mid June post continued

I was invited by the skipper of 'Nordysl' to bring my violin on a tourist trip he does to some caves where some sort of 'concert' happens. He didn't seem to be able to describe the genre, but I jumped on at 1 o clock with a party of large Polish men, a shy Danish couple, a saxophonist and a conch player????? Intriguing. It is a fantastic old boat, lots of room below and smelling deliciously woody and oily.

We made our way over a lively sea to a nearby island, past gigantic cliffs, and then stopped in front of a tall dark ominous cavern.

Couldn't quite work out where the concert was going to take place. Then it became clear that we were transferring to smaller boats to get in to the cave. A kind of protective wet suit was thrown at me and I thought ' how am I going to play in this?'

Putting on my concert gar

 Everyone except the skipper clambered/fell in to the little boats. It was chaotic and crazy. Violin on my back I found a place, but was feeling not a little apprehensive and anxious having brought lovely ancient Hose [ Contreras] , my 1752 Spanish instrument into this uncertain and frankly hazardous situation.

We went in to the dark wet cave, the large black swell of the water heaving us up and down.

The concert venue

I realised in the gloming that the saxophonist was getting out his instrument!  What here??  Bobbing up and down on the edge of an inflatable boat? He started to make whale like noises, and was soon joined by the Conch player, wailing and stuttering. OK, I thought ...'.this is it' and carefully took out my lovely violin and joined them. The sound was extraordinary and everyone was stunned in to silence, and listened with eyes closed. It was a powerful atmosphere........people loved it. We weaved our way around each other, until it came to a resting place and it was over.

Glad to get the violin back in the case, we came out in to the bright light and back to the schooner for hot tea. Crazy times!

A windy journey back to Torshavn and Kyle. I was so hungry....home made pesto and red wine. The skipper came to chat. We all get on so well...I will miss him.

Going North up the Fjords

A couple of days later we caught the tide up to the Northern Islands to experience the sea cliffs around Vidoy....the highest in Europe at over 800 metres. Very satisfying being swept along with the powerful natural force of the current along stunning fjords.

The clouds were just touching the tops of the cliffs which made it very dramatic, whispy vapour trails around jagged rock....the scale hard to take in...the photos don't really give the full picture unless in some of them you can see the white dots of seabirds which gives some idea.

We found a sheltered place to berth in Hvannasund and ate roast puffin at a nearby restaurant.

Its lovely, not fishy at all. Maybe 70% pheasant,20% liver and 10% beef.

Kyle at Hvannasund

Vidaroei, where we ate Puffin

The next day we had a very early start to get back to the capital as we had booked a helicopter to take us to the island of Mykenes.

It sounds very grand but its incredibly good value and heavily subsidised. It cost under £30 for the two of us. We caught a bus to the airport and before long we were up and away... It was my first time and I was overwhelmed and very moved by the experience. I think it might be like dying, to just rise up like that, away from earth. No resistance as on a plane. So exciting to go over the edge of a green cliff and to be above the sea and see all that beauty.

Darling Gav was not so happy and very glad when we touched down. Suddenly beneath us we could see a little village of wooden houses, and a big H where the helicopter landed as gracefully as a mayfly. Incredible.

Mykenes (you can see the Helipad to the left)

Mykenes village



Mykenes Church

This island is very fertile and has thousands of puffins flying through the air....seabirds everywhere. The cliffs are sheer and quite something to walk along.

Cliff path

I thought I was relitavely brave but I felt very much out of my comfort zone and ended up crawling along at some points because of the exposure. I was too frightened to continue on along a path that just seemed to go straight off the cliff with a wire railing to hold on to.

A shame because that would have taken me over a footbridge to a little adjoining island and the lighthouse where there is a huge Gannetry. A Phenomenal place, being up with the birds and the sea stretching out towards Iceland to the North and America to the West.  Looking down on the village from up there it looked like a child had made it from lego.We stayed the night in the simple hostel there and got up next day at 6 to walk to the highest point.

Early morning walk

Saw the sun come up from the top and did a very bad 'salute to the sun' trying to remember the movements from yoga. It felt fantastic but I am aware of how creaky I am. My body craves more. We were attacked by Arctic and Great Skuas nesting on the moorland. It was verging on Hitchcock.....really frightening as they dive bombed us.

We caught the ferry back. They negotiate the narrow entrance to the harbour in seemingly impossible circumstances. It is often cut of for days or weeks here. I want to come back to this place. We are sailing back to Scotland tomorrow.

On the ferry back

Jackie's mid June post [ continued ]

I woke up this morning with a longing to see some trees! I think I was maybe dreaming about them. There is no TV in our house on Harris but we can watch films on DVD and we had been watching a BBC production of 'The Mill on the Floss'. It is so much a lunar landscape here and I love it so much but it is not a welcoming environment for trees. Just seeing beautiful oaks rising out of green green fields and willows bending over rushes and water gently swaying in a summer breeze made a huge impression and I have a kind of ache of nostalgia for English summer......freshly mown grass, buzzing creatures, the sound of an aeroplane overhead, Wimbledon in the background..........
The incredible thing is the day here has become hot and sunny and gentle....a real gift, as if in response to my desire!  The land smells of warm heathery peat, the sea is sparkling, and the washing on the line!
Back to the Faroes.

