Saturday May 31st

  A late start today as we are not due to the Faroes until 12.30pm so we are spending the morning sailing over the smoothest of seas. I am not sure when or where the North Atlantic becomes the North Sea or the Arctic Ocean but so far these waters are not living up to their reputation which is a good thing. The air pressure has remained high which I guess is why we are having such good weather but it did drop slightly overnight so maybe it is on the way down.  I am spending the morning relaxing and catching up on a bit of washing. From my favourite location in the observation lounge on deck 6, I can now see tall rocky mountains starting to appear through a bank of cloud. I assume that this is our destination. The cloud seems very local and only over the islands. 

We arrived at the town of Tvoroyri (the first o is supposed to have an oblique line across it but don't seem to be able to do that here) on the island of Suduroy, in the south of the 18 islands that make up the Faroes (the name means islands of sheep). 

One thing I have noticed on this cruise is they have been able to stick exactly to planned schedules so far, but that has been helped, I am sure, by the great weather we have had.  We boarded buses and Napoleon, our guide (named after his grandfather not the French guy) took us on a tour of the island and along the way filled us in on island culture, politics, entertainment and anything else we wanted to know.  

We visited Porkeri (translation Pork Farm I think we were told) where there is a small church with a traditional turfed roof – no longer kept trimmed by placing sheep on the roof. 

 Napoleon sang a Faroese hymn for us as we followed along (not) from the hymn book.

Next stop was a lighthouse on the cliffs at Akraberg.  Like most, the lighthouse is now automated but there were two houses which had superb sea (cliff) views.

No signs here about cliffs or even fencing. I guess they accept that people can see that there is a sheer drop and have enough sense to be careful.  Even the sheep seemed to manage it!

We visited more cliff tops at Beinisvord where the mist had started to roll down the hills.

Then it was back to Sumba to watch some traditional Faroese chain dancing.

On the trip back to the ship we passed through Vagur with lost of boat houses on the side of the fiord 

and through a couple of the 18 or so tunnels that have been constructed through the mountains on the Faroes to make getting around be car a little easier. 

Singing is obviously a very important part of their culture and Napoleon also entertained us with a song that is sung after dinner to thank those who cooked the meal (and God I think) and another song that is sung by those who cooked the meal o thank the diners for their thanks.  And just before we left the bus he sang another one about a man who fell in love with a local girl and it took him 30 years yo pluck up the courage to ask her to marry him, and when he finally did she said yes but expressed her frustration that it had taken him so long.