Robinetta is a "Tabloid Cruiser" gaff cutter designed by Denys Rayner and launched in 1937. This log documents her history from 2007 when we bought her. Her prior history is documented here.
Got the drone in the air from Robinetta for the first time. It didn't want to get airborne because the boat was moving on her anchor. But I found out how to force it and after a test flight of 30 cm in the cabin I got her aloft. The camera was fogged again but it cleared. I'm not sure the video quality is as good as when it was new. The lense may have got some dirt in it and the gimbal sometimes lets the top of the drone get in shot.
The wind was quite strong. The drone was coping but as I brought it in to land, it was getting buffeted, or it didn't cope with the shelter from Robinetta. Landing without hitting the boom took concentration.
Keeping a boat working is a never-ending task. When we were in Wick, I fixed the feed from the fuel tanks. When I was alone in Stromness over the weekend, while Alison attended to some tasks at home and spent some time with our son Alex I did a few more outstanding tasks. One was looking at the stern gland, where the back nut had worked loose. We don’t have a good tool for tightening that but I did my best with the mole grips. We need to put that on the regular check list.
When leaving Stromness we noticed something wrong with the jib halyard. With the No. 1 jib, the purchase was block-a-block without tightening the rig. Something had happened to the block at the top of the mast. I had a look and it didn’t look right but I couldn’t see what was wrong. We made do for the trip to Tongue.
Today Alison took a good look with the binoculars and saw that the strop had fallen off the little hound it sits on. It must have happened in Portsoy. It looked OK other than that. It was a calm enough day, so at low water, when we would have maximum shelter from the rocks around the anchorage, Alison agreed to go up the mast.
When Alison has to go up the mast, we usually use the jib halyard, as that has the most purchase. But of course we couldn’t use that to fix this problem! In Portsoy, friends had used the peak halyard. But there were two of them and both likely stronger than I.
We don’t have enough rigid mast hoops at the moment to try climbing the mast with the mainsail up. And the shrouds don’t go nearly high enough up the mast to make fitting rat lines useful.
So it was going to be the peak halyard.
I had wondered how far I could raise Alison using the peak hardener, which has a 4:1 purchase. The answer was ‘not far enough to be useful’. I also tried using the jib sheet winch to haul, but that wasn’t effective either.
Using the main fall of peak halyard, and with Alison climbing and me pushing against the cabin with my foot, I managed to get her up most of the way. Then she asked for the boat hook and I sent that up on a spare halyard. That was enough for her to get the strop back into place.
As usual, we used the topsail halyard as a safety line. It’s its only function at the moment as we don’t have a topsail. Maybe one day. I had to walk back and forward between the cockpit and the fore-deck to keep adjusting it to minimise how far Alison would fall if I lost control of the peak halyard. But it felt really important, as I was pulling that line with nothing to lock it off and if I’d fumbled Alison would have fallen. Luckily, I didn’t fumble. Letting Alison down was much less fraught, as I could use the pin-rail as a turning point. I still had to adjust the safety line a few times, but it was stress-free, at least for the person down below.
Once that important job was done we had a few other things to look at.
We fitted the plastic mats we had bought in Inverness. We’ve put them on the foredeck where the paint has been most scratched by the anchor chain. Hopefully, that will protect the deck from the chain.
We would like to fit something to keep the anchor in place better. We had a think about what and where we might do that. But while anchored isn’t the best time, as we don’t have an anchor to play with!
When the starboard backstay broke yesterday, we fitted a temporary using a new piece of buff braid-on-braid. We aren’t sure what we bought that for, perhaps the bobstay tensioner. It wasn’t finished off very well but it does feel nice and doesn’t stretch, so it’s a good fit for the job, except that being braid, it is hard to splice a thimble in the end. But I couldn’t find any suitable stranded rope on-board so it’s going to stay in use for now. I served the end that I’d just put tape on yesterday and removed the old thimble. Instead of an eye at the end, there is just a bowline round the stainless steel shackle. The crush load will be higher that way. I’ll have a think.
We’ve had problems again this year with the gaff saddle getting stuck on the jib halyard when dropping the main. I’ve tightened the parrel line and replaced the string I’d tied from the parrel line to the gaff to act as a guard. It had worked last year but it wasn’t working and it was very tatty. I used a simple whipping with 6 mm rope as the twine to fill-in the gap between the last parrel bead and the saddle. It looks like it should stop the saddle snagging on the wire rope of the jib halyard and it’s much tidier than what we had before.
