The audacious skipper and his travelling companions, Lochinver harbourmaster and former Lochinver lifeboat coxswain Neil Gudgeon, and the marine superintendent in the Highland harbours department, Neil Simpson of Drumbeg, embarked at midnight last Monday.

Although the three friends had talked of making the trip several months ago, agreeing to go for it if there was a good forecast nearer the time, the decision to make the voyage was a last-minute one on the Sunday night, following the Faroes’ surprisingly close result against world champions Italy on June 2. Italy had won the match 2-1, but were taken to the limit after the 77th minute goal by the home team. The Scotland away game against the unpredictable Faroes promised to be an exciting one, but it was the forecast of high pressure for the week ahead that was the key factor.

Having missed the deadline for tickets three weeks beforehand, the intrepid trio took a gamble that they would be able to get hold of some on arrival in the Faroes.

The Fortitude completed the 240-mile, 36-hour sail, arriving in the capital and chief port of Tórshavn at 6am on Wednesday and tying up alongside a Lerwick boat and another from Kyle.

They had stopped off en route to set creels at North Rona – the furthest that Bruce had previously been with the Fortitude – hoping to catch lobsters to go towards fuel costs for the trip, and later crossed the continental shelf before reaching the islands.

The match against Italy a few days before had been played in Tórshavn, but the Scotland fixture was played at Toftir on a neighbouring island.

The fact that the Faroes had previously drawn twice against Scotland at this particular venue, with a capacity of only 5000, may have had something to do with it. Some 1000 Scottish fans made it over for the game, making up a fifth of the capacity crowd.

Skipper Bruce MacKenzie(front) with some of the Scotland fans they met in Torshavn.

The Assynt contingent had met fellow supporters from Durness and Helmsdale in Tórshavn, who joined them on board the Fortitude on the crossing to Toftir for the match, and were able to pick up three tickets going spare as a result of supporters who were unable to make the trip.

After celebrating Scotland’s 2-0 victory on Wednesday night, the Fortitude and its bleary-eyed crew departed the next morning at 11am, picked up the creels at North Rona on Friday morning and were back in Lochinver by 6pm that evening.

The three headed straight to the pub for well-earned liquid refreshments – all the more enjoyable on home turf at less than half the price of a pint in the Faroes!

“I lost a week at sea, but I am really glad we did it – we might never get the chance again, with the combination of Scotland playing the Faroes away and that spell of high pressure,” said Bruce.

The Faroes are a group of 18 islands, between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic ocean, about halfway from Iceland to Norway.

With a population of about 48,000, the Faroes have been an autonomous region of the Kingdom of Denmark since 1948. Faroese is the national language and is rooted in Old Norse. Nordic languages are readily understood by most Faroese, and English is also widely spoken, especially among the younger people.

Fishing is the most important source of income for the Faroes, with fish products representing some 97 per cent of exports. Faroese fishing boats land regularly at Lochinver harbour, and their crews are often seen stocking up on chocolate (evidently as highly priced as the beer at home), at the stores.

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