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Disathairne, 12/Jul/2014

A Viking Ship visits Islay (again)

Islay News in stencil

Some more blogging from me again. Following my earlier injury I'm making progress in the recovery, today for the first time in almost four weeks I did some mixed light jogging and walking. It seems to have gone well, so far I don't seem to have any adverse reaction in the leg. Now on to the topic at hand, a Viking Ship visiting Islay today:

Yesterday evening I spotted a tweet from a Viking ship heading towards Mull and Islay. Following a short exchange I knew that the Draken Harald Hårfagre (Dragon Harald Fairhair) was aiming to visit Port Ellen today. Unfortunately I'm not on Islay just now, but luckily there are kind people with cameras around. A friend from Islay sent me three great shots, starting with this one of the ship arriving in Port Ellen:

Picture of a viking ship replica arriving in a harbour

Here's a view into the ship, looking quite spartan especially considering they sailed across the north sea from Norway over to Scotland:

Picture of the deck of a Viking ship replica

And finally the crew receiving directions from the captain (blond hair in the centre), I believe they will be visiting Islay distilleries this afternoon:

Picture of the crew of a replica Viking ship on deck

Unfortunately the Draken Harald Hårfagre lost her mast on the way from Norway over to Scotland in some very heavy winds. They hope to replace it when they are in Liverpool (the destination of this trip). To give you an impression of her with the mast and under sail, here's a rather amazing video of her last year:

YouTube: Sailing Draken Harald Hårfagre summer 2013

They will be leaving Islay on Sunday morning, so if you're around and would like to see her you still have time. I think it's well worth taking a look, I love her elegant lines. Oh, and in case you're wondering why the title of the entry reads ‘A Viking Ship visits Islay (again)’, almost exactly seven years ago another (much smaller I believe) Viking ship visited Islay. I hope this won't be the last Viking ship visiting Islay, I'm sure the Draken Harald Hårfagre would be welcome again.

For more about Draken Harald Hårfagre's journey you can follow them on Twitter @DrakenHH or visit their Draken Harald Hårfagre Facebook page.

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