Torshavn Port

We arrived eventually very early on a Sunday morning in Torshavn Port, the harbourmaster telling us in a lovely sing song voice where to 'park' next to a lovely old wooden schooner which I was to get to know soon.

Our neighbour

It was so peaceful and I felt utterly dazed. The first thing we noticed was the turfed roofs everywhere,very charming, and almost all the houses wooden and painted in' farrow and ball' like Norwegian colours. We were told to wait for a visit from customs before going ashore but after an hour or so it became obvious that no one was going to visit us that time of morning so we went ashore anyway and walked up to the pretty church and around the deserted streets. Everything was moving from side to side! This is normal having been at sea for 46 hours.....actually quite a nice feeling. At 9 o clock a tinkling fairylike chiming sound came floating through the air like a spell being cast. It was the church bells.........melancholy and exquisitely beautiful and unlike anything I have ever heard. I would go back just to hear that sound again.

This is such a different land. These great lumps of volcanic rock surrounded by huge tugs of tide. You really have to know what is happening or you can get in to trouble very quickly. I read a story [true] about a boy who fell in love with a girl from another island a mile or so over the water. He would swim over to meet her on the flood and return on the ebb....until one evening he found her angry father waiting for him in her place. He forbade him to come ashore and forced him to swim back....the tide still flooding. He struggled against the power of the current in vain and was swept out to sea never to be seen again. There are countless tragic stories involving these tides. During the war a huge naval vessel misunderstood the name of the fjord he was due to anchor in and put the anchor down in a nearby similar sounding fjord......only to find that when the tide turned the speed and energy of the current sucked the ship under with it with hundreds on board. Terrible.
It was a good feeling to be safely berthed after a pretty rough crossing and we looked forward to getting to know these islands. There are 17 of them, 16 inhabited. Torshavn is the smallest capital city in the world. The houses all have a childs drawing like quality about them.....something about the dimensions and shapes of the windows,  and the colours also.

Two other yachts came in. They had left Scotland the day before us and had had a pretty dreadful passage. They had spent the night before on Suderoy, 6 hours or so South of Torshavn. It was great chatting to another British boat, the other was Canadian. You tend to only meet pretty hardcore sailors in this place....they tend to be [as they were] on their way to Iceland and Greenland and then on to Newfoundland.....serious stuff....icebergs 'n all!  We had a brilliant evening with them on Kyle and listened with awe at their travelling stories.......put our 'epic voyage' from Scotland in to perspective as they recounted their experiences of Chile, Madeira, Africa........I have to admit I felt envious and it stirred the wanderer / peregrine/dice tossing/curious gypsy compartment of my soul. Maybe one day???? Maybe sooner rather than later? Time is slipping away. There is so much world out there.

An evening with the amazing adventurers

The Faroese skipper of the blue schooner 'Nordysil' came and drank Highland Park whisky with us. He wanted me to play my violin on a trip in a couple of days to some caves. A great character and by all accounts a great chef. Had something to do with the setting up of the world famous restaurant in Copenhagen which won the best restaurant in the world accolade!!!!  Wow. When we left a week later he gave us some of the best cuts of Icelandic cod for our journey. I'm afraid I can't pronounce his name. here is a picture of me hugging him on our boat.


 We found a GREAT Japanese restaurant that evening...deep fried soft shell crab, scallops, sashimi......sake. A huge pleasure. We are very very fortunate indeed.

The next day we caught a ferry to Nolsoy where an eccentric and passionate ornothologist lives. He is famous for his collection of stuffed birds, bird lice and moths. He takes people on night trips to watch the storm petrels flying on to the island. he eats puffins, stuffs them and sells them ...so I was on a mission to acquire a stuffed puffin for Kyle.

Nolsoy

A whalebone arch in Nolsoy village



Fish drying outside a house in Nolsoy

When we found his house in the little harbour village on the small island he was out so we walked for a while and fortunately he was there when we returned. He is a lovely man and it was a privilege to meet him.

My special puffin purchase

Jen Jensens stuffed birds

... more birds

... and even more birds

I think I have spelt that wrong. Also in my last post I spelt jib wrong....I wrote gib. Just goes to show how much of a sailor I am!

More soon xxxxxxx



Jackie's mid June post



Gav checking the mast light in preparation for the passage

It seems a long time since I last sat here in Stornoway feeling frustrated at the weather from preventing us setting sail for the Faroes. We had hoped to be away mid May but found strong winds and gales meant we just couldn't begin our journey. Finally just as June began it seemed as if a weather gap was appearing , and although not perfect, I felt we had to at least try.