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."
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.
We both felt refreshed this morning and a 1 pm departure felt good. Yesterday, I had put some putty and paint on Worm where some water still seemed to be getting in under the patch I had fitted in Scrabster.
We had all morning. It was time to work out why the starboard fuel tank wasn't being used. I tried loosening the pipe fitting by the tap but it was twisting the tap and I didn't want to break the tap joint to the tank so I left it alone. The next place to look was the T-piece joining the pipes from the two fuel tanks and feeding the fuel filter.
I turned both taps off and started to undo the nut on the starboard side. It came lose almost immediately. That was wrong! No fuel came out. I undid the other two nuts. They needed lots of turns.
Getting the T-piece free took a bit of pulling and pushing but I got it out.
The starboard side was dirty almost to the end of the thread. Looking more closely, the end of that thread was broken. I thought I had found the problem.
It can't have been put on correctly. Then air could get in and cause an air-lock, stopping the fuel flowing and the tanks equalising.
I held a carton under the pipe and Alison briefly turned on the tap. Diesel flowed!
I cleaned of the swarf where it must have been cross-threaded, and the grime in the threads and re-fitted the T-piece. I got all three nuts to turn the same amount. It looked good.
I turned on the port tank and started the engine. No leaks at the T-piece and the engine was running fine. I opened the starboard tap. OK so far. Now for the moment of truth. I closed the port tap.
The engine kept running! I left it that way for 5 minutes and there was no trouble. So I opened the port tap and left both tanks working and turned off the engine. With luck, we are back to normal.
There was one more thing before we left. I went to launch Worm and noticed the painter was almost worn through where it was tied to the transom.
I cut the bad bit off and sealed the end and put two bowlines on, if it wears again and breaks it should be caught by the second loop.
We had a lovely trip. There was only enough wind to purely sail now and then. Mostly it was motor sailing. But the weather was nice. There was enough shipping to make it a little stressful but we managed to keep out of the way of the big stuff.
We didn't expect a big ship to follow us into Scapa Flow. It went up to anchor near Orphir.
When we got into Scapa Flow, there was no wind and I went below to cook. We had some lovely haddock fillets given to us by some fishermen in Wick.
It was going well until suddenly the wind kicked in and the boat heeled. The cabbage that was steaming went flying and so did the frying pan I was putting onion and tomato and garlic into. Luckily, the potatoes stayed put in the pan holders. But we only have one pair.
Luckily again, the haddock was still in the bag, so I could slice another onion and more cabbage and carry on cooking.
Leaving Portsoy means leaving an hour either side of high water. Isabella Fortuna started to warm up her engines before 3 a.m. and left as soon as the local boat that was acting as a tug to help her off the quay turned up. As soon as they were clear of the harbour Julian got Robinetta’s engine on and we were away from the harbour by 03:30. Both of us were short of sleep. Our guests had stayed until 22:00, and we did not get into our bunks until 23:00 as we were taking bunting down and preparing Robinetta for sea.
The day started well enough, with bright sunshine and seas calm enough for us to try George on the helm, but the wind was dead astern, and George was not strong enough to keep us on course with the main sail working. We went to hand steering within half an hour as the waves grew steeper, then reefed the main sail only quarter of an hour later. By 04:40 we had given up on the idea of sailing our course, and dropped the main to head straight towards Wick with only the staysail flying. It was a day of taking turns to helm, or trying to sleep in a wildly moving cabin.
The Murray Firth has two huge wind farms. We were aiming to pass between them, but they just merge together in the middle, so we had no real option but to thread through them. No one tried to stop us. A wind farm work boat passed us by as we closed with towers, and it ignored us totally. The wind from behind filled the staysail, and we managed 5 knots through parts of the wind farm while the tide was with us.
The sea state was nasty, and every seventh wave rolled Robinetta violently. The towers meant we were constrained with where we could point, and our straight line course got deflected by half a mile as we tried to keep the rolling to a minimum.
The sun went in, and we were still ten miles from Wick when it started raining. The tide was now against us, taking our average speed over the ground down to 2.5 knots.
We saw a single yacht sail against the land as we cleared the wind farm, but all the other boats were working ones, trawlers and wind farm boats.
