Lossiemouth to Wick

This is the day that decides whether we can make Orkney or not. If we can get to Wick today, then we are in striking distance of Orkney at neap tides. Otherwise it would not be sensible to try. We watched the weather carefully yesterday, and there were 6s in the forecast for Rattray Head and Duncansby Head "later". So long as they stayed in that part of the area we could go. We decided we should leave by 0830 to get out of Lossiemouth without problems. That should also get us to Wick before the forecast "later". The wind was coming from the NW as well, which meant no long fetch to build up the wave height. Robinetta can cope with a 6 without problems when well reefed down so long as the wave are small.

The morning forecast had lost the force 6 at Duncansby head, so the trip was on. We stowed the cabin, and got the bowsprit out and the jib bent on in harbour. (It's much easier that way!). A Selway Fisher came in at quarter past eight, having motored up from Findhorn, and the skipper said the waves were not too rough, and should calm down in a couple of hours. Even more encouraging! They helped pull Robinetta off her blown on berth, and we were away.

As we motored out of the harbour we saw Matt and his daughter Ellie on the outer breakwater. They had come to wave us off!

The first hour was a bit bouncy, but with plenty of wind to sail. We put a couple of rolls in the main, and used the no2 jib, which gave us a lovely sail straight across the Moray Firth. The wind went a bit lighter around noon and we shook out the reef, and we soon had the engine on to keep up the speed, but there was plenty to see; oils rigs of the Beatrice and Jacky oil fields, plus kittiwakes, herring gulls, guillimots, puffins, gannets.... There were some immature gulls whose species I could not determine that I christened RAF gulls, as they seemed to have roundels on their wings....

We heard Shetland Coastguard for the first time at 1610. They transmit at the same time as Thames, which felt oddly homely... They gave out the 1800 UTC forecast for our area; NW 4 or 5, occasionally 6 for a time. Not great, as we would not reach Wick until about 2030. Sure enough the engine was off and a reef back in only ten minutes later!

We carried on as fast as we safely could, which meant furling away the jib during squalls, and reefing the main all the way down by 1900. Twenty minutes later we dropped it in a hurry as the wind rose still more, and we were sailing on staysail and engine as we rounded up into Wick bay.

We were safely moored up in Wick marina by 2025, feeling rather pleased with ourselves. We'd got where we wanted to go, without endangering the boat or ourselves, and had a good time doing it. Confidence building stuff. It really helped that the seas did not have time to build as the wind was coming off the land; the squall that made us finally drop the main sail would have been nasty in any sort of a sea.