Það er ekki langt síðan við byrjuðum að fara oftar út um helgar, og nú langar okkur bæði að sigla og að horfa á fótbolta.

Yes. Það er ekki langt síðan ... is a very common Icelandic expression meaning It hasn’t been long since ...

It is quite close to the English structure It’s not long since ..., though in modern English many learners are more used to It hasn’t been long since ...

So:

• Það er ekki langt síðan við byrjuðum ... = It hasn’t been long since we started ...

It is best learned as a whole pattern: það er ekki langt síðan + past clause

Because langt is the neuter singular form of langur.

In Icelandic, neuter singular forms are often used in an adverb-like way to express extent, distance, or amount of time. In this expression, langt means something like long / a long time.

So:

• ekki langt = not long
• Það er ekki langt síðan ... = It is not long since ...

Even though það appears here, it is not really about matching a concrete noun the way adjectives often do. This is just the normal form used in this time expression.

Because the sentence is talking about a point in the past when we started doing something.

• við byrjuðum = we started

After síðan in this kind of sentence, Icelandic normally refers back to the earlier event in the past tense:

• Það er ekki langt síðan við byrjuðum ... = It hasn’t been long since we started ...

The second half of the sentence then moves to the present with nú:

• nú langar okkur ... = now we want ...

So the timeline is:

1. in the past: we started going out more often
2. now: we want to sail and watch football

Because byrja is normally followed by að + infinitive when it means begin to do something.

So:

• byrja að fara = start to go / start going
• byrjuðum að fara = started to go / started going

This is a standard Icelandic pattern:

• byrja að lesa = start reading
• byrja að vinna = start working

So in the sentence:

• við byrjuðum að fara oftar út = we started going out more often

Oftar means more often.

It is the comparative form of oft:

• oft = often
• oftar = more often
• oftast = most often

So:

• fara oftar út = go out more often

This is very similar to English comparison, but Icelandic often forms the comparative as a single word instead of using more + adverb.

Fara út usually means go out, often in the social sense: going out to do things, meet people, enjoy yourself, and so on.

Um helgar means on weekends or at weekends.

So:

• fara út um helgar = go out on weekends

A more literal breakdown is:

• fara út = go out
• um helgar = during weekends / on weekends

In natural English, go out on weekends is the best translation.

Because um is very commonly used for repeated time periods in Icelandic.

So:

• um helgar = on weekends
• um sumarið = in the summer
• um jólin = at Christmas / during Christmas

Here helgar is plural, because the idea is weekends in general, not one specific weekend.

Also, um takes the accusative, so helgar is in the accusative plural.

Because langa works differently from English want.

In this construction, the person who feels the desire is put in the dative case, and the verb is usually in 3rd person singular:

• mig langar = I want
• þig langar = you want
• okkur langar = we want

So:

• nú langar okkur að sigla = now we want to sail

Literally, it is closer to something like:

• to us, there is a longing to sail

That is why you see okkur rather than við.

You could use vilja in some contexts, but mig/okkur langar að ... is extremely common when talking about wanting to do something.

Bæði ... og ... means both ... and ...

In this sentence it links the two activities:

• að sigla
• að horfa á fótbolta

So:

• bæði að sigla og að horfa á fótbolta = both to sail and to watch football = more naturally, both sail and watch football

It is not mainly saying both of us here. It is saying that both activities appeal to us.

Because in Icelandic it is very normal to repeat að before each infinitive in a coordinated pair, especially with bæði ... og ...

So this is completely natural:

• bæði að sigla og að horfa á fótbolta

You may sometimes see or hear the second að omitted in some contexts, but repeating it is standard and very clear. For learners, repeating it is a good habit.

Because horfa á is the normal way to say watch or look at something.

So:

• horfa = look
• horfa á = look at / watch

Examples:

• horfa á sjónvarp = watch TV
• horfa á leik = watch a game
• horfa á fótbolta = watch football / soccer

The preposition á is required here.

Also, fótbolta is the accusative form, because á in this construction takes an object in the accusative.

It means the sport called football in British English and soccer in American English.

So if you are an American English speaker, horfa á fótbolta is usually best understood as:

• watch soccer

If you are a British English speaker, then:

• watch football

The Icelandic word itself is fótbolti in the nominative, but after horfa á it appears here as fótbolta.

Yes, that is a very helpful way to read it.

The sentence is structured like this:

1. Það er ekki langt síðan við byrjuðum að fara oftar út um helgar

   • a recent change in the past

2. og nú langar okkur bæði að sigla og að horfa á fótbolta

   • what we feel like doing now

So the sentence moves from:

• not long ago, we started going out more often on weekends to
• now we want both to sail and to watch football

That contrast between síðan and nú is an important part of how the sentence works.