Under the Sea! (Day 6)

After yesterday's long day we treated ourselves to a lazy morning. We drank two pots of coffee and did some laundry before setting out for the day. Today's mission was exploring Sandoy which is an island south of Streymoy (we sailed past it on our way to Suduroy yesterday). 

Until fairly recently this island was only accessible by ferry, but in 2023 they opened a tunnel between Streymoy and Sandoy. It's a 6km long undersea tunnel. This is actually the tunnel they were digging when they discovered the sub-ocean freshwater that is now being used for the Faer Island's vodka. 

This is the second undersea tunnel that we've used in the Faroe Islands, but it won't be our last. This is the newest tunnel and is an easy drive. As you are driving through the tunnel there periodic art installations that look like glowing cave paintings. We pulled over at one of the pull off spots to investigate and Dawn confirmed the art was projected on the walls. 

Since it's Sunday we've set our expectation's pretty low for Sandoy. We know the villages are small and nothing will be open. The weather app told us it would be 5 degrees colder than yesterday, but what we failed to appreciate is that it would not be raining and blue skies were returning to the Faroe Islands! This turned out to be very fortunate because most of the afternoons activities were sightseeing and being able to, you know see things, made it so much more enjoyable. 

Since the island is less populated it has its share of single tracked roads. We took two of them that were quite alarming. I'm not sure we would have made it to the southern-most town if I had to deal with driving a single-track road on the edge of a cliff in the rain. Overall we have an enjoyable afternoon just driving around the island and appreciating the views. 

We get back to Torshavn after 4:00 and have a bit of time to kill before our dinner reservations at 6:30. Fortunately there are multiple coffee shops with in a few minutes walk of our apartment so we have no problem wiling away our afternoon (and typing this). For dinner we have our last planned fine dining experience in the Faroes. 

Tonight its ROKS, which is part of the Raest and Aarstova restaurant group.  ROKS focuses on seafood and wine and doesn't disappoint on either account. We both did the tasting menu and I opted for the wine pairing. Two of the wines were so interesting and paired so well that Dawn ordered a glass for herself. One was a super funky Riesling and the other was a surprisingly fruity Alberino.  Another fun surprise, I had a seafood dish with brown butter that really made the brioche notes in a champagne pop. I need to see if that is repeatable with other champagnes. 

We also opted to add the snow crab dish to our meal. The staff treated this like making us crack and pick our own crab legs was going to be a fun and messy experience. They brough us tools for the jobs and did a bit of explaining. Little did they know that Dawn grew up near the Chesapeake Bay and can fieldstrip a crab blindfolded. She made short work of the crab legs. 

After dinner we decided to spend our last night in Torshavn watching the harbor. The view from this apartment has been very nice and we spend almost every morning and evening watching the lights reflect in the water and the boats come and go.