Cape Wrath to the Orkneys

July 10 - I have to admit that while the option of rounding Cape Wrath to the Orkneys from Scotland's west coast has always be an option on the table, I didn't consider it a serious one.  Really...why would I go somewhere called "Cape Wrath".  Nope, don't think so.  So you can imagine how surprised I was when I agreed that we would head that way.  What was I thinking!

Actually, the weather window was so good that it would of been foolish not to move north vs the long and strenuous trip back through the canal.  Saying that, I have to admit I felt a bit nervous as we prepared to leave Portee for Kinlocbervie located 15 miles south of Cape Wrath which would be our last port of call on Scotland's mainland.  It was forecasted to be dead calm but the winds had already piped up a bit as we slipped off the mooring ball.  So much for forecasts. 



Departing Portee

Even though days are long up here, we raised the sails and crept out of the anchorage early for the 70 mile run north.  As we moved away from the surrounding cliffs, the winds calmed and the fog slowly descended wrapping us in a white mist for much of the morning.  The day ended up being a  motor sail the entire way.  We passed a few boats heading south but again felt quite alone on our quest north. 







The fog slinks down the mountain

July 10 - 58.27N 5.03W


Tied up at Kinlocbervie

Kinlocbervie is a small fishing village made up of a very small grocery and one restaurant/hotel.  There were only 2 other boats on the visitors pontoon, which is good because there is only space for 3 visitors. That space was right in the middle, of course.  King did one circle that would of been perfect had I had fenders and lines out on the port side.  The actual landing was not so pretty so we got to meet our new neighbors quickly.  While running around positioning fenders, I discovered one I had neglected to put one away the day before when we topped off the fuel tanks.  The fender's nice new cover I had recently put on was hanging limp in shreds.  It had dragged along in the water all day.  So much for first impressions.  Marina fees are put in an envelop and popped in a mail slot at the Harbor Master's Office located about a block away in what had apparently been a rather large commercial fishing operation at one time.  We walked the "town" in about 15 minutes from one harbor to the next.  The marina offers 2 nights for 1 but even King couldn't be tempted to stay.  We will be going through some serious rips in the approach to the Orkneys which will be best if done at slack tide so departure was set for 8:00 a.m. to align with Orkney's tides.  Weather continues to look calm and I'm feeling much better about the sail tomorrow.

Beautiful morning as we departed Kinlocbervie

July 11- Again we raised the sail but kept the engines in gear to get us through the calm, glassy seas. As if to tease us, just as Cape Wrath lighthouse came to view, the fog completely covered her from our view.  The fog lifted again just as quickly once we had moved north of the huge rock face.  Even in those light conditions, I could feel myself relax once she was behind us.  The North Atlantic had turned into a milk pond and our only company was Puffins, Razorbills, Gannets and a Golden Eagle that soared by.  We also saw the back of a whale surface as we neared the Orkneys.  All went well until we were about 5 miles from the way point where we would enter Eynhallow Sound for our final destination of Kirkwall.  Just as we were thinking about bringing the sail down the engine died with a thud.  Oh good grief!  Ostinato had snagged a crab trap.  King and I are still at odds as to who was on watch.  Obviously, no one, which was the problem. Going through the narrows with one engine didn't seem like a smart option so once again, for the fourth time since entering Scottish waters, King donned his wet suit and jumped overboard.  The difference being this time we were floating around in the North Sea instead of being tied up snugly to a dock.  I think he set some kind of speed record for unwrapping the prop. He was back on board and we were underway again in ten minutes flat. 

Light house on Cape Wrath is barely visible in the center

While Cape Wrath was the first of the crossing trials, the next was the narrows.  If the pilot books hadn't already grabbed my attention the chart plotter certainly weighed in with large warnings across the screen  that yelled "DANGER!"  all over the area we were about to cross. Oh what fun.  While we had missed slack tide, we had little wind and we were moving with the tide so no problems.  But what a tide it was.  Ostinato zipped through the area topping out at 12.2 knots.  We were tied up to the dock safe and sound by 10:00 p.m. with plenty of daylight to spare.  Yea!  Ostinato is the first American boat to arrive this year.

