I got back to
Stromness on Monday night after a couple of days at home. Julian had
stayed with Robinetta, going to a concert on the Saturday night, and
a guided wildflower walk round the Ring of Brodgar on Sunday
afternoon. I had kept an eye on the weather while I was away, and
slightly regreted going. The promised strong winds that would have
stopped us sailing did not appear, and we could have made progress on
our journey to Stornaway.
Tuesday promised
little wind, which was a good thing in theory as it would be on the
nose. We are still in avoiding sailing in strong winds mode because
of my arm, so motoring makes sense. Julian and I spent Monday evening
planning for the trip through Hoy Sound. We decided to leave on the
last of the foul tide, as that would avoid any chance of wind over
tide, and we could carry the tide for the next 6 or more hours as we
headed for the Kyle of Tongue.
As we were preparing
Robinetta to leave we discovered something odd. We have not bent on
the no 1 jib since leaving Shetland, and now that we did so the jib
halyard block, which should have been about 30cm above the deck when
the jib was raised, was touching the deck, and we did not have
tension on the jib luff rope. We fiddled around as much as we could
to make things better, but the no 1 jib will not set properly. It
looks as though a trip up the mast is in order at some point.
After filling our
diesel cans and paying our mooring fees we got the engine on to warm
up at 09:10, and backed out of the berth.
Our timing and
routing all came together well, and by hugging the Orkney Mainland
coast we escaped the last of the foul tide, and did not encoutner any
overfalls. The swell did get up though, and stayed pretty high all
day. Julian put his lifejacket on, and used a strop to tie himself
onto Robinetta, just to go half way over the cabin top to take off
the sail ties. We raised the mainsail, reefed, just to help steady
Robinetta in the swell, and continued under motor.
The visibility was
too bad to see where we were aiming, so we were steering by the
compass. It was a relief when I spotted a tanker heading towards us
out of the Pentland Firth. I knew it was not going to come near us,
but it was something to look at! There were birds of course, Fulmers,
guillemots, razor bills, puffins, skuas, gannets, and common gulls
were out in force, mostly resting on the water, but some in flight.
By 13:30 the wind
was so light that we decided to shake out some of the reef, and
shortly after doing that the starboard backstay rope parted. Luckily
we had a good replacement rope available, but Julian did need to go
forward again to retrieve the backstay block as it was hanging loose
by the mast. The visibility came and went, but glimpses of the coast
were as rare as the odd patch of blue sky and sunshine
We got the jib out
to help the main and staysail for an hour, but by 14:30 it was furled
away, and we lowered the main sail at 17:15 and lashed it down to
stop it rolling in the swell. We got a little rain, but more drizzle,
and with that and the swell we were not feeling too cheerful. Our
arrival time at the Kyle of Tongue was promising to be after half
eight, and we were both feeling hungry. Hot baked beans and a
buttered roll made a decent light dinner, that was easy to prepare
and eat under way. There was no change of eating at the same time;
this was not a day George could be given the helm.
When I took the helm at 19:30 Julian could stop looking forward at the mist covered land ahead, and suddenly announced "I can see colours! The clouds are purple and the hills are green."
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Approaching Skullomie Harbour |
We were glad to get
shelter from the swell as we entered the Kyle, and Julian laid out
20m of chain on deck as we prepared to enter Skullomie Harbour. This
was not as easy to get into as it had been in April. Our friendly
local fisherman had now laid out his crab pots all over the harbour,
and we had to steer between them carefully to reach the anchorage.
We dropped anchor in
4.3m beneath the keel at 21:00, and were glad to have reached a
protected harbour. I expect us to be here for two nights, waiting for
the right time to head round Cape Wrath.