Today is our final day at sea during this circumnavigation of Iceland and we definitely saved some of the best for last. In the morning we sailed into the magnificent natural harbor of the island of Heimaey, the finest harbor in southern Iceland. Heimaey is home to about 4000 souls, most involved in the fishing industry in some way.
In 1973 the peaceful life of the island was interrupted in the middle of the night on 23 January when a huge volcanic fissure running down the east side of the island opened up and began spewing hot tephra, ash, and lava onto the nearby houses. The eruption went on for months and immediately after it began the 5,200 people on the island were evacuated to the mainland. The lava added a large area to the eastern side of the island but it also threatened to close the harbor. The width of the entrance narrowed from 800 to 100 meters and the local workers with the help of the US Army Corps of Engineers sprayed seawater on the encroaching lava. Eventually the lava stopped and ironically left the harbor even better protected that it had been before the eruption. Unfortunately, however, about one third of the town was destroyed and the rebuilding took years. Today Heimaey is a very modern and prosperous Icelandic town as evidenced by their newest fishing trawler, called Heimaey, which happened to be tied up right behind National Geographic Explorer.
After leaving Heimaey, we sailed southwest to visit the new island of Surtsey, which emerged in another fiery volcanic eruption in 1963. The island building event continued for four years and today the island is kept as a nature reserve and is being studied to find out how it will be colonized. Even though it was rainy by the time we arrived and visibility as reduced, it was still possible to see quite a lot of green on the hillsides, indicating that plants had already successfully colonize the lava.
It was a wonderful end to a remarkable voyage around this most interesting of islands, the country of Iceland.