July 12 - The Orkneys are small but jammed packed with historic sites so King and I have spent several days traveling the island by bus in search of standing stones and ancient Neolithic villages.  Our weather window finally gave up the ghost and we have been pinned to the dock now for four days with 35 knot winds and white caps in the protected harbour.  It appears that it will be at least another three days before we see any relief. The next planned destination is the Shetland's with an overnight stop in tiny Fair Isles.  Another two long days.

We have heard from another member of our small winter community. Paul, Sima and the wee ones onboard Leander are in Wick and heading this way.  While I'm hoping they stay put during this blow, it would be so great to visit with them before we leave.



View to the west as we entered the Orkneys

Stromness - yes cars drive on these narrow slate streets
...but only one at a time





Is that Pooh Bear watching over Scapa Bay?



Skara Brae - Neolithic village

A room with a view



Unlike Stonehenge, you can get close to the stones



Ring of Brodgar
3rd largest stone circle in UK



Being next to the sea makes this site extra special

Still Heading North

July 1 -
Scotland is without a doubt one of the prettiest places on earth when the sun shines. Mountains covered in a bright green carpet flows right down to the sea.  The islands off the coast provide extensive areas of "ballroom sailing" and should you weary of that there are interesting anchorages to investigate every few miles, each with its own castle or distillery, sometimes both.  However, since our arrival, we have been plagued with every other day gales and the sun is no where to be found.  We are back in Loch Aline where the winds have howled for the last 3 days and we have both been in a funk.   Today Gus and Helen on Wings have caught up with us.  The visit, along with an improved forecast, has helped raise our spirits. Its was a treat to meet up again with our winter neighbors from St. Katherine Dock.  Gus always has the latest news on the location of our little winter community so we spent some time catching up.  Each time we attempted to launch the dingy the winds would howl so the next morning when Gus offered to pick us up in their dink we jumped at the offer to get off the boat for a while.  Mail was waiting for us at the marina.  (I should mention that the Cruising Association has been fantastic at forwarding our mail this summer.  King has credit cards again!  The lost driver's license, however, will have to wait till we get home next winter.)  Since Wings is heading south and we are still hoping to head north we were able to exchange some cruising pilot books and charts.  Helen also shared her copy of Dracula which she had picked up in Whitby while in view of the Whitby Abby, aka Dracula's castle.  While Wings delivered their charts by dink, Ostinato took a different approach.


Ostinato Express delivers charts for Ireland

Dunstaffnage Castle Chapel

Our hope continues to head north to Skye but the rain and gale force winds have proven miserable and we have begun looking at options.  One option on the table is to simply wait out the weather while visiting our friend Jerry who has invited us to visit him in Ireland.  Our next stop will be Oban to determine if we can leave the boat there safely AND find a way to get to Ireland on the cheap.  A tall order we know. 

July 3 - 56.27 N 5.25 W
Ostinato arrived in Dunstaffnage Bay, just a bit east of Oban, to sit out the next blow at the marina.  We tied up in 20 knots of wind which immediately died to nothing the minute the last spring line was in place.  Our neighbor was another catamaran.  The first sailing cat that we have seen that's larger than us.  King immediately dropped by to ask where he got hauled.  He turned out to be a charter boat from the south coast but gave us a few leads on possibilities....none, unfortunately, which panned out.  King wants to change out the other prop so we continue to look at options.  From the boat, the beach here looks pretty good but after a long morning's walk we ended up with soppy shoes and no place for consideration that didn't contain a menacing rock or two.  The only thing that saved the day was the Dunstaffnage Castle ruin that sat right at the end of our beach excursion, just begging for us to visit.  I had not bothered to bring my billfold which meant our English Heritage membership card remained on the boat so I did my best Southern whine performance to gain our admission for half price concession.

