AT SEA Tues. July 23

            Rain again!  An hour or so ago we had some very welcome blue sky. I decided to do a small update on what’s been happening since we didn’t visit Torshavn (July 18). Most of the time since then we have had fog, rain and a lot of rough sea.

            Every morn I’ve been waking to the dismal sound of the fog horn bellowing every two or three minutes; every evening I’ve gone to sleep to the same mournful sound. Although there’s no fog today – yet. (10.30am) The skies are leaden and the sea has once again started to have ‘white horses’ and look very unsettled.

            The Captain warned us earlier that the North Atlantic was noted for rough weather. And rough weather we’ve had. He also said he was taking a course between two Low Systems to avoid as much unpleasant weather as possible.

Four nights ago we ran into the worst of it. I just took to early bed. I know that works for me when things get really bad. I don’t get sick if I climb into bed, cover my eyes and tell myself I’m being rocked on the bosom of the deep. Then I drop off to sleep.

That night Bruce decided to go down to the show in the Theatre. About 9.30 the door flew open and he arrived back.

He said “Well – they’re all staggering around out there like a mob of drunken sailors!”  In this he included himself.

The ship was kicking and bucking occasionally in a most alarming way likely to throw everyone off their feet. The Captain recommended moving around the ship cautiously, especially on stairs, and advised the use of handrails. It’s funny how a big ship like this can be hit by the occasional wave which feels like some sort of Titanic adventure. (Mind you, we passed within 14 miles of the Titanic wreck the other day. No icebergs around.)

At midday today the Captain tells us that totally unaccounted for bad weather has struck again, and winds of 35 to 40 knots an hour are pushing the sea up into ominous waves. Too bad. Maybe it’s bed for me in a few hours. Again.

What else has happened as we have progressed in a mainly South Westerly  and Westerly direction towards New York? Three times in the last few days we have had to put our clocks back an hour overnight. And it’s coming up again tonight to get to New York time: 4 hours behind Greenwich Mean Time.

Sunset and sunrise have also changed dramatically. At Torshaven  the sunrise was at 4.17am and sunset at 10.47pm. Today sunrise was at 5.23am and sunset (provided we have sun) will be at 8.33pm. And the changes will progress in the next few days.

Temperatures have also changed as we moved South into warmer climes.

Torshavn – low of 11°C and high of 12°C (really turned out colder than that with the fog). Today they told us to expect low of 14° and high of 20°.

            At noon the Captain said the unexpected weather deterioration was likely to continue through this afternoon and evening.

            Oh well . . . .

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 25^th.

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..