Portmahomac

We had a sail! I was expecting to motor all the way today but we managed to sail a good part of the 18 nm from Helmsdale to Portmahomac.

High water was 6 am this morning. We put the No jib on last night, checking first that it was rolled up the same way as the No 2, which we'd used last. Hopefully no more surprises.

We got away as planned at 7 and motored out. The breeze in the harbour wasn't replicated outside and the sea was flat. We got George out but he resolutely refused to power on. The noise from the engine made working near the engine bay horrid, so Alison helmed with the engine off, making  .8 of a knot in the right direction. Luckily the tide was with us.

By the time I had completed removed all the wiring and the new bulkhead socket, and buzzed everything with the multimeter, it looked like the neutral inline plug was faulty. I pulled it apart and the crimp looked good. Once out of its shell, it buzzed OK too. So I put everything back and it all worked. Grr. Once my head was out of the engine bay the noise of the engine began again.

George did sterling work across the Dornoch Firth. The wind came in gently from the south-east and let us sail. For once we kept George in place even after turning the engine off, and put the solar panel on to help power him. Eventually the battery voltage started to drop and we went to hand steering.

It wasn't very sunny, but there was lots of blue sky and it's a very pretty Firth. It was a lovely morning. the first truly relaxing day on the water since we sailed around Bressay.

We  dropped anchor as planned at dead low water with 2 m under the keel, and rowed ashore. For once, I got to row! We planned to go to the beach, but Alison spotted that there seemed to be enough water to get to the pontoon in the harbour. This was into the wind, and a test of my rowing, but it all worked.

We had a chat with a friendly local and then walked to the Tarbat Ness Discovery Centre. In the 1990s, archaeologists discovered a major Pictish monastery here. The most remarkable feature was a vellum factory, the only one yet found in the Pictish area of Scotland. There is evidence that the vellum made here could have been used in the famous Book of Kells. If so, the book might have been written here, which would mean we DO have Pictish writings! That would be a major development.

 It's a diet day. So no afternoon tea and no ice cream. So we rowed straight back to Robinetta.

 

 We are expecting a calm night at anchor, but the wind direction is variable, so some of the time we will get some fetch to the little swell there will be.  

Riviera Embroidery Designs

59 Primley

Bottling out

The problems I had in getting the preventor rigged on on Saturday made me a lot less certain about my capability.The nurse in Shetland told me 3-6 weeks for full recovery, and I was beginning to believe 3. Now I am not so sure.  We stayed in Helmsdale on Sunday, and thought about leaving on the early tide on Monday, but a look at the forecast made us hesitate. It was not the wind speed, 4-5 knots is a good sailing breeze for Robinetta, it was the wind direction. Our tiller pilot can not cope with much in the way of swell, and with the wind from the west or south west Julian would have to helm all the way. With a minimum of 6 hours to the next safe port/anchorage this did not seem reasonable or safe.

So we are staying in Helmsdale for a while, probably not leaving until Thursday when the wind is so light we will have to motor. This is the time when my elbow injury is really annoying me. I feel fine, can move it, and carry light objects. However it will not take my weight, and is not up to prolonged use or any twisting action.

I need patience! Helmsdale has everything we need, and some very attractive walks in the area.

Heading for Helmsdale

We spent 3 nights in Wick, going to visit Lybster by bus on Thursday, then having a lazy Friday 13th in Wick while the sun shone warmly and the swell decreased. In the evening we looked at the forecast and decided we should be fine to head south towards Helmsdale. Knowing this has a bar across the entrance that constrains entry to 3 hours either side of high water we decided to get up early to make sure we could get in. With high water at 14:43, and 28nm to travel we decided that leaving at 05:00 should give us plenty of time. We could have left later, but all the forecasts were telling us that the morning would be sunny, but to expect rain in the afternoon. “Windy” also showed a westerly kicking in, which would let us sail. The Met Office and XCWeather had cyclonic, going northerly for a time… We prepared Robinetta before heading to bed, bending on the no2 jib and taking off the sail covers, then set our alarm for 04:15.

