Back to Skullomie Harbour

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.