The final slog into Wick was actually enjoyable in a masochistic kind of way. The swell was going down, the wind in the staysail was not directly from behind, and I could see our track on the chart plotter from when we left Wick on Saturday 14th June. Once we joined it I no longer had any worries about the course, and even the crab pot buoys seemed to be in the same place…
We were directed into the same spot in the marina that we had been in before, and once Julian hooked up the electric we got the heater on and began to dry everything out. Heading outside into the rain again did not appeal, once we were in dry clothes and we had enough food left over from Portsoy to make a tasty dinner.
It was still raining when we went to bed at 22:00, after a long and tiring day.
There were not nearly as many boats at the festival as expected. Isabella Fortuna
was the only big local boat in the old harbour, and the other boat
that was open to the public was Nova Spero, a wooden hulled fishing
boat built at Arbroath in the 1970s. She still looks like a deep sea
fishing boat, with steel superstructure and wooden decks, but inside
this shell she is now fitted out to take 12 guests around Scotland,
visiting out of the way places in luxury.
Nova Spero
There were lots of locally built rowing boats. Banff and Cullen both have schools and it was great to see young people learning life skills by building boats.
The music and food were as
good as ever, and the sun shone on both days so no one minded the strong
winds on Saturday that set all the flags flying.
Last time we went to Portsoy Robinetta behaved impeccably while lying
against the harbour wall. This time she did not seem to like it much.
She dried out bow down on Friday and Saturday mornings, and Sunday
was even worse, as she grounded too close to the wall so we had to have help from Isabella Fortuna's crew and a couple of the security guards to tie her hard back against it to avoid her falling over into the
harbour. Friday and Saturday evenings were better as we were awake
and could position her as she touched the sand although the bow was
still low. Our last drying out, on Sunday evening went perfectly. Not
only were we on board as she grounded we had three guests in the
cockpit, and their weight meant the bow stayed up beautifully. Our
guests were the skipper of Salcombe Lass, who had entertained us the
previous two evenings, and two young Norwegians who were over at the
festival to demonstrate their boat building skills.Robinetta was
awarded the best traditional boat award, so now we have a lovely
ceramic clock for the living room as well as the dining room.
Whitehills is around 4 nm from Portsoy. Richard Thorne had said we should be able to get into the Old Harbour from about 12:30.
So I suggested we leave about 11. That gave me most of the morning to work on the toilet pump. I had taken it off and started cleaning it at Inverness but there was more to do. I just about got all the old gunk off the plastic shell but didn’t get as far as reassembling it.
Getting out of the inner harbour at Whitehills proved even more tricky than getting in had been. Robinetta would not turn at all whilst going astern. We managed to back out straight into the opposite berth and then we needed to do a 180 degree turn around the finger pontoon. We had a little help but we still got nearer than we would like to other boats.
But we got into the outer harbour with only our pride damaged. There wasn’t much wind but I think there was enough to catch the cabin sides. And the Harbour Master had said there was current in there. We got the bowsprit set in the outer harbour and headed out. The tide was low enough to show the rocks marked by the posts. There really is very little room.
Entrance to Whitehills
I shook the reef out as we raised the main and we set off with a full cutter rig but no. 2 jib. It was a lovely beam reach with the wind coming from the shore, so the sea was flat. But it was strong. I looked at the wind farm on the hill and joked “We don’t need them to generate more wind”.
Of course, we were actually in the shadow of the wind farm, and once past it, the wind got even stronger and we needed the reef back in. Then we had a pretty wild and fun sail until we got near the crab pot markers outside Portsoy. We called Portsoy on the VHF and they said there was plenty of water. Although we had been going really fast, 5 ½ knots at tÃmes, with the stopping to reef, and pot-dodging, it was about 12:15, bang on time.
The rib came out to say hello, and check we remembered the way in. I carried on sailing until we were reasonably close, to try to put on a show. I think we could have gone a bit closer.
It was really calm in the entrance, so we had no trouble motoring in and people standing by to take our lines and be in the right place for the berthing plan.
Once we were settled, I set to work assembling the toilet pump and refitting it and connecting it up. By then, the tide had gone back out and we were high and dry against the wall. We would need to wait until evening to see if the pump worked.
We hired a van to fetch Worm from Rosmarkie. Neither Julian nor I felt like going back to anchor there!
We then left Robinetta and Worm in Inverness Marina for 3 days while we went to deal with our non sailing lives.
Our plans for our next trip were tide and weather dependant. The tides dictated that we should leave at 01:30 on Thursday morning to get as far as possible towards Portsoy, ready to enter the harbour there at high water on Friday for the festival there. But would the weather let us?
