Across the Pentland Firth

Sometimes things just go to plan. Mostly that happens when you spend a long time getting the plan right!

Julian worked out how to get across to Orkney, and asked the Wick harbour master for his advice too. Malcolm Bremner was very happy to help, and while his timings were more-or-less as Julian expected he added little snippets of info that were not in the Clyde Cruising club instructions. Stay close (1/4 - 1/2 miles) to Noss head, then head directly NNW to Scirza Head, and run parallel to the coast to Duncansby Head about 1 to 1.5 miles off. This lets you take full advantage of the back-eddy that runs towards Duncansby head from the south when the flood is still running south farther out. His timing was a little earlier too - bang on HW Dover, not Duncansby Head slack. Most important was his instruction "don't be late". He also said "if you do as I say, you can wear your slippers, you won't get your feet wet".

We left Wick at 0445, passing the old lifeboat station the Wick Society now use as a store. There was just enough wind to help us, so we raised the sails but after a while it dropped to almost nothing. The tide was stronger against us than Julian had expected and we dropped to 2 knots at one point. The engine was running flat out to keep us up to 3.5 knots when we needed over 4 knots to make the tidal gate.

 It was 7 nm to Scirza Head where we expected to get some favourable tide. It seemed to take forever. Then we started to speed up. We hadn't reached the head yet and Julian was worried the tide had turned early. I reassured him it was the start of the back eddy. The speed increased and increased and we hit 7 knots at one point but were making 6 reliably and passed the 'castle' rock south of Duncansby Head at 0755, bang on time!

The journey across the Firth was unbelievably simple after that. Flat sea, no wind, and back down to 3 knots. We did indeed keep dry feet! We had sunshine though! Two thirds of the way across the tide started to run, and we were no longer pointing where we were going as our speed picked up to 5 knots.

Julian put the mifi on and we had internet all the way across. It allowed us to track the shipping on AIS and report our position to friends watching. (Maybe not on a Sunday morning).

We closed with the coast of South Ronaldsay to have a good look, and headed up into Scapa Flow doing 5 knots with the engine in tick over. It needed a rest from the full revs up to this point!

Lossiemouth to Wick

This is the day that decides whether we can make Orkney or not. If we can get to Wick today, then we are in striking distance of Orkney at neap tides. Otherwise it would not be sensible to try. We watched the weather carefully yesterday, and there were 6s in the forecast for Rattray Head and Duncansby Head "later". So long as they stayed in that part of the area we could go. We decided we should leave by 0830 to get out of Lossiemouth without problems. That should also get us to Wick before the forecast "later". The wind was coming from the NW as well, which meant no long fetch to build up the wave height. Robinetta can cope with a 6 without problems when well reefed down so long as the wave are small.

The morning forecast had lost the force 6 at Duncansby head, so the trip was on. We stowed the cabin, and got the bowsprit out and the jib bent on in harbour. (It's much easier that way!). A Selway Fisher came in at quarter past eight, having motored up from Findhorn, and the skipper said the waves were not too rough, and should calm down in a couple of hours. Even more encouraging! They helped pull Robinetta off her blown on berth, and we were away.

As we motored out of the harbour we saw Matt and his daughter Ellie on the outer breakwater. They had come to wave us off!

The first hour was a bit bouncy, but with plenty of wind to sail. We put a couple of rolls in the main, and used the no2 jib, which gave us a lovely sail straight across the Moray Firth. The wind went a bit lighter around noon and we shook out the reef, and we soon had the engine on to keep up the speed, but there was plenty to see; oils rigs of the Beatrice and Jacky oil fields, plus kittiwakes, herring gulls, guillimots, puffins, gannets.... There were some immature gulls whose species I could not determine that I christened RAF gulls, as they seemed to have roundels on their wings....

We heard Shetland Coastguard for the first time at 1610. They transmit at the same time as Thames, which felt oddly homely... They gave out the 1800 UTC forecast for our area; NW 4 or 5, occasionally 6 for a time. Not great, as we would not reach Wick until about 2030. Sure enough the engine was off and a reef back in only ten minutes later!

