20th-24th August, Lochinver to Kinlochbervie, Stromness, Inverness

Kinlochbervie - a rocky fishing outpost

We arrived at Kinlochbervie which is the habitation farthest north west in the UK mainland.  The next day we had a “clean, make and mend” day as Gale F9 swept through. To pass the time, we also played pool in the pub and picked apples, pears and blackberries for a great fruit stew to keep us regular!  I prepared the navigation plan for the trip to take us around Cape Wrath and across the top of Scotland, heading for Stromness in the Orkneys.

We waited until the last moment for a forecast to clear us for the 14 hour trip and had a very calm passage around Cape Wrath – a running fix put us 2 miles off this North West tip of mainland UK.  After some extraordinary currents which defied the tidal stream atlas (we are close to the equinox) we ended up motoring the last twenty miles to ensure we didn’t get swept down the Pentland Firth and we arrived at Stromness on the mainland of Orkney at 2100.  At this point the fresh water supply failed and Geoff dived under the floor boards to investigate.   The calorifier was not happy and steam gushed up from the bilges so Geoff was able to quickly find the source of the problem: a hot, high pressure water hose had blown off.

Cape Wrath on a calm day!

Ken & Leyton on their Orkney Yole

The next morning we met Ken and Leyton who had a classic 18 foot, Orkney Yole and Geoff persuaded them to invite us out for a sail.  It was fantastic – such a graceful little beauty – and Ken and I had quick chats about the boatbuilding business – he served his time at McGruer’s in the Holy Loch and now, in Stromness he has built over 6 of these attractive little craft and next year will take one down the final stage of his journey on the Thames to finish in London. 

An early house in Stromness

Stromness high street

In the afternoon Geoff  and I visited the Stromness Museum to find it has a significant history. Scapa Floe has hosted various combative navies over the centuries – Spanish, French and of course the British.  And at the end of the First World War the German navy surrendered and was assembled there.  Many of the warships were scuttled and remain there today.  Stromness has also carried a large herring fleet which employed thousands of people both on the fishing vessels and on the quayside, to export the majority of the fish to Russia.  Most important of all was the strong association that Stromness had with the Hudson Bay Company which helped to open up the new Canadian colony.  Many Orcadians ended up employed in Canada with the HBC and the famous Dr Ernest Rae conducted five expeditions to explore and map the coast of Canada.  He also discovered the final stage to open up the elusive North West Passage and, in doing so, he discovered the fate of the earlier Franklin Expedition.  Queen Victoria awarded Rae the Arctic Medal for his exploits and helped bring Stromness into further prominence.

Rob just back from the Ceilidh

That night we went to a beer festival and Ceilidh where we had lively local music and dancing. At various stages we arrived back at the boat to hit the sack and wonder about the weather the next day.  Fortunately we had more Gale warnings and so decided to stay another day in the Orkneys which allowed me to hire a bicycle and cycle to Scara Brae which is an underground Neolithic village about eight miles north. It was awe inspiring and so well preserved that it gave a very clear picture of how civilised and organised they were about 4,000 years ago. The journey bicycling to Scara Brae had been fantastic - sailing with the strengthening South Easterly winds, often cycling at over thirty miles an hour down hill.  Four hours later, for my return journey, the wind had reached F8 and cycling up hill into it was extraordinary.  When I was going down the steepest hill, dead straight into the eye of the wind, I found I was only going forward on this 21 gear mountain bike if I had it in the lowest of low gears!

That night Jenny completed the passage plan for Wick and Inverness and we got the boat ready and went to bed as the winds howled and we hoped for a better day.  My only regret about leaving Stromness was not having picked up a copy of some poetry by George Mackay Brown (Stromness poet and short story writer – Booker shortlist!) who died a couple of years ago.  He spent all his life in this curious and beautiful little town, apart from a few years working in the Post Office in Glasgow.  It is amazing how big a personality Stromness has, yet you can walk from one end to the other within twenty minutes.

Scara Brae - underground neolithic village

The night before we left the Orkneys was quite eventful – I dreamed that I was continuing the leg wasting ride back from Scara Brae and stoicly only rested when I got to the top of the hills.  On one of these my leg fell off with a loud clatter on the ground.  I was holding on to the bike to stop falling over, but I had to let go to pick up my leg.  This is the exquisite dilemma which dreams are made of and as I puzzled the puzzle I woke up to hear the violent clattering of the wind vane which had sheared a stainless steel bolt – the wind had veered to the South West and the vane was banging around.  As I hung over the transom feeling rather hung over, I grappled to remove the wild bucking canvass wing on the wind vane. It was very windy, dark and wet, but my sleeping bag was still warm, ready and waiting.

View across to Hoy Sound

On Monday 25th August, we got up at 0630 and left for Scap Floe.  The gale had blown out and the sky was clear to give a beautiful day.  Scapa Floe was immense with a few zephyrs puffing across the inner sea which had such a huge horizon.  We saw a few seals and then a Gannet being forced down by three Skuas – rather like three wolves bringing down a deer.  The Skuas would exhaust the Gannet, keeping it from flying off the water until they could comfortably start eating it!  As we departed Scapa Floe we picked up the current pouring out and swept out with it at 15 knots over the ground and across large whirlpools which slewed the rudder round a few times, then we met the rougher water where the Atlantic wave systems meet the North Sea and the waves greet each other enthusiastically.   The tidal stream was taking us sideways across our course and as we passed John O’ Groats the sea started to calm down and we were well on our way.

John O'Groats by the Pentland Firth

We got to Inverness at 0100 the next day with a minor fire alarm which turned out to be the calorifier getting upset again and blowing a different hot water pipe off.  These all turned out to be problems inherited from the previous owner and classed as part of the snagging list which will help put Bold Explorer right for her trip next year to the Arctic.

Jenny advising Paula on the course to steer

NEWSFLASH – Jenny gains her Coastal Skipper qualification after the epic 18 hr passage from Stromness to Inverness (most exams for this certificate last no more than 8 hours) and she survived the Pentland Firth, a fire alarm, night navigation in restricted waters on the Murray Firth, a low bridge (we have a 23m air draft) and docking the 20 ton, 45 foot Bold Explorer in a very tight space at 0120 in the pitch dark.  Well done Jenny!

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