Debi and Jack sailing on SV Iroquois

We left Wick as planned and had the tide with us for most of the way to Kirkwall. Once again there are very few Wick boosters, even here in Orkney. People respond to our having been there as a thing we managed to escape from--so true that nobody loves the down and out. We had the tide but not the wind. There wasn't enough to fill the sails so we ended up motoring the whole way. Boring. It is strange that while a motor on the boat is a thing of great utility the time passes more slowly when using it compared to sailing, that said I hope it always continues to function.

We did see some seals, but no orcas. We had met some crab fishermen on the dock in Wick. They were waiting for their catch to get picked up and flown to Spain. They had several boxes of crabs, sorted by gender, some big, some small, and a couple of lobsters. They had heard of a migrating pod of orcas but hadn't seen them either. One guy wanted to go to the US, rent a Mustang and drive Hwy-66, he said he just needed to catch a few more crabs to pay for the gas.

The Orcadians are very friendly compared to mainland Scotland. They greet you with smiles on the street. Not that the rest of Scotland isn't friendly, they just don't smile as much. We walked around Kirkwall this morning and saw the amazing St Magnus Cathedral. The cathedral took 300 years to build and is more Norwegian than Scottish. The Orkney islands are strongly Norwegian in tradition and culture but they have had about 500 plus years of English/Scottish domination leaving the influence more subtley visible. The cathedral is really a work of art, build of red and yellow sandstone. One stunning detail is at the windows where the stone forming the arches are dressed (blocks) for 2/3rds to 3/4qtrs of the wall depth (~4 feet) and then rough cut vertical slabs, like shale which completes the arch for the remainder of the depth to the outside wall. There is other stone work where the masonry seems to flow like water from one piece to the other. Saint Magnus himself is one of two co-rulers (Norwegian style) who refused to fight an unjust war with some mainland Scots being ravaged by the King of Norway. Magnus was later betrayed by his co-earl but Magnus took it (an ax) on the head (literally) after forgiving his killers, (a man so good you feel bad). The Cathedral is the result of a pledge to honor his memory by a nephew for a victory in some war. No irony that the man of peace got a cathedral as the result of fighting.

Knowing that it is wrong to pigeon-hole people, the history of Scotland seems to have produced two broad types, those who dominate (sharks) or those who have been dominated (mice), or so they appear when I watch them on the street or listen to the way they speak. Below the surface there seems to be either stone or straw.

Today the wind is howling and we are snug in the boat sometimes running the heater and sometimes somewhat chilled. We're expecting a visit from the local OCC port officer so will light the heater soon.

Tomorrow we're taking a bus to Skara Brae, a prehistoric village that was exposed after a big storm. It's the most well preserved Neolithic village in Northern Europe, complete with stone furniture. Then we'll take a taxi to Stromness and check it out before catching a bus back to Kirkwall. Then hopefully on to Pierowall on Friday.