Kristín and Steve escape Keflavík base by boat

Kristín and Steve escape Keflavík Air Base by boat after Arnold provides a way out that avoids both the gates and the perimeter fence. Their flight turns the base’s guarded boundary into a route across the coast: they move through darkness, launch a Zodiac, and reach Hafnir before proceeding toward Reykjavík. The escape depends on Arnold’s precise directions and ends with the pair outside the base’s immediate reach, though not yet at their destination.

The route out

The action takes place at Keflavík Air Base at 0500 GMT on Saturday 30 January. Arnold’s directions prove accurate. Before leaving Kristín and Steve at the administration block, he explained how they could get out without using a gate or climbing over the wire. Kristín cannot imagine what favour Arnold owes Steve, but judges it must be considerable and chooses not to dwell on it. The passage therefore presents their departure as the result of assistance arranged in advance, while leaving the reason for that assistance unexplained.

After leaving Michael Thompson, they head west, away from the airport and the Leifur Eiríksson terminal. Military traffic has intensified. Police roadblocks stand at intervals around the base, and soldiers patrol the perimeter fence on the Keflavík side. The geography narrows their choices: the sea brackets the base to the south and west, while the more frequented approaches are under watch. Rather than approach a gate or attempt the wire, they move from building to building, using darkness for cover until the developed area gives way to lava and snowfields sloping down toward the shore.

The crossing to Hafnir

The sky is clear and full of stars, and moonlight helps them cover the distance to the coast. Arnold’s detailed landmarks lead them to the Zodiac. From there, the intended route runs south past Hvalsnes and into Kirkjuvogur bay, toward the hamlet of Hafnir. They plan to leave the boat there and hitch a lift into Reykjavík. The escape thus has two stages: getting beyond the base by water, then relying on the road for the journey onward.

The Zodiac’s quiet outboard starts on the first attempt. Its twenty-horsepower engine carries them away from shore, but the crossing is neither fast nor comfortable. An icy wind strikes Kristín’s face; the boat repeatedly slaps into waves, and she clings to a rope fastened at the bow as spray drenches her anorak. In the darkness and exposed water, the boat is not simply transport: it is the means by which they avoid the guarded perimeter, but it leaves them vulnerable to the weather and sea.

During the crossing, they do not speak. Kristín has the impression that Steve has navigated this stretch of coast before, though the passage presents this as her impression rather than a confirmed account of his past. A quarter of an hour after setting out, they reach Hafnir and make the rubber dinghy fast. Only then does Kristín break their silence by asking whether this is how drugs are smuggled. Steve says he would not know, and neither elaborates; the exchange ends without resolving her question or clarifying his familiarity with the route.

Beyond the base

From Hafnir, they walk north toward the Reykjanes dual carriageway. The distant sky above Keflavík and Njardvík glows reddish brown, a reminder of the base and airport behind them even after the boat has carried them away from the shore. They walk for about forty-five minutes in complete silence. Their escape has removed them from the immediate perimeter, but they still have to find transport and reach the road.

Headlights approach from behind in the darkness. The car slows and stops ahead of them; its driver is a baker on his way to Keflavík, who offers them a lift to the main road. From there, the account says, hitching a ride to Reykjavík should not take long. The ride is a practical opening rather than a completed arrival: the pair have escaped the base and reached a route toward the city, but their onward journey remains ahead.

Significance

The escape is organized around avoidance rather than confrontation. Roadblocks and patrols make the base’s ordinary exits dangerous, so Arnold’s directions redirect the pair through buildings and out to the coast. A small boat, a dark shoreline, and a chance lift replace the controlled infrastructure surrounding the military installation. The sequence’s progress is measured in modest transitions—administration block to shore, shore to Hafnir, footpath to main road—each dependent on a specific means of passage.

Silence links the boat crossing to the long walk that follows it. Kristín and Steve travel together without discussing their circumstances, and their brief exchange about drug smuggling does not explain the route or settle the question of Steve’s experience. By ending with a baker’s lift rather than an arrival in Reykjavík, the episode keeps the escape provisional: they have got out of Keflavík Air Base, but must still make their way onward.