We carried on as fast as we safely could, which meant furling away the jib during squalls, and reefing the main all the way down by 1900. Twenty minutes later we dropped it in a hurry as the wind rose still more, and we were sailing on staysail and engine as we rounded up into Wick bay.

We were safely moored up in Wick marina by 2025, feeling rather pleased with ourselves. We'd got where we wanted to go, without endangering the boat or ourselves, and had a good time doing it. Confidence building stuff. It really helped that the seas did not have time to build as the wind was coming off the land; the squall that made us finally drop the main sail would have been nasty in any sort of a sea.

Boats make friends

Back in February Matt Hommel posted a message on the Westerly 22 Yahoo Group saying he had acquired and was rebuilding a Westcoaster. When we got to Banff I emailed him and we agreed to try and get together. It isn't often two of Denys Rayner's pre-Westerly designs get close together!

Matt came to see us at Lossiemouth and offered to take us to see the Westcoaster at his house in nearby Pluscarden. He had a good look around Robinetta and recognised many features the Westcoaster has in common.

Matt is a forester and expert in all things wood. He lives with his wife and family in a croft he rebuilt. It is a really special place and they are a lovely family. He doesn't have much sailing experience but is developing an obsession with wooden boats. Quite right too! Many of the features of the Westcoaster were unfamiliar to him and we were able to explain some of them.

The Westcoaster was Rayner's most successful design before the foundation of Westerly Marine and around 60 of them were made and sold by Beacon Boats. Matt's is number 48 and is in remarkably good condition for a 50 year-old plywood boat. The hull is sound and Matt is repairing many rotten parts in the superstructure. The mast, boom and gunter yard are good but the bowsprit was rotten and he has made a new one.

She is much smaller overall than Robinetta and truly transitional in design between the gaff / carvel Robinetta and the gunter / fibreglass W22.

The plywood construction forced a number of hard chines which Rayner disliked and were a factor in his becoming one of the early experimenters with fibreglass. For this reason or others, she also lacks Robinetta's excessive tumblehome and the too steep double camber of the W22's cabin. Perhaps Rayner wasn't trying so hard to squeeze a quart into a pint bottle with the Westcoaster and I think she is quite the prettiest of his designs that I have seen.

It was a real privilege to meet Matt and his family and see the wonderful home he has made for them. It is wonderful to see another of Rayner's early boats being made ready to sail again. 

Banff to Lossiemouth

Was woken at 0130 and 0430 by the Aberdeen Coastguard on the radio. We'd forgotten to turn off. It made dragging myself out of bed to get out of the harbour by 0630 very difficult! We did it though, and Robinetta was out with 10' of water under the keel. Before long we were met by about four dolphins who said good morning and left.

Visibility was poor, there was no wind, the swell made the boom swing and grate against the horse until we tied it down really tightly. The auto-helm repairs that Julian had made last night did not hold...  it was a morning when staying in bed would have been wonderful. Only if we had we would not have been able to get out of Banff until the afternoon, which meant rather late arriving in Lossiemouth.

By ten nearly everything had changed. The swell had lessoned, and the sun was out, giving us amazing views of a wonderful coastline. We went close in to Cullen, and saw birds sitting on the water, so Julian tried fishing. No luck, but it was fun to try. The one thing that was still bad was the wind. There was none. We took the main sail down to protect it against UV, but left the stay sail up. There's always a chance it will draw....

We  motored close to the shore, taking pictures of the rock formations between Cullen and Portknockie. Amazing looking places; they made us want to come back with a twin keeled boat that could lay up in the harbours there.

The sun shine stayed with us all the way to Lossiemouth. When I called up the harbour master he asked how much Robinetta drew. Lossiemouth is listed as an all states of the tide harbour, and it was half tide, but it seems there have been problems. He was happy to let Robinetta in though, and she was soon tied up along side the visitor pontoon.

