Passing The Hebrides

Today, we’ve continued on our Northerly transit towards the Faroe Islands. This morning, as we ate breakfast, we had the Isle of Lewis off the port side, and the Isle of Skye, with with its distinctive towering Cuillin peaks, disappearing behind us on the starboard side. In contrast to yesterday’s clear sunny skies and calm waters, we’ve had a noticeable swell all day, and very limited visibility with cold grey seas and murky skies. It’s also rained on and off, forcing people inside and filling up the public lounges.

It’s been a day of sitting around, drinking lots of tea and talking to people. We were joined at breakfast by Andy Leech and Bruce Thompson, the two guest acts (Bruce’s first act is tonight), with whom we swapped stories and anecdotes of cruises past almost up until lunchtime.

After lunch, I ran my second class (tonal study), which was full to bursting, followed by more tea and conversation that stretched long into the late afternoon. By 5:30pm, I was flagging; the combination of running the class and the steady rocking of the ship making me want to lie down and recharge my batteries.

Tomorrow, we will be arriving at our first port-of-call, Kollafjordur in the Faroe Islands, and both Tracey and I have been assigned Tour Escorting duties. Tracey will be on a bus panorama tour, and I’m doing a three-mile hike through remote glacial landscape to Streymoy Sill, where we should be rewarded with impressive views (weather permitting) across to the island of Vagar. Bring it on…