Houton Bay to Stromness

We had an excellent night's sleep in our cosy sheltered anchorage. Morning dawned with all sorts of plans. It was a nice sheltered bay to sail Worm in, we could go for a walk, we could get a bus in to Kirkwall.

Although the bay is sheltered the wind was still bitterly cold and none of the plans were very attractive. Alison did some mandolin practice and I did some penny whistle. I did a little work on my Open University assignment. We planned an alternative way to sail to Kirkwall. With an easterly wind, going out of the Hoy Sound and round would give us much calmer seas. Leaving via the Hoy Sound is not too difficult but is easiest done at the start of the ebb before the full force kicks in. This would be around 5 am and 5 pm for the next couple of days. Getting in to Kirkwall requires careful timing. The ebb can run 7 knots through Eynhallow Sound. After trying a few options we settled on an early departure on Friday morning and sailing as far as Skaill Bay, where Skara Brae is, resting for a few hours and picking the first of the flood in to Kirkwall. We had seen Skaill Bay from the shore and knew that other yachts had stopped there to visit the ruins.

Alison suggested we should leave Houton and head back to Stromness. This would let us buy milk. One of the only things on Robinetta we could not manage without is tea!

I wanted to leave under sail but I couldn't break out the anchor without engine assist so we left under motor with the mainsail up. We had a joyous broad reach the 5 nm back to Stromness. So much more pleasurable than the same wind yesterday!
We sailed all the way in, going from a broad reach up Hoy Sound to a beam reach into the bay and were close hauled by the time we were in the harbour. Two tacks brought us past the ro-ro quay and head to wind to drop the sails and motor slowly back to the same berth we had left yesterday morning.