There was no sign of the sun as we left Wick, heading out into swell that made me very glad we had not tried to leave yesterday when it would have been higher. Julian got the main sail up, but we kept it centred as we turned onto our course along the coast. The wind was from behind, and too gentle to use.

The sun never appeared, and visibility was poor. I had laid in a course last night that kept us within .5nm of the shore, but even then the cliffs were too indistinct for photography. After an hour Julian was dozing off and I suggested he go below for some sleep, which he did. It began to rain, and the swell was rolling Robinetta relentlessly. We were travelling across it, which helped make the wavelength seem longer, but it was no fun.

After an hour Julian stirred, and when I told him it was raining he put his salopettes on. I had been wearing mine from the start, knowing I would struggle to get them on in a moving boat. By the time he came up he looked a little pale, and said he needed to go on the tiller as he felt nauseous. I was glad to hand it over.

The rain came and went, but the visibility got no better, and the engine stayed on

We took turn about on the helm until about 10:30, when the wind from astern became a sailing breeze. Julian sent me forward with the preventer line in case of gybing. This was my first bit of rope handling out of the cockpit since I damaged my elbow 17 days ago, and it showed that I was not really ready for the job at hand. I did manage it, but had to take an extra dose of painkillers straight after.

Once we turned the engine off the day became more enjoyable, although it got no brighter or dryer. Julian had to stay on the helm as the mainsail was out to port, but we were making good time, with the chart plotter suggesting we would arrive at noon. That was within the three hours either side of high water, but I was slightly concerned that the swell height would increase our risk of grounding.

Taking the preventer off was much easier than putting it on, and Julian made sure he tacked, rather than gybing to give us space to put the engine on and get the sail down. Once we were head to wind I took the helm, and Julian did all the rope work.

In the event we entered harbour at 12:15, using the leading lights to keep us straight. The right turn into the harbour itself was not a problem, but the remnants of swell that followed us into the narrow entrance meant I needed more revs on the engine than I prefer to keep us heading straight through the rather narrow gap.

Once inside the harbour I could see that there was no one on the visitor berth, which was a relief. Slowing down to get ropes and fenders out to go alongside was not so easy, but turning Robinetta round to go alongside slowed us enough that we could get the ropes onto the pontoon, which has a nice thick rubber fender of its own.

I shut the engine off at 12:25, glad we had been in this harbour before (back in 2014) so I had known what to expect.

When we moored 1m showed beneath the keel, by 19:12 it was much less, although we were still just about afloat.

Lybster by Bus

We had wanted to sail to Lybster, but the weather conditions made us decide to visit the harbour using the bus from Wick. When we got there we knew we had made the correct decision, as the swell approaching the narrow entrance to the harbour (2m) and the wind blowing into it (f6-7) made it a difficult place to approach safely.

The shelter inside was good, but we would have been lying against steel pilings, or rafted on a fishing boat, with a walk up the hill to a shop

Entrance to Lybster harbour

 

. Wick Marina is a much more comfortable place to sit out a blow!

Kirkwall to Wick

I spent yesterday replacing the bolts that hold the toilet to its wooden base. I got replacement bolts and washers in William Shearer. We first went there in 2014 and it hasn't changed. It's a narrow but really long shop with 'departments'. It feels like walking deeper and deeper into a treasure cave. Unfortunately, the hardware department is just pre-packed cheap Chinese stuff these days, but they did have the right dimensions. I should look for stainless at some point.

 Now sitting on the toilet isn't a balancing act.

 We think we will head to mainland Scotland for a week and explore the north east. The weather is changeable. We had thought to go to Lybster tomorrow. We haven't been. We could drop down to the Churchill barriers again today and have two easy days. But last night, the forecast for Thursday didn't look good.

 So we planned the trip to do Kirkwall to Wick in one hit. That's a long way, 55 nm, with Alison's arm still mostly out of commission.

 A 5 am start looked like it would give us the best tides but with a south easterly wind, I was worried the fetch would lead to difficult sea states. Myweather2 is good for that, but only has a few data points in the area. It suggested waves and swells of less than 1/2 m and pitches of 3.5 s. That would be fine. Windy was less optimistic and was showing faster waves around 7s.

