Diving in the Faroe Islands
When I went to the Faroe Islands, I hadn’t originally planned on going diving. However, I had all my gear with me, and when I visited the little village of Gjögv – which means “gorge” and is named after the natural gorge that forms its harbour – I decided the water looked too tempting and I really wanted to go diving.
I did what every good traveller would do: I pulled up Google on my phone and searched for “diving faroe islands“. There were a couple of suggestions, but the only one that actually looked sensible was North Atlantic Diving. I filled out the contact form and within about 24h, I had booked a day of diving.
Bogi, the proprietor, was actually on holiday with his family in Italy at the time, but he organised Andrias to be my dive guide for the day. I was sent joining instructions:
We meet at 9 am. The [dive centre] is [in] a big green and yellow warehouse that has the name Kemilux written on it. Drive around the back where there are two garage doors and Andrias will be there waiting for you.
The night before, I had stayed at the Campsite in Eiði, so I had about a 45min drive south along the sound between Eysturoy and Streymoy. All the driving in the Faroes was just amazing, but this early morning drive was something special. Not just because I was excited about going diving, but the light was simply beautiful.
I’m a firm believer in “early is on time, and on time is late,” so of course, I was about 15 minutes too early. The industrial estate where the dive centre is located was deserted early on Saturday morning, but I just soaked in the morning sunlight, read a chapter or two on my Kindle, and recorded a few short clips for the video you can find below. I also took the chance to shuffle all my kit in the back of the truck so my dive box was easily accessible.
Once Andrias turned up, we went into the “dive-shack” to pick up tanks and some regulators for myself (my new regulators hadn’t arrived in time before I left on holiday). We also had the requisite paperwork (consent, medical assessment, insurance, emergency contacts, etc. – the usual…) to fill out.
A day out with North Atlantic Diving includes equipment hire, transport, lunch and snacks. So we loaded all the stuff into Andrias’ small car and headed off to the first dive site.
Dive 1: Kvívík Harbour
We drove all the way down onto the harbour wall and parked about 15m from the entry to the dive. Andrias explained the site so I knew what to expect. He was also extremely patient with me trying to work out how all my new kit worked – I had picked up my new Halcyon wing and Avatar drysuit about 2 days before I left on holiday, which meant that they were effectively christened on this dive.
You can hear (and see) Andrias explaining the site in the video below. The giant stride entry was great fun, and we did a weight check, which resulted in me adding another 1kg to each of my drysuit pockets. That didn’t help my trim at all, but it did help me sink. 
As we swam out of the harbour towards the kelp beds, I saw a flat-fish and got all sorts of excited – no idea what type of fish it was, but it’s the first flat-fish I’ve ever seen that wasn’t on a plate. We then headed out over the kelp beds, Andrias was definitely enjoying himself flying over the forest, before we dropped down to 10m or so and followed a rocky reef back towards the harbour. At some point, Andrias saw an octopus and tried pointing it out to me, but I couldn’t see it (I was still struggling with getting used to the vision distortion of the mask).
As the harbour entrance is at about 5m depth, our safety stop was completed by the time we got to the exit point. The end of the dive was made really easy by the ladder – albeit lugging the equipment and 15kg of extra weight 2m up the ladder did have me puffing a little bit…
Visibility was great, we saw loads of hermit crabs, some shrimps, lots of different types of little fish (and the flat-fish!) and supposedly an octopus. I was struggling with buoyancy and trim, but that was almost to be expected after my long hiatus and the new kit day. The water was about 10-11°C, but the Avatar undersuit was really toasty, I didn’t feel at all cold.
Post-dive, Andrias pulled out a thermos of coffee, we had a bit of a chat and debrief before packing the gear down and heading to the next site.
Dive 2: Gamla Hoyvik & the Heljareyga
After stopping at a rest stop for some lunch (hot sausages, more coffee and some chocolate), we drove to Gamla Hoyvik. Here too, we could drive nearly to the entry spot for the dive. Andrias had originally planned a different dive site for the second dive, but weather conditions were all over the place, so heading to this site, which was quite sheltered, was the better option.
Before getting kitted out, Andrias once again explained the dive site and emphasized the Heljareyga (“Hell’s Eye”) as one of the main highlights of the dive site (spoiler alert: it was!). The dive would be a shallow one, with sandy bottom and kelp beds before heading to the cliffs, the funnel cave, and then back to the pier.
I was struggling a bit with my buoyancy again, but shifting some of the weight to the top cam band of the wing had helped with my trim so I was no longer sea-horsing too much. The weather of the past few days had swirled up a lot of jellyfish and plankton, so visibility on this site was slightly worse. There were loads of jellyfish – in all sorts of shapes and sizes – and innumerable hermit crabs, some shrimp and a few fish. When we went into the Heljareyga funnel cave, a load of starfish were dislodged by the current from our fins, so it felt like it was raining starfish for a few moments. Some crabs were hidden away in little nooks and crannies inside the cave, but they were quite shy and didn’t want to come and say hello. We headed back leisurely to the pier and, once again, used a handy ladder to get back onto dry land.
The site had a hose near the pier which was really handy for washing all the salt off all of our gear. Of course, the Faroes being a scandinavian country, we had more coffee from the thermos, which seemed to be bottomless. After packing all the gear down again, we set off back to the dive shack to unpack and debrief.
Post-Dive Debrief
As I was staying on a campsite in Tórshavn for 2 nights with no way to hang or dry my kit, Andrias offered that I could leave my gear in the shack for a day or 2 to dry off. That was really helpful, and saved me from having to contend with damp kit in the back of the truck.
All in all, it was a fantastic day out. I saw far too little of the Faroes, so I definitely need to go back. The diving was interesting and varied, Andrias was a fantastic guide. All of my interaction with Bogi was extremely friendly and helpful, so I can highly recommend North Atlantic Diving if you’re ever thinking of diving in the Faroe Islands.
For me, in summary, it was a great experience. I enjoyed getting to know my new gear and slowly coming to terms with how it all handles underwater. It was good to be able to try a long-hose setup, and I’m 99% certain that’s how I’ll be setting up my regulators when they finally arrive.
Video
I took my GoPro with me. Of course I took the GoPro. I didn’t get as much footage underwater as I would have liked, but as I mentioned above, I was still getting to grips with the equipment and didn’t want to overload my task-loading too much. Head on over to my YouTube channel or watch the video below.
Spoiler alert: I didn’t get a sticker for my box…
All that remains is to say a big thank-you to Andrias and Bogi for a great day out!