The answer was a resounding yes. We set off as planned, just as the tide turned in our favour under the Kessock Bridge. There was no wind, and the sea was totally calm. This was the first outing for our running lights this year, and we discovered that the port light was not working. However the starboard light, and the masthead light were fine. As Robinetta is under 7m all she legally needs to show is a masthead all round white light, but we still prefer to show the port and starboard, so Julian went forward and got the light working again. We passed 2 yachts heading towards the marina, that must have used the stand of tide at the Chanonry Narrows to sneak though at the start of the ebb. Both were much bigger than Robinetta and would be able to beat the ebb at the Kessock Bridge.
We set our tiller pilot "George" to work at 02:20, and he took all the stress out of the next 7 hours of the trip. By then we were past our first possible stopping point of Burghead. Averaging over 5 knots we would not have been able to get in there at that time, as it is tidally restricted.
Burghead Transmitter Station
The wind began to come in from behind. We raised the sail and put on a preventer. By 09:10 we were motor sailing past Halliman Skerry, just west of Lossimouth. George could no longer cope with the swell, so we went to hand steering. Our speed continued to increase, and we turned the engine off at 10:27. Our revised destination was Whitehills, 4 nautical miles further on than Portsoy. This harbour is also tidally constrained, with the entrance channel only usable 4 hours either side of high water, but at our current speed our chart plotter promised we would be there at 15:15, which gave us a comfortable 2 hours in hand.
By 11:30 the wind was getting stronger, and the waves were also building. We needed to gybe to get clear of a bay, but Julian decided that with my arm still not 100% recovered it would be easier to go the long way round and tack instead. As we went head to wind we realised how strong the wind really was, so we turned the engine on so I could hold Robinetta head to wind while Julian put in a reef. The wind speed was probably only a top end 4, but that was quite enough to let us touch 6 knots when the gusts came, even reefed.
I phoned the harbour master at Whitehills to check our access times were right, and he agreed that as long as we were there by 17:30 we should get in without problems. As our expected arrival time was now15:00 that reassured us it would not be a problem if we slowed down. Not that we did! The harbour master phoned back a little later, and said we would have a more restful night if we went go into the inner harbour, where there was plenty of space, rather that staying on the visitor pontoon in the outer harbour.
We tacked rather than gybed a couple more times on our way to
Whitehills. I could helm without problems on the port tack, which let
Julian have a rest, and gave me a chance to enjoy the sailing.
We were half a mile from the harbour entrance when we turned head to wind to get the sails down. I had been worried it would be a bit bumpy at this point, but Julian got the sail down without problems.
The problems began once we were in the inner harbour. I spotted the perfect berth and headed straight for it, but messed up and had to back out to avoid spearing the neighbouring yacht with Robinetta's bowsprit. It then took us ten minutes to sort ourselves out again. Julian took the helm (he is better at close quarters manoeuvring than me), but even he could not make Robinetta reverse in a straight line due to the wind. We had to get the bowsprit in to be safe in the close quarters of the marina, and I managed to do it without my elbow hurting. Maybe I am healing!
Julian took us back into the outer harbour and we turned round, and re-entered the inner harbour, aiming for our chosen berth again. This time it went perfectly, and we were moored up with the engine off at 15:40. It had been a long day, but we were now within 4nm of Portsoy, with no tidal gates to worry about.
We had started off the sail with partial overcast, gone though some rain, and reduced visibility, then back to partial overcast. By the time we were approaching Whitehills the sky was clearing, and the rest of the afternoon promised bright sunshine. This has been a very good day on the water.
When we go back to the beach and saw Robinetta see-sawing on her anchor my first thought was that we had to get out to her. I was cursing my elbow, as I was not at all sure that Julian's rowing was up to the task of rowing against the wind and swell.
We carried Worm down to the water line, and Julian was all for just launching her, when I called for a plan before we tried. The only time we had launched into this sort of swell before had been at Lundy, and our normal stern first plan had seen her swamped.
Roddy and Suzanne, experienced sailors that we had chatted with when we arrived at Rosemarkie, helped us by holding Worm's stern while Julian and I got in, and then Julian started rowing towards Robinetta. Some water had already come in over the bow, and I tried bailing with Julian's hat, the only container like thing we had with us. Julian did well at first, but the first time he stopped for a moment I could see Robinetta getting further away again. I kept trying to help him steer for her, but every time I did that, his concentration broke, and his rowing faltered.
