Orkney

Well, here we are in Orkney. The most northerly point of our trip. We have now passed the most southerly, westerly and northerly points of the British mainland. Just Lowestoff Ness in the East to go.

We had four nights in Kinlochbervie. Very interesting watching the fish auction, although rather slow to start with as they had a new boat in and the buyers of the Haddock were inspecting every box. All graded according to size and quality, with the larger ones being more expensive. A box, about 47 kg, went for around £94 for best down to £54 for the smaller fish.Morrisons seemed to buy the smaller cheaper fish. The cod, all enormous, went for over £100 per box, and the most expensive, the monkfish, for over £160. Evidently they used to fetch around £300. From one medium sized boat there must have been 600 boxes of fish. The larger boat which arrived has twice that. But then it needs 50,000 litres of diesel and 15 tons of ice.

And you've guessed. The fish I was holding in the last picture was given to us. It was, we think, a catfish. Gail managed to fillet it in the ice plant, but the skin was incredibly tough. We took off two fillets which would have served ten people. Fried in butter it was delicious. We then curried the rest in Orkney.

we slipped from Kinlochbervie at 03.30 to catch the tide right around Cape Wrath. There was no wind so it would be motoring again, but we were happy to have calm seas as Cape Wrath is notorious for rough seas. We passed the cape at 05.45 and set course, 73 degrees magnetic, for Orkney. After a snack Gail went below for a rest as we decided we must each have a break after such an early start. The weather turned cloudy and drizzly with again, a cold North wind. Quite light but right on the nose again.

Without adjusting the autohelm once, we sailed past the Old Man of Hoy, having rolled out the jib to give us a little bit of help when the wind picked up a little, and into Hoy sound and rolled the jib. I realised we were suddenly not making much over the ground, so the tide must be against us. As we progressed, we increased the revs, and as the wind had  gone behind for a while, unfurled the jib. We were now making 6.8 knots through the water but only 0.5 knots over the ground, with a Northern Ferry rapidly approaching from behind. Luckily we just managed to squeeze past the narrows before he came past and had to make a handbreak turn into Stromness, followed shortly after by ourselves.

We are now safely tied up on a nice pontoon with good facilities. I am about to buy a new cruising guide to the Orkneys as the next leg will be into Scapa Flow, not much tide there, but then into the pentland Firth where tides can run up to 12 knots, so we must get it right.

We are intending spending four or five days here to wait for neap tides. Sadly, because of the Magnus festival, all car hire is booked up, so we will try to hire bikes to explore. Luckily, it's not hilly here.

Pic show Gail gutting the fish, Dawn leaving Loch Inchard, Great Auk