trip progress

Misha stayed on Nólsoy for today. Tomorrow he is supposed to 'park' his kayak at Torshavn, 3 miles away from where he is now.
It was a rainy day and Misha spent most of it in his tent, reading, cooking, having his meals and ... reading again.
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Misha came back to those camomile flowers of Nólsoy that he missed so much. Most of them already faded but he still has a 'camomile view' from his tent.
Today he paddled 16 miles. The current flooded east. And although Misha paddled NE, his speed was 7kn per hour, so that he almost 'missed' the island of Nólsoy.


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Tosay was a short paddling day. Misha arrived to Skopun, the most Northern village of the Sandoy island. It took him 2.5 hours to cover 13 miles distance. The current was with him
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Misha paddled to the West of Sandoy. He passed the tidal race between Sandoy and Skuvoy at the slack time, and still the tide's speed was 4kn. Locals say it comes to 8 kn when flooding.
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Misha paddled to a beautiful island of Sandoy. He did the crossing between Hestur and Sandoy at the slack time, following the locals' advice, and afterwords had to paddle against the current. That wasn't too bad :)
He stopped at the Husavik village, at the East coast.
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What a day!
Misha decided not to paddle to Mykines due to strong winds that could affect tidal races on his way and relatively long distance to cover.
He started paddling after 1 pm waiting for the slack to come, hoping to head for Hestur with the current.
The side wind within the passage picked up and raised to 20-30kn with the gusts of 35kn. The current that was supposed to switch was still running in the same direction, and Misha paddled with the speed of 1-2 kn. After he finally paddled out of the Vestmannasund passage, the current changed.
Further on Misha had to paddle through a tidal race with pretty choppy seas. In addition to all this, a heavy fog covered everything and Misha could hardly see anything for more than a few hundred meters. At this stage he already passed the Koltur island and was heading to Hestur.
Misha hardly new where he was going - apparently his GPS was on low battery. After some time, when he managed to switch the GPS on, he realized that he was paddling with 5 kn speed, in spite of the strong side wind. The current was with him! And eventually he saw Hestur!
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Today was one of those hard paddling days. Pretty windy, and at the end of the day Misha paddled through the Vestmannasund passage against the current. Luckily, there was a village in a protected bay not far from the passage entry.
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Today Misha made his way to Streymoy, the biggest of the Faroe islands. He stopped at the northernmost village of the island Tjørnuvík.
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Misha arrived to Vidoy island today. Vidoy is the northernmost of the Faroe Islands with the highest cliff in Europe, Enniberg. The view of the cliff from the water was most fascinating!
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Misha arrived to Svinoy. He paddled by the cliffs, explored the surroundings. Beautiful Svinoy and its villagers welcomed Misha with their hospitality.
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Misha Hoichman

Misha started paddling North planning to reach Mykines during the next days. However, paddling against the current was pretty exhosting and he finally decided to switch the direction and to paddle south.
He arrived to Nólsoy after several hours of paddling.

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Misha arrived to Hestur by ferry after meeting Alon at Torshavn.
Windy, cold and rain.
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Today I took the ferry across and then the bus to Tórshavn. It is a bit sad to end a trip, but even today I met some more nice local people. I was the only passenger in the bus and the bus driver offered me a ride to my destination, diverting his normal route.
Tomorrow I will meet Misha here in Tórshavn and try to give him some tips about the Faroes. In a way , I envy him for starting such a fantastic trip, but on the other hand, I want to go back home away from the bad weather :)
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Today I climbed the hills of the island, I made it to a big grassy area with lakes, sheep and lots of bird life. After all the walking I bought access (25 dkk) to the public swimming pool. Since I was the only one I just got the key and was free to go for a swim and enjoy a nice hot shower. It has been a perfect day, sunny but with cool air. Tomorrow I am gonna take the ferry back to Tórshavn but leaving the kayak behind for Misha to take over. I think I already told most of the 15 people who lives here that he will be coming so they will be waiting for him.
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This is so far the nicest place I have been here. Not many people live here all year but there are a lot of summer houses. Its so beautiful and clean. Tomorrow will be a day on land, there is a hill I will try and climb where there should be a lot of paths so I will go and explore a bit.
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No leaks on the kayak, excellent fix! Today I went through 3 tidal races, 2 with fast currents and the other with big waves, none of them too dramatic though. The paddle was only 5 hours, I got good help from a strong current, landed at 1500, had soup and organized all my stuff. From the opening of my tent I can see Torshavn, which in the beginning looked to me as a small town, but now after having seen what small towns are here, looks like a big city.
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Erik fixed the kayak! He is only 23 years old but extremely talented. He managed to restore the rim as if it is new. He also fixed all the other gelcoat damages. Thank you erik.
Weather doesnt look too good for today and tomorrow, it is a bit windy, but i hope to paddle tomorrow regardless. That is why i am moving down the fjord to a more protected areas...

