Day 11: Vestmanna, Stremoy, Faroe Islands
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A leisurely morning cruising towards
the Faroes before docking in Vestmanna. An afternoon
small boat cruise to see the spectacular cliffs.
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The distance between
Höfn and Vestmanna is 250 nautical miles. It took us
20 hours to cover the distance, at an average speed of 12.5
knots. |
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In complete contrast
to most of our stay in Iceland, the Faroe Islands were shrouded
in cloud. This is typical weather for these islands, situated
as they are in the middle of the Gulf Stream. Visibility
did improve during our stay, but not consistently and not
for long. Nevertheless, we loved the brooding, mysterious
landscape as it slowly revealed itself. We were also very
lucky that we didn't have any rain while we were here. |
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Pre-lunch
drinks to celebrate a new country! |
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The port
of Vestmanna ahead. |
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Looking
across to the other side of the bay, which was were the afternoon
boat trip would leave from. |
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Some
people took the coach to the departure point, outside the tourist
office... |
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...Bruce
decided to walk. Geoff decided not to go. |
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Our boat
for the excursion. |
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Our route
into Vestmanna is shown in blue. The route of our afternoon excursion
in shown in white. |
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Setting
off, we sailed past our ship and took the same route out as we had
coming in to the bay. |
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Sailing
slowly, we were able to get some good views of the landscape. |
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Turning
right, we hugged the coastline, with its amazingly high cliffs. |
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Sailing
right into the cleft, through some caves and out the other side
was pretty special. |
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The trip
took almost two hours and was most enjoyable, but it was 7:30pm
and I was looking forward to dinner! |
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I decided to take the
coach back to the ship. Dropping my stuff off in the cabin
(Geoff had already gone to dinner), I saw that our cabin
attendant had been creative with our towels! |
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It was
only a short sail from Vestmanna to Torshavn. |
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