Fairwinds 2005

Day 19 - Shapinsay - Shapinsay 12 miles

(Or the day we didn’t go to Stronsay)

Here’s the problem - we are pressed on to the pier by wind gusting up to 20 knots on our beam. We haven’t got enough room to get off forwards before running aground. If we try to go off astern the propwalk will swing the stern in before we have steerage way. Of course, the answer is not to get yourself in these situations, but the berth had seemed much more sheltered the day before . . .

I took off most of the lines and pondered. After much pondering a local guy who had been watching came over and asked if he could help. I explained that I was not sure how to get the vessel safely off the pier. He enquired as to whether I had an engine, obviously unable to see what else could be stopping me. I admitted to having one, and he suggested springing off with a bow spring and reversing off - a classic manoevre, but one I tried to explain would not work with this boat in these conditions. He was sure it would, and so we demonstrated with him holding the bow spring. The stern swings out, I go astern - and it swings straight back in no matter what I do. Eventually he jumps into the small boat moored behind (to seaward) of us and between us we manhandle the boat inelegantly alongside it then swing her stern to wind. I shout our thanks as we head off, knowing our helper will be left shaking his head at the antics of a couple of WAFIs.

Loads of tide with us as we close reach down the string - over seven knots over the ground all the way with double reefed main and half the genoa. Round the bottom of Shapinsay and we are almost hard on the wind making our course for the Southern coast of Stronsay and Auskerry Sound. Round the NE point of Shapinsay and the fun begins. We are now as close to the wind as we can get with the small genoa, and the seas in the Stronsay Firth are building as the spring ebb begins to challenge the NW wind. We have twenty-five knots over the deck pretty much constantly, and about a mile out into the Firth I decide I don’t want to do this. It’s cold, it’s uncomfortable, and even if the conditions aren’t too horrible in Auskerry Sound (which I suspect they will be) then the long slog directly to windward up the E coast of Stronsay does not appeal. Luckily there is a contingency plan for turning back (not always possible with the strong tides, and it’s Springs now). We do a 180 just as the tide does, and we are back opposite Balfour Village in no time at all, catching an equally strong tide back up the String just an hour after we had sped down it tide-assisted in the other direction.

It took a while to tack back across the tide into the bay at Balfour as we kept getting swept back East by the back eddy on the Northern side of the String but we were safely on one of the visitors’ moorings less than three hours after leaving the pier. A pleasant enough sail, but a bit pointless. Phoned Tim for some weather forecasts. The BBC are forecasting Northerlies for Kirkwall as far ahead as Tuesday . . . if they drop off a bit we might get somewhere else, but it won;t be fun - everywhere is North from here unless we throw in the towel and head for the Moray Firth. And it’s still freezing!

Blew the dinghy up and went to the Gatehouse again for a couple of pints. A youngish (to my eyes) girl with a rip in her jeans who works in Balfour Castle (now a hotel) came over and spoke to us - she was originally from the Falklands but moved to Shapinsay when she was six. She hadn’t been to any other ioslands in Orkney except Mainland and Rousay once when she was a kid on a school trip. It’s a familiar story - no-one bothers with what’s on their doorstep.