 We woke to a fine calm morning and got off bang on 5 am. The weather stayed nice until about 7 am and then clouded over and the visibility was only a couple of miles.

leaving Copinsay to port

 

 We had 15 minutes of weak foul tide through the String south of Shapinsay and then a strong favourable push round to Copinsay. The sea was calm with no overfalls so we went less far off Mull Head and Copinsay than planned and George was at the helm. After that the wind came in and we could motor sail with hand steering.

We tried to keep the cross track error down but at that angle the waves, although not big, were making Robinetta pitch violently and stop dead. Steering a few degrees to port filled the sails better and prevented the resonance. So we put up with the risk of getting nearer the Skerries. We had left enough margin. It wasn't a problem.

Once we were far enough south to make a straight line for Wick south of the Skerries we turned the engine off. But after 30 minutes the wind dropped and we were wallowing in the swell so we motor sailed again the rest of the way. The tide helped Alison hit 6 knots a few times on this leg. It was pushing us west a bit as well. But we were careful near the Skerries. The last hour was foul but only a knot.

Three yachts came into Wick from Kirkwall within 30 minutes. Of course the other two ha
d left much later and probably sailed more of the route while we motor sailed. But we are now within a day sail of Inverness and Portsoy and we can have a holiday.

A day in Kirkwall

 We have been in Kirkwall several times before, and did not feel like doing the tourist thing, so today was spent on boat and person maintenance. I finally got round to getting a hair cut!

We had been asked to move Robinetta to a finger berth if we decided to stay another day, and as we wanted to go to the fuel berth anyway this was hardly a problem. We ended up taking 45 litres of diesel (of which 15 went into our spare fuel cans). This meant there had only been about 10 litres left in our fuel tanks when we reached Kirkwall, not enough for a full day's motoring. Once we were in our new berth we hooked up our water hose to replenish the other liquid essential for ship board life. 

Just before we launched Tim Loftus had to cut away some of the wood he had used to strengthen the hole through the bulwarks for the bowsprit. He had not realised that we needed to be able to reeve the bowsprit on a regular basis, so the tolerances for getting it in and out were too tight. This happened just before the launch and today Julian reminded me I needed to paint the bare wood there, and on the piece he had cut to stop the staysail car from pulling off its track. This was a very minor bit of painting, and easy to do.

Meanwhile Julian had the much more complicated job of bolting the toilet bowl securely onto its base. Luckily he was able to buy all the bits he needed to do the job. I was annoyed with myself when I saw how corroded the bolts that had failed where. The toilet assembly had been out of Robinetta all winter, and we had even painted the wooden base. I really should have checked the bolts at that point.

I had a look at the weather, and alerted Julian to the fact that Thursday looked rather too windy for our current levels of sailing fitness, so that evening we did some detailed planning for tomorrow's trip south.

Mainland Scotland here we come. 

Kirkwall

A cold day on the helm

 

 We thought about leaving yesterday afternoon but it was still a bit blowy. So we sat down and did a good old-fashioned passage plan for today, focussing on the changes in the tidal streams, using both the atlas and the point data on the plotter.

We decided we would get a favourable tide into Eday sound from around 9:45 and then carry the tide down Stronsay Sound most of the way, and get slack water south of Scalpay and then a favourable tide into Kirkwall.

So we left at 9 am and were in Kirkwall at 2 pm. We got a little less tide and a little less wind than we hoped for, and had to use the engine a bit to keep to time. We still aren't reading the atlas perfectly, we probably should be treating each page as what will be happening 30 minutes either side of the nominal time. But we did get pretty much what we expected.

The tide pushed us a bit further east a couple of times than would have been perfect. But we got to turn the engine off here and there and have a fine sail.

Alison's arm is still fragile, so it's only safe for her to helm when motoring, or on starboard tack. But we had some of both.

There is one other visiting wooden yacht here in Kirkwall. The owner is from Broughty Ferry.