The swell got steeper and shorter, and Robinetta was actually getting further away even when Julian rowed well. The tide was pulling us south. It was obvious to me that we would not reach Robinetta unless Julian rowed strongly, and consistently straight into the waves. Unfortunately he was hampered by lack of experience, and stamina. He also could not see where he needed to go, or how the waves were setting. Eventually I insisted we headed back to the beach. Doing that was easy!
I tried to get Julian to keep rowing, to ride the waves into the beach, but he was tired, and did not realise why I wanted him to. The consequence was that a wave broke into the stern and drenched me as we reached the beach.
Roddy and Suzanne had stayed to watch us row out. They were glad to see us turn back and reach the beach safely, as they had been wondering about calling 999. Instead that was left for me to do. I could not be sure that Robinetta would not pull up her anchor with the way she was moving, and the main sheet had come loose, so the boom was swinging wildly.
Calling 999 and asking for the coastguard seemed the sensible thing to do. If we had brought our hand held radio I would have called a pan pan, but there is no equivalent call for the land based emergency services.
I left Julian to take care of getting Worm higher up the beach, and walked away to make the phone call.
I may have imagined the moment’s surprise on the 999’s dispatcher’s voice, and she certainly put me through to the coast guard straight away. He had problems hearing me at first, because of the wind noise, but once I pulled up my shirt collar and held the phone and my head into it’s shelter everything became easier. I assured him that there was no risk to life, just the boat, and once we had agreed where the boat was anchored he told me to hang up to save battery, and that he would ring back when he knew what he could do to help.
Being taken back to Suzanne and Roddy’s caravan to get warm and have a cup of tea while we waited to hear back was lovely. The phone went, but it was a false alarm, just Inverness Marina calling back to giving us a berth number for the night. The next call was the one we were waiting for. North Kessock lifeboat had been launched, and would pick us on on the sheltered, Fortrose, side of the point. Once we knew the RNLI would come and help us back on board Robinetta, the worry became what we should do about Worm? Our good Samaritans promised to keep on eye on her overnight, and we headed across to the sheltered side of the point to meet up with the RNLI.
Being hauled and lifted into a large rib is an undignified process, but the RNLI crew were lovely about it, and got me settled onto a seat before the crew member in the water pushed the RIB deeper so the engines could be lowered again.
Once their own crew member back on board the rib set off round Chanonry Point towards Robinetta.
The contrast in the swell once we came out of shelter was huge, and I hung on with my good arm as we bounced across the waves towards Robinetta, which looked tiny in the distance. Once we got closer we could see that she was still rolling and pitching wildly, with the boom swinging from one side of the cockpit to the other, bouncing off the backstays. One of the lifeboat crew went on board first, his helmet offering him protection if he got hit, and once the boom was secured the RIB approached again and Julian scrambled across.
It took me two approaches before I could join them in the cockpit, but once I was there the motion did not seem too bad. It is amazing the difference being back in familiar surroundings made! Julian went across the cabin roof to the foredeck to begin hauling up the anchor, and I put some revs on the engine and motored forward to help.
It was only when the anchor was secured on deck that I realised a couple of things. I was cold, and soaked through, and the instruments were still turned off. I had been so focused on getting Robinetta under way that I had failed to think about these things.
As soon as Julian was back in the cockpit I sent him below to turn on the instruments and get a layer, and then he took the helm while I did the same. The RNLI man, on his first shout, stayed on the foredeck until we were out of the worst of the waves.
The RIB escorted us to Chanonry Point, where the sea was as flat as a pancake and the dolphins were chasing fish, and then they took their crew member back and set off back to their base as North Kessock.
Once we were alone I went below, and stripped off to get dry clothes on, then Julian did the same. The swell came back as we headed towards Kessock Bridge, but nothing Robinetta and her crew could not handle.
The adrenalin was still running even after we were securely moored up in the marina, so although we had food on board we headed into Inverness for dinner. We needed a change of scene.
We got off the anchor just before 6 am and headed round Tarbat Ness.
It was a fine, windless morning. The morning Inshore Waters suggested wind would come in from the south-east overnight, so we decided to make Rosmarkie a lunch stop, and carry on to Inverness in the afternoon. Cape Wrath to Rattray Head, including the Isles of Orkney, is a sea area so vast and complex to be almost useless. I don't trust it at all for the inner Moray Firth. I'm using Windy a lot these days as its visualisations are excellent. Windy agreed the wind would come in later but said north-east.
We agreed we would be away from Rosmarkie before the wind came in.
