Friday, July 19, 2013

THE FAROE ISLANDS- Torshaven Thurs. July 18




What a disaster today is! Deep fog outside the balcony so we can’t even see the twenty (?) metres to the sea just below beside the ship. Just thick white blanket outside and the deep foghorn of the ship sounding mournfully every few minutes. That foghorn is a dismal and depressing sound that reverberates through you.
The Captain came over the TV into the cabin while I was still in bed to tell us the sad story. Winds outside were too strong so the ship couldn’t safely berth at Torshaven, and attempts to make it a ‘Tender Port’ were abandoned when the winds prevented positioning the ship for anchor.
He said the safety of passengers and ship were his priority, so he sadly abandoned our visit to the Faroe Islands. Things have not improved, with the white blanket all around us. Air temperatures outside are up to a cold 12°C. We can’t see it but the sun was to rise at 4.17am and will set at 10.47pm. The night is fairly light before and after these times. Though I have not stayed awake to see if and when it gets quite dark.
At mid-day the Captain came through again with updates on the weather and the ship’s course. The winds are still strong – up to 35 knots per hour, and likely to get worse in this North Atlantic Ocean.
He has planned a course to avoid the worst of the weather. It’s not the shortest route, nor one that would take us through the fishing banks off North America as weather there is regularly rough and foggy. There are two ‘Lows’ coming in from the West so he is planning a course between them as the least rough and uncomfortable on the way to New York by July 25th.
We have passed below Iceland which straddles the Arctic Circle and will be travelling at approximately the latitude of Bergin, Norway, for the moment. We are South of the Shetland Islands of Britain, and heading roughly West to South West..




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