Necessity is in Lerwick in Shetland

Necessity
Eva and Jan Fr. Mack
Thu 15 Aug 2013 07:47
Our position is 60:09:25N 01:08:46W
There is not too much to tell about the sail from Thorshavn to here. It was easy, fast at times, and a bit of motoring in order to get in for the tide. Like in the Faroes we had to go through a fairly long sound from west to east to get to Lerwick.
The Shetland islands look pretty much like the Faroes, and even here the names are all Scandinavian (or have Scandinavian roots). Both island groups, and also the Orkneys and Isla of Man, used to be Norwegian territory, but way back some Norwegian king could only pay dowry for a British princess by giving away the now "British" isles. The Faroes of course remained Norwegian, then Danish-Norwegian, now autonomous territory under Denmark. The resulting difference is considerable. Thorshavn looks very Danish, Lerwick looks very Scottish. Thorshavn has Danish pastries, Lerwich has pubs. I can live with both.
The centre is still how I remember it from 10 ears ago, but the rest is totally changed. There are many new offshore installations to the west of Shetland, and in Lerwick there are offshore related activities all over. Also the fishing seems to have gotten a considerable boost (they have a lot of fish farming here too).
We are now ready to go home. One day and a night is all it takes to reach Bergen. We will probably be off tomorrow.
Jan Fr. 15.08.13

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