Day 64. Sat 1 Aug. Moored in Stromness.
Most of the morning was taken up with domestic chores, such as laundry, shopping, cleaning the boat thoroughly, and tidying up ready to receive visitors. I was then able to spend the afternoon relaxing, after trying and failing to update the blogsite at Stromness Library.
Garth duly turned up at about 1800, and we started making plans for the next few days. The weather forecast was passable for Sunday, with westerly winds of Force 4-5, occasionally 6 - more than we wanted, but at least from an acceptable direction, but then going into the SE for a couple of days. So it looked as though we either had to leave for Wick on Sunday, or be stuck in Orkney for a few more days.
The timing of the tides through the Pentland Firth meant that we either had to leave Stromness at 0200 and navigate Scapa Flow in the dark, or take the afternoon tide, arriving in Wick late in the evening. We opted for a lie-in.
Day 65. Sun 2 Aug. Stromness to Wick. 46 miles.
Today's forecast confirmed last night's diagnosis, but after a leisurely breakfast, we had time for a stroll round Stromness to show Garth some of the sights, before setting sail at 1030. We set off on a broad reach across Scapa Flow in a nice westerly force 4, but when we started coming on the wind down the eastern shore of Flotta, we realised that it had increased to Force 5, gusting 6, and put in a reef before reaching open waters. As we crossed the top of Flotta, we watched a skua mobbing a young seagull, which had already learned some pretty advanced aerobatic skills, such as stall turns and slalom. Eventually its plaintive cries brought its parents to the rescue.
The recommended way of crossing the Pentland Firth is to go West hugging the coast for a couple of miles, wait for the tide to turn at Aith Hope, between the islands of Hoy and South Walls, and then head South. We passed Cantick Head a couple of hours early, and with a strong wind against tide, it looked very unpleasant, so we went back in, and into Long Hope, on the North side of South Walls, and picked up a visitors mooring, whilst we had lunch and considered our options.
By 1630, the wind seemed to have moderated, so we set out to try again, this time with two reefs. We reached Cantick Head for the second time at 1710, by which time the tide had turned, and everything was a lot calmer. So we decided to go for it - heading about South West, with engine ticking over, until we were on the recommended track - pointing South, and being carried South East by the tide, and turned off the engine as we were swept past Swona. The passage through the Outer Sound was actually quite uneventful, apart from the stress of trying to avoid a ship coming the other way - every time we thought we were across its bows, it turned towards us! In fact it continued turning, passing straight down the middle of the channel, passing at least half a mile in front of us, but I would very much rather he hadn't been there.
Off Duncansby Head, we narrowly avoided two fishing floats which were being forced under water by the 6 knot tide, but the wind had died, so we shook out a reef, to keep up the speed -some 9 knots over the ground. Off Noss Head, the second reef came out, and then we started the engine again for the run into Wick. Unfortunately, the oil pressure alarm came on, so we stopped it again, and topped up the engine oil - something I had meant to check in Stromness, and forgotten. This didn't stop t he alarm sounding, but we had little option but to continue to motor the last half mile into Wick, in spite of this, and we tied up in the inner harbour at 2100, had supper and went to bed.
Day 66 Mon 3 Aug. Moored in Wick.
The forecast for today had already warned us that it was likely to be a rest day - winds of F6, South to South East were too much and in the wrong direction. So we took advantage, and had a lie-in, then went into Wick to catch up on shopping, buy a new gas cylinder, etc. We thought the town was a bit quiet, but had completely overlooked the fact that it was a bank holiday in Scotland. In the afternoon, we went to the museum, which had been recommended - but was closed for the holiday, so wandered round "Poultenay-town", on the South side of the Wick river. This had been built in the mid-nineteenth century as an estate to service the rapid expansion of the docks and industrialisation of the town on the back of the herring fishing.
Day 67. Tues 4 Aug. Moored in Wick.
The wind was still just as strong, so we were able to get to Wick Museum after all! This was started about twenty years ago by a team of volunteers, who managed to obtain possession of a row of about six houses, including a herring processing yard and works, and has received donations of all sorts of artefacts connected with the town. These have been set out in a glorious organised jumble, which the guides attempt to explain, and the whole experience is utterly charming.