Our sea chart course

On May 31st we left Leosovay for Loch Roag. We had plenty of food, but needed to refill the diesel tanks and there is a good harbour at Meavaig about 6 hours away on the west coast of Lewis. As soon as we left the shelter of the sea around Taransay the swell became huge and my head was swimming if I had to go below. WOW! 'This is the Atlantic' the sea was saying 'I am a serious force to be reckoned with'. I have never been in sea like this. I didn't feel sick fortunately but strangely unbalanced as it was impossible to see a constant horizon. One moment it was clear, the next half the sky was filled with solid wave with a white tipping crest. Quite disconcerting, and we came close to turning back. It became clear that although these huge walls of water were rolling relentlessly towards us,  just as they were towering and toppling and seemingly about to engulf us, Kyle would simply ride up over them with ease and they passed beneath us and rolled on to the shore, crashing on the rocks. The agitated sea was a result of the last weeks of strong wind...and although the wind was probably a force 6, it was gusting 7 and the sea was a result of a much stronger wind.

Breaking waves

At one point I went to lie down in the aft cabin and strangely listened to a Britten Sinfonia At Lunch concert broadcast I had played in a few months before.........the reception crackly and the wind howling outside.
It was a relief to come in to Loch Roag at last on a lovely shining green lively sea with the wind behind us. A very sheltered friendly place and a few locals came down to admire the boat and to chat.

The next day was too windy to leave so I listened to lots of Radio 4 and practiced Beethoven  and started an arrangement of 'On the street where you live'. It's a lovely sound in the saloon on the boat. Really warm. Then another very windy day...impossible to leave. I made a chicken casserole for the journey and we just waited.

At last the forecast let us leave on June 4th and we gingerly motored out of the Loch praying for not too much swell. It looked promising but soon became big and pretty rough. It felt borderline. Kyle was happy. I could tell Gav didn't like it. We kept going and silently decided to commit. The wind, although predicted to ease, didnt let up and the waves felt like mountains with breaking crests. It was exhilarating, but not relaxing and no rhythm to the waves.......at least we were SAILING which was brilliant.

One of the most difficult things was going to the loo and it is definately a disadvantage being a woman in this respect! You can imagine......with the constant lurching and rolling of the boat......multiple layers of clothing.....oilskins, jumper, sweatshirt, vest.......I would imagine how entertaining and hilarious to have a webcam in that tiny wooden space watching the poor victim being thrown all over the place.
After 6 hours or so we decided to start the engine . Maybe it would steady the boat in the unpredictable motion of the waves. It failed to start. It was a bad moment. Gav went white and his mouth became a hard straight line. We were not in any immediate danger....plenty of wind and no rocks, but it was bloody scary. Imagine approaching the Faroes and the huge tidal races with no engine. It wasnt an option. I became silent...suddenly feeling hugely vulnerable being tossed around like a cork in the elements. Should we turn back? Surely more dangerous approaching rocky Hebridean shores. It was about 9 pm. Everything seems more foreboding as the sea grows darker. At least up here it stays light until 11.30 and then its never really dark...then the glow of a rising sun starts around 2.30 am.

Sun setting on the first night... note the big wall of water

At sea this is a wonderful thing for it to be so light for so long. My favourite time is when the sun has set and the sea turns a mercury silver and clouds become pink then purple then another colour that I dont know how to describe. It is a special time when on ones own on deck late at night, the other sleeping below, the implicit trust, the huge water and sky, the occasional seabird silhouetted, the moon silver on the water. Out of ones comfort zone the senses are on full receiving mode...sounds, smells, and light. Lights from other vessels most importantly.....anyway more of that later. To our huge relief Gav got the generator working and started the engine thank goodness. Some battery problem?? We would look at it tomorrow. The important thing was the engine was alive and so were we. We ploughed on through the darkening sea. We passed near a fishing boat who radioed us to ask where we were heading and telling us that the sea would get better tomorrow as the wind calmed. He was finding it tough going which made us feel intrepid. We picked up some travelling seagulls from around his boat and they wheeled around us for many hours looking brilliant white against the wine dark sea in the fading light. I felt like shouting to them "Go back to the other boat!  There will be no fishing here!" but they stayed with us for many hours.  Gav went to sleep and then got up again around 1 am. I put my head down then, but couldn't sleep and got up about 3.

The next day the wind was the same and the sea still rough. It was taking its time to settle. It felt like we were making our way Northwards wave by wave. Gav reefed the mainsail and used the gib rather than the genoa. He was feeling low after the engine failure and hibernated most of the day.
Around 3 the sun came out and the wind became kinder somehow. Kyle was wonderful and sailing brilliantly and fast. I made pasta with our sage plant and bacon and parmesan...all buttery and oily. Yummy!  Things were looking up.

I saw the vertical cliffs of Suderoy [the Faroes southernmost island] around 7pm. Fantastic and truly awesome. Its hard to use that word these days without hearing an American twang but that is the word to use. We approached them around 11pm. We were here!

Suderoy, Faroes - big Atlantic swell

I slept a few hours...it would be another 8 hours to Torshavn. When I woke we were speeding along like an ice skater on a silver sea with huge swells of silver in long intervals....not threatening, but magical. The islands are volcanic and rise sheer out of the sea majestically and the scale is difficult to describe. we saw the odd house perched on cliff edges and little villages of a handful of houses grouped together on the rare flat land in between the rising mountains. To be continued soon.................

Flying the Faroese flag on arrival

Faroese money - so beautiful

Torshavn Port Turf Roofs

Typical faroese house - with wooden chimney??!!