We got Worm out straight away. We wanted to scrape off the barnacles and put on another layer of Woodskin, and the ply would need time to dry out after it was washed. Julian did the cleaning, then I gave him the tin of Woodskin. Whoops, “Not for use below the water line”. We had to put something on though, and all we had available was the masonry paint Robinetta gets on her decks. Worm now has a white bottom...  I fully expect the masonry paint to peel off, but it will offer some protection in the meantime.

Gloria came in just before 5pm and moored up behind us. We last saw them rounding Rattray Head out of Peterhead. We moved Robinetta so there was space between us. The wind got up in the afternoon, and a Westerly called Carpe Diem came in at 1700. They had come down fron Wick, after a visit to the Orkneys. It was good to chat to them.


A Beneteau came in at 1880 seeking shelter. The wind has really got up!

Macduff

Banff shares the Deveron bay with Macduff. We walked up to the petrol station in the evening and bought diesel and on the way back the light was amazing so we sat in the Battery Park taking pictures. The hills above Macduff reflected in the water on the sands. Wow

Tiller pilot repairs

On the way to Peterhead the post on the tiller the pilot sits on came off. It had been welded on. I tried to make a temporary mount for it from scrap but it failed on first test. I bought some M5 machine screws and after filing some flash out of the hole I got one to fit and tightened the nut over a washer to spread the load. We will test it on the way towards Lossiemouth tomorrow.

Fraserburgh to Banff

After a very comfortable night tied loosely against the quay at Fraserburgh we paid our £10 mooring fee at the Harbour office, and headed out of the harbour. We had prepared everything we could while moored, even getting the bowsprit out and the no.2 jib bent on. Julian tied the anchor up to the outside of bulwarks; we did not want it rolling around on the foredeck as it probably had yesterday!

We were in the outer harbour, with a small fishing boat coming up to overtake, when the engine overheat warning sounded. I immediately got Julian to haul up the stay sail while I turned off the engine. The staysail gave us steerage way, while Julian and I looked at each other, wondering what had gone wrong. The fishing boat went past, and Robinetta continued gently towards the harbour entrance, then Julian asked if I'd remembered to turn the engine cooling water inlet back on after I checked the filter was clear. He went down to check, and it turns out I hadn't. Panic over! The engine went back on, and we headed out of harbour under power.

There was a fair amount of swell, and there were times when Robinetta's prop did not bite the water properly, so she was slow under motor. The wind felt like it was on the nose, but Robinetta is a sailing boat, so we got the main sail up, still with a little bit of reef from yesterday, and with the smaller jib she was nicely balanced on the making tack.

Julian felt a bit under the weather, but I had a lovely sail along the coast to Gardenstown, until the wind went a bit light. We shook out the reef, but it continued to drop, so we ended up motor sailing, with Julian at the helm. Unfair that he ended up with the not so nice sail!

There were only occasional other boats, but we did see a dredger on its way somewhere; a most peculiar sight when the boat bit was invisible!

The way the cliffs give way to tiny bays, some with tiny settlements hiding in them, is really interesting, as is seeing the steeply bedded rocks, which are clearly visible from out to sea. There were a couple of obvious nesting colonies on the cliffs, and I saw guillemots, kittiwakes, herring gulls, and gannets flying and fishing all around.

By the time we reached Banff the wind had died away to almost nothing. I called the harbour master on the VHF when we were ready to enter, and he was there! (he's only part time in Banff, as he's also harbour master at Portsoy) He said to come in, and he would be on the pontoon to tell us where to tie up. Wonderful.

I was on  the foredeck as we entered harbour. A swell caught us as we turned towards the entrance, and for a moment, as I saw the narrow entrance sliding past, and the surf breaking on the beach to port my heart jumped. No problem really, Julian caught her perfectly and steered straight in, so we entered without any real excitement.

The harbour master was waiting as promised, and we were tied up on a good pontoon, with the right number of cleats, in minutes. Banff harbour is really pretty, and I'm very glad we came.

 

 We had a late lunch of reheated curry left over from the generous portions served us by the B.Raj in Fraserburgh. The Omnia stove top oven is really useful at times like this.