We had a lovely motor around Tarbat Ness, George doing all the work, and down the Dornoch peninsula to Cromarty Firth. We saw an oil platform being towed into Nigg from a distance and we could see it in there as we passed.
A cormorant circled Robinetta about 10 times near Cromarty.
An early start meant we were both ready for an early lunch, so we had cheese rolls and crisps before noon.
We dropped anchor at about 1 pm and rowed ashore. It was flat calm and hazy. We met and chatted with several people as we headed into the village.
My target for the day was the Groam Museum, another place famous for it's Pictish symbol stones and cross slabs. When we got there it was unexpectedly closed due to staffing issues.
So we went for a walk up the Fairy Glenn to a nice waterfall.
On the way back, we had a drink in the Plough and then wandered back down to the beach, noticing that there was now wind in the tallest trees.
When we saw the sea there were white horses! That was really unexpected. Once we could see Robinetta we started to get worried, she was bucking around.
We knew it would be a difficult launch into the surf and a stiff row. It would also be quite hard getting aboard. But we tried. On the beach, a couple we had met earlier, Roddy and Suzanne, helped us launch.
We got off OK and I was making good progress until we were half way there. We both knew that Alison would be making a much better job of it if her elbow wasn't still healing from the break it suffered in Shetland.
Then I started getting tired and I think the wind got even stronger. I could not see how we were doing, but Alison said we were going backwards and getting pushed south towards Chanonry Point. Eventually we gave up and went back to shore. On the beach, Roddy and Suzanne were standing by to help. Alison got soaked by a big wave as we landed.
Robinetta was bouncing all over the place and we were worried she would drag her anchor. Alison called 999 to talk to the Coastguard. She made sure they knew there were no people in danger. Roddy and I got Worm further up the beach.
They took the details and said they would call back. They asked for our position using "what three words". We said "can't we give you a lat/long?". We gave them a lat/long. Roddy and Suzanne took us up to their caravan to get warm and dry and gave us tea.
The Coastguard phoned back. The North Kessock ILB would pick us up from the west side of Chanonry Point, where it was calm, and take us to Robinetta.
Suzanne came with us to show us the way across the golf course to the shingle beach. I watched the ILB on Marinetraffic. I got pulled aboard the ILB OK, but it was hard to get Alison on with her injury. The ILB had to lift it's engines and be walked into the shallows.
Getting to Robinetta was a bumpy ride. The wind was extreme. They put one crew member on board Robinetta. Then we heard an alarm. The crew couldn't find anything wrong on the ILB. I went on board and worked out it was our engine! The key had got knocked when the RNLI crew member got on. I started the engine to warm up and we secured the lines that had got shaken lose. Getting Alison on board was only slightly more complicated.
Then I went forward to haul the anchor. It came up OK but I was happy to accept help from the crew member who was still aboard.
Once we were off, we motored to Chanonry Point, and once in the lee of the sand, the crew member transferred back to the ILB and we parted ways. At least the lifeboat crew got to watch the dolphins at the Point.
We got the staysail up and motor-sailed at 6 knots towards the Kessock bridge. Wind and tide were pushing us hard and I had to make sure we weren't pushed onto the sandbanks.
It was still quite extreme, getting into the river, and then into our berth, but it all worked.
We won't trust the wind not to come in early again!
Now we just have to get Worm back.
No-one who's had dealings with lifeboat crews, or watched Saving Lives at sea, will be surprised to hear what a lovely, capable crew came to our aid. It was great to see a mixed crew with some highly experienced and some really new members, all wonderful. They didn't need to come and help, we didn't need saving. I know that if someone else had needed us more, they would have abandoned us somewhere safe and went to save lives. But they did turn a minor crisis into something we could deal with.
We learned a lesson today. In future, we will have a risk assessment before rowing ashore. If we'd done that, we might have gone round the Point to Fortrose to anchor.
We had a sail! I was expecting to motor all the way today but we managed to sail a good part of the 18 nm from Helmsdale to Portmahomac.
High water was 6 am this morning. We put the No jib on last night, checking first that it was rolled up the same way as the No 2, which we'd used last. Hopefully no more surprises.
We got away as planned at 7 and motored out. The breeze in the harbour wasn't replicated outside and the sea was flat. We got George out but he resolutely refused to power on. The noise from the engine made working near the engine bay horrid, so Alison helmed with the engine off, making .8 of a knot in the right direction. Luckily the tide was with us.