We walked down the harbour towards South Head, and watched a local rib tripper-boat venture out of the harbour carrying out engine trials. This confirmed the wisdom of staying in port. The entrance to Wick is a narrow funnel- shaped bay, totally exposed to the South East, and the waves were coming straight in and building up into a mass of white water.
We finished the day with a visit to the harbour fish and chip shop, where the haddock was well up to standard.
Day 68. Wed 5 Aug. Onwards from Wick? 5 miles.
By this stage, we were getting a little restless, and since the forecast had improved marginally, we decided to go outside to have a look, with a view to sailing to Peterhead in one hop - about 65 miles.
It was certainly better than yesterday, but still very bouncy in the bay. Nevertheless, we persevered until we were clear of the bay itself, and hoisted the mainsail - or rather tried to! The halyard had managed to repeat its trick of getting caught round the radar reflector (see day 18!), which meant getting out the bosun's chair and sending someone up the mast. This would have been distinctly unwise in those conditions, so we returned to port to fix it. On the way back, we both looked at each other and said more or less in unison that it would be a good idea to wait another day, rather than beat such a long way in those conditions.
Back on the berth, we started getting out various tools to have a make-and-mend day. The first item to get attention was the hand-drill which had got broken in Arklow (Day 24). After some lateral thinking, we managed to take the chuck apart and remove the broken drill bit. This then allowed us to start the list of jobs held over from Arklow. Garth took off the instrument panel in the mainhatch garage, and fitted the retaining batten, to allow a water-tight seal for the instruments. I fitted similar battens to the back of the shelf fitting in the heads, to turn it into a secure handhold, then fitted a shock-cord retaining strap for the loo seat. Meanwhile, Garth had got out the manual for the wind instrument, and checked the wiring to try to establish why it wasn't working. He established that there was a broken fuse, so we then had the challenge of trying to obtain a new one. The harbourmaster suggested a couple of likely places, neither of which could help, but one then suggested the lifeboat coxswain, who works for an electronics company. So we went to the lifeboat station to find out - unfortunately he couldn't, but showed us the local weather forecast for the next few days. Tomorrow is going to be significantly better - wind still from S/SE, but a lot less of it.
Sometime during the day, we even managed to send Garth up the mast to free up the halyard!
Day 69. Thurs 6 Aug. Wick to Fraserburgh. 63 miles.
We got up bright and early, put up the mainsail in the outer harbour to avoid a repeat of yesterday, and left the harbour at 0630. The sea was definitely a lot calmer, but the wind was still S to SE force 3 to 4 - dead on the nose for Rattray Head at the eastern corner of the Moray Firth. We made reasonable progress to start with; indeed for the first couple of hours, the wind was southerly, so we could head almost straight there, but this was not to last! We needed to keep the speed up to at least 5 knots, so most of the time we had the engine on.
By 1930, we were still about 15 miles North of Rattray Head, and the tide turned against us - so we were now fighting both wind and tide. Having been on the go for 13 hours, we were just beginning to get tired, when our spirits were lifted by a family of dolphins, probably a mother with two young, who played in our bow wave for upwards of half an hour. However, our speed was now down to about three knots, and we were over twenty miles from Peterhead, with the adverse tide still building. We decided to divert to Fraserburgh - in spite of the pilot book suggesting that it is a busy fishing port that did not encourage yachts. Even so, it was 2115 before we tied up in Fraserburgh Harbour. Whilst there are no yacht facilities, we were found a berth without any hassle, and it was no worse than Scrabster, moored against an old dumper truck tyre suspended from the harbour wall.
Needless to say, we were too tired to investigate the night life, and had an early night!
Day 70. Fri 7 Aug. Fraserburgh to Peterhead. 20 miles.
What a difference a day makes! Today started cloudy, but the sun gradually burned through to give a lovely summer's day, with a light northwesterly wind. I even managed to get a new fuse for the wind gauge in an electronic engineers on Fraserburgh waterfront.
We left the harbour at 1045, and drifted eastwards with wind and tide down towards Rattray Head, arriving at slack water - just in time to pick up the South-going tide down the coast to Peterhead. The tide must have been running at about 3 knots, and we had to tack down-wind to give ourselves any steerage way. It was the first time for a month that it was shirt-sleeve weather, which made a nice change, and Peterhead came abeam almost too quickly. We tied up in the marina at 1430.
Garth spent a happy afternoon smashing the boat - well, the cockpit drinks tray - and then as a pennance continued his efforts to mend the wind gauge.