Fairisle

 Alison had set the alarm for 6 am but we were already drinking our tea by the time it went off.

It seemed like every boat in the harbour was going at the same time. There was very little to do before leaving and we slid out of Pierowall along with the work boats.

Out in the sound, I spotted a big fish farm on the route and went north of it nearer Papa Westray. There wasn't much wind but we got the sails up anyway. The sea was calm so we let George steer and had porridge.

Alison has definitely caught my cold.

There was a fair bit of tide pushing us towards North Ronaldsay. It's recommended to give it a wide berth in all weather so I compensated for the tide. It rotates rather than ebbing and flooding on this route so it's hard to know how to steer for best efficiency.

Suddenly, George jumped off the tiller pin. We realised the wind had come up and we could sail. It was a dead run but with the preventer fitted Robinetta was doing over 3.5 knots and it was nice. It lasted about 90 minutes and then the wind died again.

We never got the calm seas that George can cope with again. Sometimes it was a lovely rolling swell and sometimes it was a confused mess that took a lot of effort and concentration to steer in. 

Sometimes the tide sped us up, sometimes it slowed us down and sometimes it pushed left or right.

As we got within 10 miles of Fairisle, a wind shift put us on fine reach! We got the jib out but it wasn't quite enough to just sail. So we motor sailed and that was very pleasant.

A couple of miles out, we got the seabirds. Gannet and fulmar to start with, and then puffins and guillemot and skuas. 

Rock white with nesting birds

With the fine weather, getting into the north haven was easy. Mooring would have been tricky if the skipper of the big Ovni already there hadn't helped us raft against his boat. The visitor area is behind a huge buoy making the approach tricky.  Our companion said he was single handed and only got in with the help of the ferry skipper.