By the time I had completed removed all the wiring and the new bulkhead socket, and buzzed everything with the multimeter, it looked like the neutral inline plug was faulty. I pulled it apart and the crimp looked good. Once out of its shell, it buzzed OK too. So I put everything back and it all worked. Grr. Once my head was out of the engine bay the noise of the engine began again.
George did sterling work across the Dornoch Firth. The wind came in gently from the south-east and let us sail. For once we kept George in place even after turning the engine off, and put the solar panel on to help power him. Eventually the battery voltage started to drop and we went to hand steering.
It wasn't very sunny, but there was lots of blue sky and it's a very pretty Firth. It was a lovely morning. the first truly relaxing day on the water since we sailed around Bressay.
We dropped anchor as planned at dead low water with 2 m under the keel, and rowed ashore. For once, I got to row! We planned to go to the beach, but Alison spotted that there seemed to be enough water to get to the pontoon in the harbour. This was into the wind, and a test of my rowing, but it all worked.
We had a chat with a friendly local and then walked to the Tarbat Ness Discovery Centre. In the 1990s, archaeologists discovered a major Pictish monastery here. The most remarkable feature was a vellum factory, the only one yet found in the Pictish area of Scotland. There is evidence that the vellum made here could have been used in the famous Book of Kells. If so, the book might have been written here, which would mean we DO have Pictish writings! That would be a major development.
It's a diet day. So no afternoon tea and no ice cream. So we rowed straight back to Robinetta.
We are expecting a calm night at anchor, but the wind direction is variable, so some of the time we will get some fetch to the little swell there will be.
The problems I had in getting the preventor rigged on on Saturday made me a lot less certain about my capability.The nurse in Shetland told me 3-6 weeks for full recovery, and I was beginning to believe 3. Now I am not so sure. We stayed in Helmsdale on Sunday, and thought about leaving on the early tide on Monday, but a look at the forecast made us hesitate. It was not the wind speed, 4-5 knots is a good sailing breeze for Robinetta, it was the wind direction. Our tiller pilot can not cope with much in the way of swell, and with the wind from the west or south west Julian would have to helm all the way. With a minimum of 6 hours to the next safe port/anchorage this did not seem reasonable or safe.
So we are staying in Helmsdale for a while, probably not leaving until Thursday when the wind is so light we will have to motor. This is the time when my elbow injury is really annoying me. I feel fine, can move it, and carry light objects. However it will not take my weight, and is not up to prolonged use or any twisting action.
I need patience! Helmsdale has everything we need, and some very attractive walks in the area.
We spent 3 nights in Wick, going to visit Lybster by bus on Thursday,
then having a lazy Friday 13th in Wick while the sun shone warmly and the
swell decreased. In the evening we looked at the forecast and decided
we should be fine to head south towards Helmsdale. Knowing this has a
bar across the entrance that constrains entry to 3 hours either side
of high water we decided to get up early to make sure we could get
in. With high water at 14:43, and 28nm to travel we decided that
leaving at 05:00 should give us plenty of time. We could have left
later, but all the forecasts were telling us that the morning would
be sunny, but to expect rain in the afternoon. “Windy” also
showed a westerly kicking in, which would let us sail. The Met Office
and XCWeather had cyclonic, going northerly for a time… We prepared
Robinetta before heading to bed, bending on the no2 jib and
taking off the sail covers, then set our alarm for 04:15.
There was no sign of the sun as we left
Wick, heading out into swell that made me very glad we had not tried
to leave yesterday when it would have been higher. Julian got the
main sail up, but we kept it centred as we turned onto our course
along the coast. The wind was from behind, and too gentle to use.
The sun never appeared, and visibility
was poor. I had laid in a course last night that kept us within .5nm
of the shore, but even then the cliffs were too indistinct for
photography. After an hour Julian was dozing off and I suggested he
go below for some sleep, which he did. It began to rain, and the
swell was rolling Robinetta relentlessly. We were travelling
across it, which helped make the wavelength seem longer, but it was
no fun.
After an hour Julian stirred, and when
I told him it was raining he put his salopettes on. I had been
wearing mine from the start, knowing I would struggle to get them on
in a moving boat. By the time he came up he looked a little pale, and
said he needed to go on the tiller as he felt nauseous. I was glad to
hand it over.
The rain came and went, but the
visibility got no better, and the engine stayed on
We took turn about on the helm until
about 10:30, when the wind from astern became a sailing breeze.