Atli drove me with the kayak to Norðdepli, a little town not too far from Viðareiði, but with much better protected harbour and access to the south side. When we got there, Atli called his freind, jóhannes, and I got permission to stay in his boat house for the night. An hour later jóhannes invited me to stay at his home. I was lucky not only to get a nice shower, but also a great home meal made by jóhannes wife, jórun. I tried skerpikjøt, cold dried lamb meat - not cooked!!! I must say that the taste was a little bit strong for me, although it is good when eaten in small portions.
It was a bit windy today and tomorrow doesnt look much better, but I hope make some progress regardless.
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Today is a fixing day. I am not sure I will be able to restore the cockpit rim, but I am sure that duck tape will be enough for the gelcoat damages. I put some epoxy glue to attach the 4 pieces of the broken rim. I hope it will be strong enough for the actual fix. I plan to coat the inside rim with some thick layer of epoxy, using the rim broken parts only as a bonding material. The first part is done lets see how my plan will work...
twist in the plot:
I was talking to someone here about my kayak. 5 minutes later, he arrange someone to fix it. So now I am sitting here in the hotel loby while someone else is proffecinaly working on my kayak. should be done be the evening. And the kayak will be ready by tomorrow after a good long dry.
fingers crossed for a good fixing.
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Today started well. the wind did not affected my paddle too much and I had a good progress in the first few hours. When I approached the north part of Kunoy the reflections of the waves became stronger and stronger. I had to hug the cliffs due to the currents and it was hard and frustrating paddling. Things got even harder once I paddled arround the cliffs of Vidoy. Thick fog covered me and the reflections were enormuse. It was only about 2 meter swell, but the current made it much worse. Visibility was between 50 to 100 meters and I didnt want to paddle to my initial destination - Svinoy. I started to develop some light simptoms of sea sickness and all I could think about was solid ground.
But the worst was still to come: The Viðareiði bay turned to be a very hard landing spot. the jetty was stip and the waves created alivations of over 3 meters there with under 10 seconds frequency. It meant swiming, attaching a rope to the boat and try to climb on the jetty. If I wont be fast enough, I might find myself in the middle of the sea, where there are strong currents and out of my boat. I had to think of another alternative.
There was a small, stip, rocky beach there. the waves were breaking on this beach, but It might work. due to the breaks, I wont end up in the middle of the sea.
I counted the waves to find out when is best to jump off my kayak. So far I was checking and prepering for about 20 minutes... the time has come. I released my paddle from the its roap, jumped off my boat and throw away the paddle as far up the land as I could. I held the kayak and started to pull it up the stip rocks. I managed to drag it a few meters when a big wave broak and throw the kayaks on the rocks and then tried to pull it down to the sea. The kayaks cockpit filled with water and was impossible to pull up. more waves came and by the time I managed to empty it from water and put it safly away from the waves, the paddle was taken by the sea. I saw it floating for a little while, but by the time I was done with the boat, it was completely gone! I wouldnt jump to get it even if it was still visible...
I went back to the kayak only to discover that the front hatch rim broke and that the gelcoat was broken in a 3 places as well.
After scuring all my gear I took a quick shower with the habour hose and put on dry cloths.
When I went up towards the village I met Atli Hansen and his wife Lis. They gave me permission to tent in their garden. Atli came with some hot drink. I was very happy to end up where I did :)
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Today the weather was terrible, windy and lots and los of rain. I took the bus from Klaksvik to Viðareiði and spent a few hours there.
Today went easy with no big dramas.
In the afternoon I had a nice hot shower thanks to the rowing club.
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Today I paddled to Klaksvik, it was a bit hard to find landing where I could also put up my tent. In the end I found a tiny grassy area right next to a rowing club where they where friendly enough to offer me a hot shower! I got washed and so did my gear. Great! I took a walk in town and tomorrow Im thinking about taking a bus to explore a bit more of the island, since it doesnt look like the weather will allow me to be on the water.

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By myself. Weird that Oded is now gone and I have to get use to being by myself. Today was a good paddle now the tent is up and Im gonna go to the petrol station in order to buy a coke and get some more space to look at my maps and plan what I will do in the following days.
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Today was the last day for Oded, it was great spending time with him as he is a great guy. We took a short day in order to make sure the he had a way of transporting himself back to Torshavn where he will send his kayak back home to Israel. Thanks for now!
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After the big corner we got hit by a wind stronger than 15 knots, quite a big tidal race and a swell at about 1,5 meters. A bit intimidating I must admit. Further north it opened up and the wind went down dramatically, but then the fog started to play with us. Now in the evening its a mixture of sun and clouds. We are staying a bit away from Saksun since we dont wanna get caught ind the tide tomorrow, and just came back from a walk to town to collect water. The scenery here is absolutely stunning!

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The weather werent with us today either, so after we talked to a few of the locals we decided to take the ferry to relocate. Everyone here are so nice, the didnt even charge us for taking the kayaks on the ferry! As for now the forecast for tomorrow looks promising, so we are of to bed hoping for the weather to be with us again.
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The morning was nice and sunny, we went for a climb and then the wind started to come in in the afternoon joined by rain and in the evening it started to storm. So no paddling today.
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We had a difficult morning with choppy sea which eased up a bit later on. Around lunch we stopped at Tintholmur a beautiful small island, went for a walk, took some pictures and waited for the tide to change. At the crossing to Mykines the race was hard and flowing fast, we saw whales! Stunning! The harbor here at Mykines is tiny and very steep, so we had quite a climb.

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A very good first day on the water, just getting used to the new environment, the currents werent as strong as expected, we went through three small races but mainly we just had choppy water. Today we arrived at the village Sandavagur where they are having a festival in the following days and it looks like they are gonna have a big party tonight. I think we will skip and go early to bed instead, need to be ready for another day tomorrow, does take a few days to get back into the rhythm.
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Ok, so we arrived in Tórshavn this afternoon. we got our gear together, hoping to get on the water and paddle for couple of hours.
Oded is using a folded kayak which took him 4 hours to assemble and considering the tide direction we decided to start tomorrow morning instead of heaving a night paddle.
The forecast looks good so we should enjoy our first paddle day... another thing we decided to go south first :)
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In the first day of the trip Oded and I will put our boats in the water and just start paddle towards the north part.
We don't plan to circumnavigate it, just paddle some of the coastline there.
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