Ove Joensen

Who was Ove Joensen?

Ove Joensen was a Faroese seaman and adventurer.

Ove Joensen was living on the Island of Nólsoy, where he built his Faroe boat Diana Victoria, to row the 900 nautical miles from the Faroes to Copenhagen in Denmark. After two unsuccessful tries in 1984 and 1985, where he reached the Shetland Islands, he succeeded in 1986, when he arrived in Copenhagen on 11 August 1986 after 41 days rowing alone. Thousands of people were greeting him in the Danish capital. The Danes called him Ro-Ove.

In 1987 Ove drowned in Skálafjørður-inlet where he fell over board. The civic festival Ovastevna is held each August on Nólsoy to commemorate Ove Joensen. His boat Diana Victoria can also be seen in Nólsoy, it is inside a boat house / old storage house, which is now a café and Tourist Information Centre in summertime, the boat house is located down in the harbour, near the ferry port. There is a monument to him situated by the harbour, next to the whale bones that form an ornamental entrance to the village, just opposite of the Tourist Information Centre. Ove Joensen is buried in Nólsoy in the cemetery south of the village.