Julian sent me forward with the preventer line in case of gybing.
This was my first bit of rope handling out of the cockpit since I
damaged my elbow 17 days ago, and it showed that I was not really
ready for the job at hand. I did manage it, but had to take an extra
dose of painkillers straight after.
Once we turned the engine off the day
became more enjoyable, although it got no brighter or dryer. Julian
had to stay on the helm as the mainsail was out to port, but we were
making good time, with the chart plotter suggesting we would arrive
at noon. That was within the three hours either side of high water,
but I was slightly concerned that the swell height would increase our
risk of grounding.
Taking the preventer off was much
easier than putting it on, and Julian made sure he tacked, rather
than gybing to give us space to put the engine on and get the sail
down. Once we were head to wind I took the helm, and Julian did all
the rope work.
In the event we entered harbour at
12:15, using the leading lights to keep us straight. The right turn
into the harbour itself was not a problem, but the remnants of swell
that followed us into the narrow entrance meant I needed more revs on
the engine than I prefer to keep us heading straight through the
rather narrow gap.
Once inside the harbour I could see
that there was no one on the visitor berth, which was a relief.
Slowing down to get ropes and fenders out to go alongside was not so
easy, but turning Robinetta round to go alongside slowed us
enough that we could get the ropes onto the pontoon, which has a nice
thick rubber fender of its own.
I shut the engine off at 12:25, glad we
had been in this harbour before (back in 2014) so I had known what to
expect.
When we moored 1m showed beneath the keel, by 19:12 it was much less, although we were still just about afloat.
We had wanted to sail to Lybster, but the weather conditions made us decide to visit the harbour using the bus from Wick. When we got there we knew we had made the correct decision, as the swell approaching the narrow entrance to the harbour (2m) and the wind blowing into it (f6-7) made it a difficult place to approach safely.
The shelter inside was good, but we would have been lying against steel pilings, or rafted on a fishing boat, with a walk up the hill to a shop
Entrance to Lybster harbour
. Wick Marina is a much more comfortable place to sit out a blow!
I spent yesterday replacing the bolts that hold the toilet to its wooden base. I got replacement bolts and washers in William Shearer. We first went there in 2014 and it hasn't changed. It's a narrow but really long shop with 'departments'. It feels like walking deeper and deeper into a treasure cave. Unfortunately, the hardware department is just pre-packed cheap Chinese stuff these days, but they did have the right dimensions. I should look for stainless at some point.
Now sitting on the toilet isn't a balancing act.
We think we will head to mainland Scotland for a week and explore the north east. The weather is changeable. We had thought to go to Lybster tomorrow. We haven't been. We could drop down to the Churchill barriers again today and have two easy days. But last night, the forecast for Thursday didn't look good.
So we planned the trip to do Kirkwall to Wick in one hit. That's a long way, 55 nm, with Alison's arm still mostly out of commission.
A 5 am start looked like it would give us the best tides but with a south easterly wind, I was worried the fetch would lead to difficult sea states. Myweather2 is good for that, but only has a few data points in the area. It suggested waves and swells of less than 1/2 m and pitches of 3.5 s. That would be fine. Windy was less optimistic and was showing faster waves around 7s.
We woke to a fine calm morning and got off bang on 5 am. The weather stayed nice until about 7 am and then clouded over and the visibility was only a couple of miles.
leaving Copinsay to port
We had 15 minutes of weak foul tide through the String south of Shapinsay and then a strong favourable push round to Copinsay. The sea was calm with no overfalls so we went less far off Mull Head and Copinsay than planned and George was at the helm. After that the wind came in and we could motor sail with hand steering.
We tried to keep the cross track error down but at that angle the waves, although not big, were making Robinetta pitch violently and stop dead. Steering a few degrees to port filled the sails better and prevented the resonance. So we put up with the risk of getting nearer the Skerries. We had left enough margin. It wasn't a problem.
Once we were far enough south to make a straight line for Wick south of the Skerries we turned the engine off. But after 30 minutes the wind dropped and we were wallowing in the swell so we motor sailed again the rest of the way. The tide helped Alison hit 6 knots a few times on this leg. It was pushing us west a bit as well. But we were careful near the Skerries. The last hour was foul but only a knot.
Three yachts came into Wick from Kirkwall within 30 minutes. Of course the other two ha d left much later and probably sailed more of the route while we motor sailed. But we are now within a day sail of Inverness and Portsoy and we can have a holiday.
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