A Speed Date with Shetland
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| From And so to Shetland |
The weather in these northern latitudes this summer may have been cold and sunless , but we won’t complain about the winds. Every time we want to do a longish passage, a few days wait has delivered us perfect windows of fair winds. Faeroe to Shetland was a case in point. The course is pretty much 180 nm SE. A near gale from the NE was perhaps a bit too sporting , but by waiting 24 hours the wind backed into the North giving us a broad reach for the first 12 hours before backing further into the NW to give us a very rolly run (the swell remained firmly in the NE) which was nevertheless infinitely more comfortable than bashing to windward.
After just over 24 hours we were back in the sheltered waters of Shetland and palpably relaxing. These two archipelagos have much in common, not least the extreme friendliness of their people. Both have magnificent scenery, but Shetland is somehow less intimidating. There are fierce currents in between both sets of islands, and races (or roosts) off the headlands, but those of Shetland are pussycats compared with their Faeroese cousins .There again the sounds and voes of Shetland have more room than those of Faeroe and consequently the winds are steadier and more stable. Finally, this was not our first visit to Shetland, and there is a satisfaction in revisiting well known places that I perhaps have not recognised before now. Whatever the reason, we slipped through the sound between Yell and Mainland and snuck into Burra Voe with real pleasure .
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| From And so to Shetland |
Seemingly within minutes I was invited to row with the local rowing club ( OK , I invited myself , but nobody suggested I was too old this time!) and had a fun evening with them on Festina afterwards. Shetland was already beginning to weave its magic on us, just as it had on our last visit.
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| From And so to Shetland |
One advantage that Faero does have is superb 3G mobile coverage, so accessing forecasts there is very easy. Not so in Shetland, so we slipped down to Lerwick to study the weather once more and decide where we would leave the boat for our now traditional mid cruise break. With friendly contacts in both Shetland and Stavanger, the choice boiled down to a second half exploration of Shetland and Orkney , and home via the East coast , or a shorter stay on Shetland , leave the boat in Stavanger and perhaps enjoy the warmer weather that the SE coast of Norway might offer. Once more the grib files made up our mind for us, offering us perfect winds for Stavanger in a week’s time . Flights were booked , and almost immediately we began to have doubts as our weather window began to narrow, leaving us much less time than we had intended to immerse ourselves in the delights of Shetland. It seems that we have still not learned the art of staying still long enough to really get under the skin of a place , but at least we were able to spend an entertaining evening with Tommy Allen and his wife , the wonderfully friendly couple who had , on our previous visit had lent us their car . Not only are they good fun, but an evening spent in the company of someone who actually lives in a place gives you more insight than weeks of being a tourist.
Lerwick was quite crowded but surprisingly we were the only British boat there. Two Swiss boats, a Canadian, several Germans and of course a number of Norwegians lined the quayside and prominent amongst them was a small rowing boat in which a 67 year old Norwegian with the magnificent name of Ragnar Thorseth had just rowed over from Bergen! The guy was obviously bonkers , and I couldn’t decide whether he disproved the Faeroese assertion that I was too old to row , or perhaps confirmed it ( “you must be mad if you want to row at that age!”). Probably both!
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| From And so to Shetland |
On our last visit to Shetland we had anchored in the natural harbour behind the Lingness peninsular and had been treated to an evening of otter watching , so once our re-provisioning was done we set off to find them again. No otters this time, but seals galore, and next day, once the rain had cleared, we were off again for Unst, the most Northerly island , thinking we might have 3 or 4 days to explore . Sadly each forecast brought our weather window even further forward, so after 2 days we set off East bound for Norway. Perhaps next year we should set aside the whole summer in Shetland and Orkney.