Friday 15 June 2012

North to Faroe

The day arrived
Well the departure day arrived on Monday 28th May with beautiful sunshine and no wind. Eddie North, George McKay and myself left around 0900 for the first leg of the trip to Orkney. A motor down the firth in glorious sunshine was followed 25knots of wind on the nose from Fife Ness to Aberdeen. This proved a challenge to the sea legs but we managed a hearty shepherds pie for tea! A slow plodding motor sail got us up the east coast where conditions moderated the further north we went. We kept going with a favourable tide past Rattray head and finally got the headsail out for an airing! Our timing would mean crossing the Pentland firth in the dark but as everyone looked forward to it we chose not to do so in the dark and tied up at Wick about 19.00 on the 29th. A nice meal, a shower and a good sleep was much enjoyed.
Out at 7am in glorious sunshine to be at the skerries by 09.30 to get a lift on the ebb tide all the way to Scapa flow. Even in these flat calm conditions we went through several areas of overfalls.We did though make great speed and went went south of Flotta enjoying  a glorious sail in the sun to Stromness.
Off to the Pentland Firth

Stromness has a nice marina with good facilities run by a very helpful harbour master. Stromness was the centre for the annual folk festival which was much enjoyed by all. Great music was played by both amateur and professional musicians.
George and Eddie chill out in Stromness


Eddie and George headed back by ferry and bus and Joe Ramsay and John McLaren joined the boat despite A9 holdups.
Off to the Faroes

By Sunday 3rd June we had heard nearly every tune and tasted almost every beer and were suffering from harbour rot. We left in nice weather with a good NE breeze. The helter skelter of exiting Hoy sound was interesting with 13 knots over the ground and some spectacular overfalls. This was in good conditions it would be dangerous with a westerly sea running. We sailed well close hauled until nightfall when the wind went due north. We now had 20 knots on the nose so we did several long tacks to make the next 50 miles. By Monday evening we had sailed nearly 100 miles but the wind died so we motored in a pleasant big oily swell and sighted the south end of Suduroy around mid day Tuesday. ETA Torshavn 2200.
Safely in Thorshavn

We arrived in Thorshavn as predicted and made our way to a very pleasant pontoon in the town centre. We then poured  a celebratory dram before turning in for a good sleep. Next  morning we got showered and hired a car to tour round the islands. A very good deal was negotiated with the car hirer that seemed good even to me! The road network in Faroe is fantastic with well maintained fast roads linking most islands and towns through tunnels. The tunnels run under the fjords and through mountains. It must require an awful lot of mackerel to finance such infrastructure. We enjoyed our run out visiting some very remote and beautiful villages complete with grass roofs and stunning mountain views.
A house with a view

Pleasant as it was we didn’t want to stay all the time in Thorshavn and after receiving a kind gift of cod fillets from the skipper of a big traditional schooner  we set off  for Vestmanna. It was critical to time the tides in the fjords which we managed very well. A nice 9 knots over the ground. Amidst spectacular mountains we had gusts of wind to 50 knots. In the sheltered waters however it did not present any real problems. Interesting to see a wall of white spray heading your way though. Into Vestmanna and cooked the cod for a late tea. A walk round the pleasant village in glorious sunshine next day then catch the tide east round Myling head to Eidi with some fishing on the way. The forecast was for an easterly gale later so we cancelled fishing and made straight for the headland. We had a chat with a Danish warship who told us the gale was already in the east of the islands but thought we had time to sail the 8 or so miles to Eidi “wrong”. In the lee of the high cliffs it was flat calm but when we got to 1 mile of rounding the head we had 40 knots on the nose and were going nowhere. We decided to hang back and hope the wind would abate in the evening when we would have more push from the tide “wrong”! The next attempt met heavy overfalls before the headland so the sensible thing was to return to Vestmanna. We did though catch some nice cod in lovely sunshine.
Dramatic cliffs

Not wanting a repeat of the previous day we decided to head west to Soervagg on the west of Vagar. A pleasant trip under massive jagged mountains saw us welcomed and squeezed into the small harbour. We also caught some huge whiting on the way. We had a feast of fried cod, tatties, butter, lemon slices  and peas which was simple but magnificent. We had arrived on the annual country and western weekend which involved a stage for the bands to play unsusual tunes like ing gang gooli until 3 in the morning. We were going to go in for a beer but the £25 admission fee put us off.
The contented angler

A hearty meal
On Sunday lunchtime  forecast for NE 4 to 5 occ 6 made us choose to take advantage and head south. Joe could not resist a last “angle” and had several fish in an hour or so. 2 of them were about 9lb.

Just one last Cod
We had a great sail on a broad reach port tack all the way to Stornoway. My new best friend on the boat is the windpilot. It steered us safely all of the 250 miles without complaint. We ended with 2 reefs in the main and half the genny which kept her balanced and snug but still doing a steady 6 knots.
We arrived in Stornoway 45 hours later where we tied to a comfortable pontoon. John left for home and Joe and I headed south not fully certain of where as the weather was developing. The original plan had been Barra but easterly gales forecast and not fancying a slog from Barra to Mallaig we had a great sail over to  Gairloch where I am writing this and it is indeed howling outside.

Reflecting on the Faroes it was a fantastic trip. A wild and beautiful land with welcoming people who appear to enjoy a good standard of life despite the rugged and harsh environment.



1 comment:

  1. Hi Iain. A most wonderful log and was with you all the way. The weather looked good and with the fishing things could not have been better. I have an identical picture of the boat in Torshavn! I bet you will be back in the not too distant future in spite of the headwinds. Speak to Poseidon next time

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