The sail from Skye to Faroe was generally as predicted. Light winds from the SE at the outset found us motoring north, wind building gently forward then backing aft towards the beam 1/2 way through up to 15 kn. Check, check, and check resulted in some decent sailing during that middle portion.Finally, the wind was to swing forward by the end of our sail. Which it did, but at 20-25 knots, not 15...so let's say that the last 1/3 of the trip was a bit lumpy except when we closed on the south tip of the island of Suduroy (pronounced SUU-roy as the "d" is silent when spelled with a slash through it) where upon seas became quite animated. We arrived in Tvorori around 6:30 PM and were happy to be in harbor.
The harbourmaster's name is Christian and Christian was a wonderful help with paperwork, locating customs and immigration, etc. He might often be too busy to reply to an entry call on CH. 16 but after several unsuccessful attempts, Torshaven radio came back to us and instructed us that they would contact the HM to inform him of our impending arrival; he did later respond to our call. As for berthing, a major mid-town wharf previously used for tie up has been occupied by a new fish processing plant (2013) and best option now seems to be to lie at a down-harbor wooden wharf but the wharf had the primo inner spot occupied by a local boat and the hammerhead occupied by one of the two cruising boats we came upon. We initially attempted to tie to the side-to face of the wharf but ultimately elected to anchor out for the night. The next morning the wharf was free and we went alongside.
Still, it was a very protected anchorage, all was good and we settled in. Monday and Tuesday were filled with some sightseeing about town and cruising necessities such as gathering access tools for navigation and Internet phone access. We found wifi at the Information Sight office but mobile data was difficult to impossible to realize as the Vodafone system would connect to some of our phones but would never connect to the Internet. I spent hours on the phone with Voda, and visited a local phone ISP. No solutions, still a problem. I plan to give in and buy a Faroese plan for these islands on Foraya Tele.
Doug and Chuck did quite a bit of exploring about Tvorori. We were one of the early boats to arrive and were interviewed by local officials for the island website and the mayor came to greet us. We enjoyed an awesome hike on Tuesday to a lake on the east coast of the island, scenery fantastic and superb photo ops.
Cruiser's nugget: EU roaming and cellular data by Vodafone may or may not be available. It was not available for us. The commercial chandlery down by the fish plant is owned by Jens Sigurd Simonsen. Jens was happy to assist us and was a great help providing information about needed gear/items
Itineraries finally discussed, we looked at moving north to Torshaven (TOR-shven). Although only 35 nm., weather and currents make passage planning an interesting proposition. I deduced that best compromise was to depart Tvorori at 1 1/2 hours after high water Dover and although windy on Wednesday, the wind was NWly. Thursday was only a modest amount lighter but NNW winds were forecast so we left Wednesday morning in 20-25 knots NW. I had triple reefed main and staysail out as we departed and we were moving along respectably but once we hit ocean swells and wind waves we needed a bit more punch and the yankee jib was partially unfurled. This 3 sail grouping was fantastic and we had an exhilarating sail, initially beam then close reaching making 8-9 knots with ability to roll in the jib and de-power when squalls came through. Said squalls were frequent and blowing 28-34 knots, but they were brief and the sky was blue between - we have been quite fortunate to avoid days on end of thick low clouds, we have had blue sky visible somewhere most of the time, sharing the sky with banded fast moving squalls.
Cruiser's nugget: We decided that the decision to depart Tvorori for Torshaven 1 1/2 hours after high water Dover was a good one. We conservatively stayed 4 nm. off islands and passes, but slid west to 2 miles off as we gained confidence in reasonable sea conditions. Wind was 20-30 kn. NW, current arrows were mildly adverse swing to abeam and aft but no major rips encountered.
We closed in on Torshaven close hauled with snow capped tops visible on the mountains. Our one tack, made to gain ground to the west brought us into another squall, this time accompanied by a face stinging hail storm. I described the passage as fantastic sail, beautiful sights, quite windy with a side of hail. All good!
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Best wishes from Bill and the crew of Visions of Johanna.
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