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