Three Generations and a Wooden Boat Find in the Westfjords

Submitted by David Forcucci, Float Your Boat Founder

The Westfjords is a remote area of Iceland known for its untouched beauty and rugged environment. Located on the Arctic Ocean, it's a place visited by few and home to even fewer. One of the families who call this place home is Guðni Hrafn Pétursson’s, who owns land in the Westfjords. They spend as much time as they can at their cabin, which has a magnificent view of Drangaskörð.

In 2020, Guðni found a Float Your Boat (FYB) on a beach near his cabin. Two years later, he found two more boats in his uncle's house, which is located north of Drangaskörð within the Hornstrandir Nature Reserve. Guðni's enthusiasm was unwavering. He started communicating with Dave, the program founder, after his initial find. Since then, his travels have led to even more boats surfacing. In 2025, Dave went to visit Guðni to experience the Westfjords and Iceland, and, of course, to search the Icelandic coast for another FYB.

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I flew into Reykjavik in May. The lupine was showing signs of a landscape waking from a long, dark winter, though I later learned that the flowers are an introduced species spreading throughout Iceland. It was a time of year when the weather could be iffy, and our main objective was to head north to the Westfjords. Guðni texted me that we would leave as soon as possible to take advantage of a good weather window.

We packed up his Land Cruiser with our things and his two dogs, Tamaiah and Yance. The drive was long and bumpy over gravel roads. We made it to Munaðarnes that evening, a place just 30 miles from the Arctic Circle.

The next couple of days were perfect. Blue skies and calm seas beckoned us to explore in their small boat. We did everything from cod fishing to exploring uninhabited, remote coastlines. On the second day, Guðni, his father, and his grandfather—three generations—were in the boat as we went to deliver an electric dryer for eider down to Guðni’s relatives, just north of Drangaskörð. Afterward, we headed to a beach where Guðni thought we had a good chance of finding boats. We left his father and grandfather at a shelter on the remote coast and went searching.

It didn't take long. Cradled in the rocks, capsized, was a boat from Centennial Middle School in Colorado. It was astonishing! The boat was decorated in 2023 by Pippa Milnes, an 8th grader at the time in Bill Schmoker's Science class in Boulder, Colorado.

We headed back and enjoyed another day of searching beaches closer to Munaðarnes. If only Guðni could train Tamaiah and Yance to find boats! After our search, we returned to Reykjavik. It was nice to see his family again, and then it was time to fly home.

Later, Guðni told me that he had come across another boat on his family vacation. It was on the porch of a lady's wool shop after she had found it on the beach in front of her store. The FYB program may someday stop putting boats in the Arctic, but as long as the FYB Iceland Ambassador is roaming the Westfjords, the project will always be alive.