Helmsdale to Tarbatness

Woke up with a headache. (Cider then bed is not a good idea). We'd hoped to be away by 9, but I did not manage to crawl out of bed until 0945. Plans were revised to leave at 1200, but we learnt from the harbour master that we needed to be away by 11, or we would be stuck for 2 hours either side of low water. When the tide gauge on the harbour wall reads 10' there is only 5'6" in the entrance channel!

We got away just in time and had our (late) breakfast/early lunch sailing slowly out to sea. At the speed we were doing we would not reach Inverness until 0800 tomorrow, so the engine went back on for another day of motor sailing.

Bright sun with wind. Bright sun without wind. Rain, with and without wind. Winds shifting from SE to SW and force varying from 1-4. Wonderful scenery glittering in the sunshine, then veiled with rain and mist. A big flock of fulmers sat on the water, then lifted off en-masse before splitting into two groups. Razorbills can be difficult to tell from guillemots and puffins, but it was definitely a razorbill that I saw going an extremely ungraceful belly-flop landing on the sea just before the wind got up and veered to a South Westerly that had me turn the engine off to broad reach at 5 knots on a good heading to clear Tarbatness.