SV Kiviuq

At sea, 10th August, 1700LT: Having experienced strong SW winds while at anchor we departed Loch Eriboll this morning in light airs. The sun shone and as we made our way down the loch Marilou identified the white stones on the hills on the western side of the loch arranged to form 'HMS HOOD' by members of the battleship HMS Hood's company when she was moored in the loch a long time ago. Hood subsequently engaged the German battle cruiser Bismarck in the Denmark Strait between Iceland and Greenland early in World War 2. Not long into the action Hood was hit by a shell in the forward magazine, almost instantly exploded and rapidly disappeared beneath the cold grey waves with the loss of almost the entire ship's complement. The naval disaster caused loss of morale among the British public. Winston Churchill ordered that the Bismarck was at all costs to be hunted down and sunk. A lot of resources were deployed to achieve this, and in due course the Hood was revenged. The stones in Loch Eriboll are a poignant reminder of those dramatic days and of the sailors on both sides in WW2 who lost their lives serving their countries. As we passed we lowered our ensign as a mark of respect and gave thought to those souls. We are currently about 40 miles north of Loch Eriboll on course for the Faroes. At sea, 11th August, 1040LT: We are about 60 miles south of the most southerly Faroe Island of Suduroy enjoying pleasant weather and a good sailing breeze of around 20kts from the SW. Kiviuq is romping along at between 7 and 8 knots. Pleasingly the windvane steering is doing a lot of the work for us. With luck we will be closing Suduroy in the late afternoon. Trongisvagsfjordur, 12th August, 0900LT: We raised the island of Suduroy in mid afternoon yesterday and as we approached the spectacular cliffs for which the Faroes are known became clearer. Having decided to do customs and immigration in the harbour of Tvoroyri we entered the fjord at about 1900hrs and were anchored at the head by about 2000hrs. This is a charming and scenic place.