It begs a picture, which I need to find, but after weeks of sailing in cloudy foggy conditions , Iceland opened up it’s gorgeous views as we left Vestmannaeyjar for the Faroe Islands. 



From Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland to Storvagar, Faroe Islands was about 3 days. The last day was mostly cloudy and rainy. We sailed through a gale (or at least it felt like a gale to this newbie) tacking multiple times to make it into the harbor. This was our first site of the Faroes. I’m not sure how, but it seems even more brutal than Iceland. 

Storvagar is a quaint, small town. A great hardware store, a gas station w decent nachos (hunger is the best sauce) and a small cafe where we spent a fair amount of time. And lost of rain. 


Old stairways in odd places always interest me. I’m sure it’s some psychological cliche about passages to other places and times. This stairway from the main road to the tidal flats felt like a piece of the past. Lots of work went into it a long time ago. 


I also seem to take pictures of old boat storage ramps. They are obviously common in coastal towns, but still interesting to this landlocked raised Texan. I have taken pretty much the same picture in Ibiza and Nova Scotia. 


This morning we sailed the great washing machine from Storvagar to Sandur. When I say “great washing machine” I mean holy cow that sea was a mess. 6 hours of huge (once again, consider the source) swells w lots of current, brisk winds, cross chop and an extra dose of barfiness. It was great! We sailed into a very interesting tiny harbor. 

Tomorrow it’s off for Scotland!

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Trip's End

Image
At Mallaig, on the south side of Skye, Frank left us. Wriley and I continued south. During the day the islands were hazy, and this was in waves. It was due to volcanic ash wafted down from the latest eruption at Grindavik, Iceland. That night we saw the Northern Lights for the last time. Like a glowing green crown, with high horns at the ends, neatly bisected by an imaginary line dropped vertically from the North Star. To the northeast the waning fine crescent of the moon pointed down at the Sun far below the horizon, and in time the Pleiades rose beneath the moon. We got to Tory Island in the night. Walked the cliffs.                                      On the north, NW & W sides of Tory, the sea is deep. The storms here have to have exceptionally violent force. Ferries to Tory are often cancelled.                          ...
Read more
Image
 This year's trip really is just to finish up last year's. Last September on the way home from Greenland we were caught in a storm 350 NM SW of Iceland. 18 meter seas. I did not get windspeed but at Iceland, which was 350 NM downwind from us, the winds were 90 kts. We were fully knocked down once (masts in the water), partly knocked down numerous times, and at one point up side down - very nearly rolled. Main mast was broken 9 ft from the top - there was a major knot at the breakage - a severe defect - see photo. The grain is all twisted. The double curve at back indicates where a knot was. This is a horrendous piece of wood. With quality wood the mast should not break.  The main boom was broken, the A frame bowsprit torn off, plus various other lesser damage. We turned to nearest land, Grindavik (where the volcano started erupting a month later!), and shortly after that, with Jon Karlson, I moved Teddy to Djupivogur on the east coast, the Eastfjords. More of the story is on l...
Read more

Continuing.

Image
 The repairs went really well & I realized that it is not a problem to sail on, rather than immediately to return to Ireland. The mast is 9 feet shorter, which is stronger. The full mainsail won't fit, but double reefed it will. The bowsprit, a pole of stainless steel with a traveller ring to haul it out, is rock solid. Photo of it under assembly: it is now done. It is much more seaworthy than the old A-frame bowsprit in that in a heavy chop this is much more suitable.            The photo makes it look much longer than it really is. 2.5 meters long. Skuli who made the bowsprit took the time to etch onto the tip an image of the local mountain                                            The etching is inked over.  Because of the shortened mast, the genoa is too big. But I have a working jib & a spare staysail, both new and never used...
Read more