RIBbaldar cruises 2008

bogib · 02 April 2008, 22:56

RIBbaldar are planning three trips this year.

If anyone interested to participate feel free to contact me.

First organised trip will be to Vestmannaeyjar (Westmann Islands) the weekend of 9th through 12th of May which is a long weekend (bank holiday) we will be putting the boats on water at the village Þorlákshöfn (Thorlakshofn) and cruise to Heimaey where we will stay and taking cruises to the various islands together with local ribbers.

Story of the island is:

In Landnáma it is said that when Ingólfur Arnarsson, the first settler in Iceland had spent a winter at Ingólfshöfði, and went west in search of his "Öndvegissúlur" (somewhat like Totem poles, that were ritualisticly dumped into the sea and let float to shore. Where they came ashore, there the viking in question would build his farm.), and found upon Hjörleifshöfði his brother, Hjörleifur, dead and his slaves missing. Out at sea he could see boats going towards a small group of islands, and likewise he set off after them.

The slaves in question had been abducted from Ireland, and were called westmen (Vestmenn), since Ireland was the most western part of the known world at that time (c.a. 840). The slaves came ashore in Heimaey and took shelter upon the mountains and anywhere else they thought they might be safe, but alas, Ingólfur slaughtered them all, unknowingly creating names for various places in the process - for example "Dufþekja", an area on Heimaklettur, Heimaey´s highest mountain (263m), is named after the slave Dufþakur, who is said to have thrown himself off Heimaklettur at that point - rather taking his own life that to let Ingólfur take it.

bogib · 02 April 2008, 22:57

Second scheduled trip will be during the longest dayhours of the year and in Iceland called "Jónsmessunótt" the dates are June 21st and 22nd.

We will be going to Eldey Iceland´s youngest island and is a small cliff in middle of the ocean this will be a day trip although possibly going there twice all weather pending.

History:

Eldey (Fire Island) is a sheer, 77 m high rock protruding from the sea about 15 km to the south of the southwesternmost tip of the Reykjanes Peninsula. The structure of Eldey is basaltic hyaloclastites, and it is 0,03 km² in area. It is the innermost of a chain of skerries standing on a shallow, submarine ridge, which stretches 83 km offshore to the southwest. The name of this chain is "The Bird Skerries" (Fuglasker) or "Fire Islands" (Eldeyjar). One of those skerries was "The Big Auk Skerry", where the last breeding colony of the Great Auk was located. It disappeared mostly from the surface during submarine eruptions in 1930. The biggest gannet colony of the world is still surviving on Eldey. According to the latest count the number of gannets breeding there during the summer is 70.000.

bogib · 02 April 2008, 22:59

Third trip will be the most unusal one as it will take place up in the highland of Iceland´s east coast furthermore it is man made water as it feeds the Iceland´s largest and newest hydropowerplant station.

The weekend trip is set for August 9th and 10th

Information:

The reservoir
Completing the trio are two smaller saddle dams which will also be built at Kárahnúkar. These are the Desjarárstífla dam to the east, and Sauðárdalsstífla dam to the west. Both will be rock-fill dams with an earthen core, and together the three will combine to feed the main 57km2 Hálslón storage reservoir. When full, its water level will reach a height of 625 metres above sea level, and its shores will reach the edge of the Brúarjökull glacier.

It is estimated that the Hálslón reservoir will be filled by late summer in most years. Surplus water will be then diverted through a spillway chute at the western end of the Kárahnjúkastífla dam down to the edge of the Hafrahvammar canyon, and from there via a 90 metre-high waterfall down to the canyon floor.

On the east side of the mountain Snæfell, the Jökulsá í Fljótsdal river is dammed about 2 km downstream of the Eyjabakkafoss waterfall on the north side of the Eyjabakkar wetlands. The intake pond this creates has been named Ufsarlón, and water from three tributary rivers on the eastern side of the Jökulsá is also diverted into it.