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Writer's pictureMark

Tearing ourselves away....

Today is the 13th of September and here we are still in the Faroe Islands. When we were about to push off from Stornoway I wondered if we were a little too late in the season to be heading north and yet, just over five weeks later, we are still here! We had favourable weather to allow departure after a couple of weeks but we didn't want to go. The Faroe Islands have infected us! Is this like the ‘Hotel California’ albeit with nothing but natural highs? Maybe..... This land is like no other land I have ever seen on earth. The feel is very laid back and friendly. The overwhelming majority of people are kind and welcoming but some are very, very special indeed. This sailing life inevitably means that you are always saying goodbye and mostly, that is goodbye to places that you have become attached to. The Faroe Islands, for us, is like that but with an extra unexpected element. I look back a few blogs ago when I described this place as being like a fairytale and I said 'turbo charge, super charge, turn everything up to the absolute max' in order to try and explain the scenery, the feel and the scale of this place. Looking back at that blog I can see that despite my best effort, my Essex education and therefore my literacy let me down. I do not have the words to do this place justice. However, I can say that what I wrote wasn’t just my initial exuberance, I stand by everything that I said. What I didn't realise back then was that it’s not just the landscape that is very special. We think the people, the Faroese, are too. I am aware that the word ‘people’ is a generalisation but that is what we think. What we know is that some of them are very, very special indeed and we have had the absolute pleasure of spending time with such people, with whom we will remain friends, and it is because of them that leaving this place feels like a very tough thing to do. The mood onboard has been a little sombre today. To some extent it feels like cutting my hand off to spite my penis!

My apologies for this turn of phrase but I'm simply not able to be too serious for too long. Please don't forget that I am just a man and men have to hastily cover soft sentiment with bravado. That's just one of the afflictions that owing a penis brings! However, please do not let this childish bravado distract you from the gravitas of what I am saying. My sentiment could not be more genuine. We have been truly blessed to have the opportunity to come here and truly blessed to meet the people we have met but the time to leave has come and it looks like that is going to happen tomorrow morning. Next stop is Suduroy, the southernmost island and from there we will look for a weather window to cross back to the UK mainland.


This is not a goodbye Fuglafjordur but a 'see you soon'. ❤️




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