Over the Top

We stopped in Stornoway for three nights to prepare for our passage to the Orkneys. Stornoway is the biggest and most northerly town in the Outer Hebrides, but it seemed small even by comparison to Oban, our last proper town stop. However, it had everything we needed and we felt there were depths to this town that we missed during our short stay. The weather remained changable and although we managed to get our three trips to Tescos done in the sun, our trip to the museum in the castle was a very wet one. 

Sara couldn't resist buying new footwear, but the fancy ones were to short. 

Once the jobs were done we just had to wait for a weather window to make the passage. Judging this was tricky as we were trying to balance arrival into the Sound of Hoy in the Orkneys with a west-going tide, while trying to get as much tide with us along the way. Considering that this was a 120 mile trip, we clearly could not have a fair tide all the way. The guidance also warned of rough conditions north of Stornoway and on the corner by Cape Wrath. We also needed to account for the wind, wishing to avoid wind over tide, with enough wind from a good direction, but not so much that it became a white knuckle ride. You can weigh all of this endlessly, but in the end you just have to go, so go we did.   

In the end we spent most of the trip trying to slow down so that we were not too early for the tide into the Sound of Hoy. It was frustrating to be reefed down, going five knots when we could have been zooming along at eight, but timing was key. It was a bouncy ride pretty much the whole way, and our slow speed didn't help.

During the night, we found ourselves amonst the Clipper fleet on their "home coming" leg from Derry to London. This was the end to their Round The World race that started in 2019, but was delayed in the Philippines due to Covid. Phil was quite frustrated to be sailing slowly and not joining in.

We arrived at 7.00am in to Stromness very tired, and after an arrival beer with our fried breakfast, we crashed till lunch time.

The Orkneys

On arrival to Stromness, the sun came out and stayed out for three full days. We walked around the town's stone paved streets, looking at the old houses and reading the blue plaques that seem to be everywhere. Each one seemed to be comemorating someone who had left and done great things or famously arrived, none seemed to be about staying put, which may say a lot about the character of the place. 

 

The next day we got the bikes out and completed a 20 mile round trip of the Orkneys Neolithic heritage sites. Most of these date from 3000 BC and include burial mounds, standing stones, stone circles and a complete village.

 

We passed a active archealogical dig along the way, which was fascinating to watch, but did make me wonder way people choose a career of scraping around in the dirt.

The highlight of the day was the village at Skara Brae. The layout of every house is the same, with a hearth in the centre, a stone dresser for displaying valuables opposite the door and stone beds around the edge. It was just incredible to think that people were living there in a community five thousand years ago.

 

After two nights we were off again to Westray one of the Northern Orkney Islands passing 59° North on the way. This will be the most point of our trip this year. We had a brilliant sail up there with the wind on our beam most of the day zooming along in the sun. We stopped in Pierwall which held a sailing regatta the next day, had a castle to look around, a pub, and some average fish and chips. 

 

Having turned south, our next adventure will be the Caledonian Canal, which should be a change from the open North Atlantic swell and huge tidal races.