I awoke to beauty and peace - despite the ferry jetty nearby. After a leisurely start, I got the dinghy out - for the first time on the voyage. It's a bit of a faff to get it inflated, launched, the engine on, etc. but I got it done and went ashore. I had, of course, reached the shore at absolutely low tide, so no water to reach the sloping hard, and certainly the dinghy would float away during my absence if I didn't pull it up! Ho hum. All managed OK.
My friend Dave had recommended I visit "
The Italian Chapel" built out of a nissen hut by prisoners of war during WWII. However, it would have been a 2.5hr walk each way from St Margaret's Hope - I guess your scale of distance is different when you're on a motorbike! Perhaps I'll get there by boat tomorrow. Instead I had a pleasant walk around the neighbouring lanes, was stared at by some cows, had an excellent lunch of local salmon and prawns in
Robertson's Coffee Hoose and Bar, and took the above photo of Eowyn at anchor in the bay, carefully aiming away from the ferry terminal!
Back aboard I debated staying put, but instead went for a short trip up to the head of Water Sound, where a "
Churchill Barrier" joins South Ronaldsay to Burray. These barriers were built during WWII to block the smaller channels into Scapa Flow, where the British Fleet was based, and prevent a repeat of the submarine sinking of HMS Royal Oak. Now they carry causeways linking the islands.
I then sailed back down the sound, round the western tip of Burray, and anchored in Hunda Sound. There are no other boats here, and only one farm house on the shore. Magnificent!
Log of this passage