So it falls to me, Nigel as the “young un” to fill out this blog entry. Mike has filled you in on the passage from Scotland to the Westerman Islands. My first long passage. A good sail, under sail about 3/4 of the way. Claggy for most of it but the sun did shine now and again. We slipped in to the watch keeping well taking 4 hr stints. The “A team”, Myself and AL and the “Also rans” Mike and Ian. A bit of friendly rivalry to see who could keep the boat above 30 miles per 4 hr watch…. Food consumption was conspicuously slow due to the rolling nature of the seas. It took a while before it was thought wise to tackle the “Lorne Sausage”. We arrived here at the Westerman Islands mid day ish on Friday. As Mike has said in wind and rain. Tied up along side the harbour wall at low tide made getting ashore a Via Ferrata like vertical steel, recently painted ladder. Meaning that your hands getting a nice covering of yellow paint…. An impressive bit of ship manoeuvring was observed as a small cruise ship came in and did a 180 degree turn with the help of a tug so that it was pointing in the correct direction to leave.

A quick run ashore to sample the delights of the town. First impressions were good. Well kept tidy streets and houses. We were on a mission to find an eating house for the evening's meal as appetites had returned!! We managed to find the local micro brewery “The Brothers Brewery” various beers were tasted…. Not many options of Restaurants but we decided on Slippurinn Eatery housed in a converted machine shop. Plenty of bits of old iron for me to look at. An interesting and tasty menu. As to be expected Fish was a aplenty on the menu. Highlights being a whole Cods head for main course along with Guillemot shish Kebab as a starter. The Fish soup was particularly fine. Costs high but quality also high…..

Nice to have a full nights sleep on an even keel. Saturday the weather cleared for a bimble up the now extinct volcano Eldfell. The last eruption was a major event in 1973 with a massive lava flow increasing the size of the island and burying many houses. It also threatened closing off access to the harbour. It was amazing to see how much the landscape had been changed. We also visited a well laid out and informative museum. The centre piece being an excavated house. Modern tech provided a personal audio guide around the museum.

A damp start to the day on Sunday, an ideal opportunity to up date the blog! I'm just sorting some photos to follow