St Margaret's Hope to Stromness

 Robinetta rocked gently in the swell when we woke next morning. We could also hear wind in the rigging. I got out the no2 jib to rig after breakfast, but once on deck the wind felt too cold and fresh, so I ducked back down and told Julian I wanted to stay a little longer. The ferry had gone out without us noticing it, and it returned with just as little fuss, raising no wake to disturb the anchored boats.

It was 11am before Julian started hauling up the anchor chain. It took him ten minutes, and he grumbled a bit about using 25m of chain in a 5m anchorage! We had been held very securely though, and as I was not the one doing the hauling....

We headed out of the bay and got the staysail up. The wind was not as strong as it had seemed, and was coming from a useful direction, so we got the jib out to check. We did not get the main up straight away as Julian wanted a rest after hauling up the anchor, but when I reminded him that this was a chance to sail without the engine on he soon decided that raising the main would be a good idea. We reefed down to the first hoop and had a lovely sail until the wind died just after lunch.

Approaching Stromness

Every now and then the wind would come back, and we unfurled the jib and sailed. Then the wind came back with a vengeance and we sailed on reefed main an staysail... All in all it was an interesting and enjoyable trip the length of Scapa Flow with very small waves. The only time water came into the cockpit was when we took the wake of a tug coming out of Stomness head on. 

We headed round to the marina and took the first vacant berth we could see. The marina is only attended for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening, so there was no one to tell us where to moor. We were safely tied up in the marina by 16:15.

While waiting for Victoria, the marina master, to appear we had a long chat with another sailor. He had just recovered from COVID, which he had gone down with in Stromness, causing his wife and expected crew not to appear for their crew change. He was full of praise for how helpful all the locals had been while he was ill.

When Victoria appeared we agreed to move to another berth when it was vacated tomorrow. She was not sure we would be able to stay our requested 2-3 weeks, but promised to let us know tomorrow.