Eighteen Faroese came sailing for the National Festival in the Westman Islands

Eighteen Faroese decided to sail on a 139-year-old sailing boat to the National Festival of the Westman Islands. Kári Jakobsen af Vogur in the South Island is part of the crew, and took along his son and grandson.

“The youngest person on board is 25 and the oldest person is 86. Most of the people on board are pensioners” Faroe Islander Jacobsen tells mbl.is as he explains that most of them are in their seventies in the sailing boat. He himself is 77, his son is 55 and his granddaughter is 25.

Met his wife in the Westman Islands

“I’ve been to the islands a lot because I met my wife there. The first time I came to the islands was in 1962, and then I came to the islands again in 1965, and it was October of that year. A year later, I came to the islands and met my wife, and I lived in the islands for five years before we moved to the Faroe Islands.” says Jacobsen.

Jacobsen has taken men to the boat, called Jóhanna, to the National Festival twice before, in 2013 and 2019.

Interest in the Faroe Islands for the National Festival

The interest of going to the Westman Islands to the National Festsival has been growing in the Faroe Islands, as there are even more people going, some of them  who have never been to the Westman Islands before.

“People who have visited the festival before were talking about how much fun it is so people decided to try it for themselves, ” he says and laughs.

Apparently, our Faroese cousins are not unlike Icelanders, because he says that the Faroese like to watch the hillside singing and to greet people in the white tents. He says that the locals have always been very welcoming to them.