Fairwinds 2005

Day 6 - Kinlochbervie - Stromness 73 miles

It was a dull but dry morning when we left the pontoon at 5 am. By 05.40 there was enough wind to sail, and we were running in a moderate swell with prevented main and poled out genoa. An hour later we had to knock it on the head - as the wind died away and the rolling increased the sails flogged and so we motored towards Cape Wrath, now benefiting from a knot and a half of tide.

We rounded the cape inside the Dulsic Rock at 08.30 and picked up a good wind - twenty knots or so westerly, and we were off running at five knots or more under headsail only, plus two or three knots of tide. An hour or so later the wind dropped and we put up the main, gybing the pole a couple of times and finally settleing down on a broad reach in a building swell. Had an excellent sail under autohelm for a few hours, then mid afternoon had to take the main down as it was flogging too often, and motorsailed the rest of the way with poled out genoa adding a little to our speed. The engine temperature stayed below 80 for a change, which was a relief.

After a lot of rain, drizzle and mist the cliffs of Hoy appeared out to the gloom a few miles ahead and soon we could make out the Old Man of Hoy in the weak evening sunshine. Hoy Sound has a good write up in the Orkney CCC pilot, but it was a pussycat - the main complaint being that the tidal assistance we were looking forward to didn’t happen until we were almost there.

Alongside in the fabulous new marina in Stromness just after ten o’ clock. Our friends Colin and Julia were tied up in Jacobea, a Mirage 36 ketch, on the next finger. On board Jacobea for several glasses of wine and a few tips on cruising Orkney. (The Jacobites had been in Orcadian waters for a fortnight, and were about to head back round Cape Wrath).