gave us a bucket of crab claws, in the morning another fisherman dropped off a large monkfish! Headed to Inishkea North, anchored off the sandy beach below the ruins of the abandoned village. No Brion Sweeney, the Hermit of Inishkea North. He had been here a few weeks earlier. I have not seen him for a few years.                                               Found a curlew skull. The following afternoon we set sail for Djupivogur, SE Iceland, 660 NM north of Clifden. We had a lovely east wind the first three days. Teddy sailed herself 350 NM as we slept. After that, fickle winds, and we had to wake up.  Some whales, all rorquals. We pased through a pod, three groups of two or three. Probably fin whales. Many interesting bi...
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Tracker Link

 Here is the tracker link: Share.garmin.com/teddytoarctic
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