Herjólfur was six hours on his way from Þorlákshöfn to Vestmannaeyjar last night. The ferry’s second engine broke down two weeks ago and will be undergoing repairs in the Netherlands for the next few weeks. This means that in rough seas the ship only travels at a speed of about five nautical miles.
The conditions in Landeyjahöfn are unusually bad, according to Herjólf’s manager, and therefore almost nothing has been sailed from there since January.
Þórunn Pálsdóttir, a resident of Vestmannaeyjar who has written a column daily for seventeen days to protest the situation, says enough is enough.
“The sound is just terribly heavy with people here. There is a lot of anger and we just don’t feel like what we are trying to say is being listened to. We are always waiting for the harbor to be laid out better, for more to be built around the harbor, more powerful surf parks and other things. This situation has been going on now for sixteen years, since it was first put into use.”
Number 31 on the waiting list
She says she sent a message to the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Prime Minister’s Ministry sixteen days ago and received a response yesterday when the minister’s assistants contacted her. She is now waiting for further answers from them.
She strongly criticizes the Road Administration’s response.
“There hasn’t been any information. It’s been devastating and we need to call for all the information about the situation in Landeyjahöfn. The Álfsnes has been dredging in the harbor for the last few years and it’s been going badly. The ship just doesn’t have the capacity to handle these conditions. Why on earth hasn’t that contract been canceled a long time ago and another ship has been sent to dredging? There is a more powerful ship that has come here from Belgium and that ship will start here, luckily, this fall. Why hasn’t it been here for a long time?”
She states that she received the information yesterday that the Road Administration intends to improve the provision of information to residents.
Þórun’s husband and son have to travel to Reykjavík tomorrow to pick up orthodontics for the boy.
“I don’t know when they will get back home. They are number 31 on the waiting list on Friday morning for Herjólf and number 22 on the waiting list on Friday evening. It is naturally just a problem to get cars between here. Maybe they will get home on Saturday, who knows. People are just having trouble coming and going. So people are postponing medical trips and other things because they don’t trust themselves in these long sailings between here.”
Sixteen years of Landeyjahöfn in confusion and never been worse
The country’s most popular off-road race, the Puffin run, takes place this weekend in Eyjum, and 1,800 runners have signed up. Katrín Laufey Rúnarsdóttir, one of the organizers of the race, says that the race will take place no matter what and hopes that Landeyjahöfn will be opened to traffic this weekend.
“It’s absolutely horrible. You really have the most evil in your heart out of all the companies here in the Islands. It’s not just our race, it’s also the accommodation, it’s the restaurants, everything, it’s the community. It’s a huge loss for everyone. As I say, this is the ninth time we’ve held the race and we’ve always held a race so far no matter what’s going on in the world. It was an epidemic and I don’t know what and what. We always have someone the road has escaped trouble and we are going to believe that we will continue to escape it.”
She says she is hopeful that there will be good conditions for sailing in Landeyjahöfn on Saturday.
“There’s a big current once every month and it’s on Saturday. That means that if there was ever a chance to enter the harbor, it’s then. We’re hopeful that if the weather forecast and wave forecast are correct, we’ll be able to sail something into the harbor on Friday night and Saturday. We just believe it.”
Ribsafari planned to run to the pass and offer trips to and from Landeyjahöfn for the competitors this weekend, but was forced to cancel the trips due to insufficient repairs.
“It’s not just something, but a whole lot,” says Katrín.
Katrín criticizes the government’s response.
“You’re really speechless and I’m rarely speechless about things like this. That it shouldn’t have been a long time since we intervened and did something. We don’t understand this. I think we’d have to get the governors and everyone in Herjólf on a seven-hour cruise and just not really have a berth. I think it would work. Take your children along and come on a day trip. My son took a ferry to compete on Thursday. He was on board at seven and had to sail to bake late at night. He’s very seasick, but he still pretends to be,” she says and adds:
“Summer is coming and the year is 2026. You can’t believe that this is just the case. It’s unbelievable that this situation exists after sixteen years of Landeyjahöfn in a mess and it’s never been worse. You can’t help it.”
