Pentland Firth and back to the mainland

As indicated at the end of the last blog, we sailed on Thursday afternoon for Widewall Bay on South Ronaldsay. With a strong South Easterly breeze we had a good, if chilly, sail hard on the wind with 2 reefs in the main and a partially furled genoa. John helmed the whole way, getting used to a wheel rather than a tiller. He had a smile on his face so I guess he enjoyed it. We pretty much had Scapa Flow to ourselves.

Leaving Stromness harbour

John and Debbie getting the best out of Lacerta.

WW2 fortifications on South Ronaldsay.

Reeds says that Widewall Bay anchorage is sheltered except for in South Westerlies. We found it very open with the low lying surrounding ground offering little protection from the SE wind, which was forecast to get stronger. After a brief stop for a cup of tea we opted for a little more sailing and headed off under genoa only, downwind to an anchorage between Hoy and a small island called Rysa Little, eventually anchoring in the lee of Rysa Little at 2145. The anchor dug in pretty well immediately and with plenty of chain out we felt much more comfortable and settled down to a late dinner of pasty and beans and a wee dram for a nightcap.

The wind blew hard from the SE throughout the night and all of Friday with plenty of rain so the day was spent reading, drinking tea and playing word games. As John was an ardent Scrabble player the Phillips family were beaten hands down and learnt a few new words, some slightly risqué! The wind died down during Friday night and gave us a very quiet night but swung around to the West putting us on a lee shore, not too much of a problem during the night when the wind was light and during the morning when the tide was rising but by the afternoon the wind was blowing strongly from the West and the tide was falling. We opted to up anchor and, with just a scrap of headsail unrolled, sailed to Long Hope, a deep inlet at the South end of Hoy where the village of South Ness has visitor moorings just off the ferry pier. After a short 1 hour sail we were snug on a substantial mooring.

The weather looked to have a window on Sunday which would be good for crossing the Pentland Firth. John and I checked and rechecked the tide tables and decided we should go while the last of the West going tide was still running so we weren't caught in the East going stream and carried out towards Muckle Skerry. We left at 0700 on Sunday morning and everything worked to plan except the forecast NW force 4 didn't materialise and we had to motor. The crossing was much calmer than we anticipated and we had a fair tide South from Duncansby Head. We debated whether to stop in Wick or carry on another 40 odd miles to Lossiemouth, eventually deciding on Wick as it was touch and go whether we would get into Lossiemouth on a falling tide in time for enough water in the entrance. Wick turned out to be a good call as we were in by midday and the afternoon turned out to be very wet.

Duncansby Head

Doing the sums. Will it be Wick or Lossiemouth?

John was leaving us in the morning so we walked in the rain to find the railway station. John had read the Yachting Monthly article (May 2015) "19 tips for the perfect crew", number 19 of which was take the grateful skipper out to dinner. He didn't have to do that as he ticked most of the other 18 boxes but we did enjoy an excellent dinner at Mackays Hotel.

We saw John off at the station at 0730 this morning and spent the rest of the morning shopping to restock the boat and giving her an airing while it wasn't raining. As it has been blowing hard from the East all day we spent the afternoon at the excellent Wick Heritage Museum, a real treasure trove of life in Wick from the heyday of the hearing fishing fleets, obviously a good call as the lifeboat has just launched!

Tucked up in the marina while the seas raged outside

 

Posted with Blogsy