 

What looks like a potential weather window continues to expand so we hopped on the bus to Oban to do a bit of sight seeing and to stock up on fruits and vegis.  Inside the grocery we were in our typical grocery store hypnotic trance as we flowed up and down the isles.  King was off in search of coffee ice cream, oreos and pickles (you couldn't make that up).  I was simply wandering around, circling in on the wine section, and then to my shock there they were, little bags of FINZ (aka Pepperidge Farm Goldfish) just sitting there on the shelf calling my name!  I let out a little cry of delight as I swept the bounty into the basket.  King found me dancing down the aisles.  Oh happy day. 

It looks like we have a large high pressure system sitting over the entire UK for the next five days so we are headed north.  How far will depend on how long the system lasts.  As we prepared Ostinato to leave Dunstaffnage Bay, sweet sounds of singing, accompanied by a fiddle and accordion, drifted over from a nearby yacht.  We hadn't enjoyed that since our time in beautiful Ireland!

July 5  -  56.39 N 5.56 W
The following  morning we set sail north up the Sound of Mull for Drumbuie.

Anchored in Drumbuie

Close to the anchorages narrow entrance we passed the RNLI Rescue boat pulling a yacht we had met the week before in Loch Aline.  We still don't know what happened to the skipper who was single-handing his boat.  We had planned to meet up with him again in Skye but that appears unlikely now.  It was a reminder that things do occasionally go wrong.  Drumbuie's narrow rocky channel opened up to a beautiful deep open bay that offers good protection from the winds if you can fine a spot shallow enough to lay down your anchor.  No wind forecasted tonight.  The water is like glass.



The most remote pub in the UK

The sun was shinning the next morning but there was not a breath of air so the sails stayed stowed and the engine droned away all day.  The plan was to sail the 35 miles north to Mallaig but our plans tend to be fluid these days.  While reading the pilot book, I noted that an anchorage called Inverie ten miles further north in Loch Nevis boasted about having the remotest pub in Great Britian. Sounded like a required stop to me. The Old Forge Pub also offered a FREE mooring if you eat dinner.   This was quickly turning into a no brainer.  King took a bit more convincing.  Mooring balls are not his favourite since you don't know when they were laid or last checked but he eventually caved.

Inverie 57.02N 5.44 W - The entire village is only 4 buildings so I was a bit skeptical when we were told the only sitting available for dinner was 6:30.  However, at the appointed hour, people appeared to flow out of the woods in droves.  The pub clientele was made up of hikers and sailors.  The hikers arrived in shorts and t-shirts.  The sailors, in their boots and sweaters.  We slept without the heat on for the first time in close to a year! 65 degrees.  A Scottish heat wave. 

The Loch that housed UKs remotest pub





 Portee

July 8  -  57.25N 6.11W
Departed at 7:30 the next morning for the sail to Portee, the main town on the Isle of Skye.  We were the only boat leaving the anchorage to head north.  That seems to be an ongoing theme these days.  Again, the winds are light so we motored the entire day.  Moving through these waters is like sailing in the mountains of Colorado.  Each bend in the Sound delivered more spectacular beauty than the one before.  We arrived early at the narrows and the current was flowing fast in the wrong direction, of course.   I suggested we go up a nearby Loch to visit a castle while we waited.  King had apparently had enough castles for awhile cause he put Ostinato's engine in high gear and we slowly plowed through the 1 1/2 miles of rushing currents and swirling eddies.   The mountains continue to get higher.  King and I both went from one side of Ostinato to the other snapping pictures.   We picked up a mooring in Portee by mid afternoon with plenty of time to launch the dinghy and do a little exploring in the town.   The forecast is for five more days of light winds.  Tonight we finally committed to continue going North to the Orkney Islands hoping Jerry will give us a rain check on Ireland. 



Up and out early the following morning to catch a bus over to the west side of the island to see the view and tour yet another castle. We ended the evening watching the Skye Bagpipe Marching Band perform in the town square.  King almost purchased one of their CDs but I convinced him a little bagpipe goes a long way.





 

Off to Kinlochbervie in the morning.  A 70 mile run north.  Located 15 miles south of Cape Warth it will be our last anchorage on the west side of Scotland.  The following day, weather permitting, we will round Cape Wrath and head for the Orkney Islands.



Skye - South of Portee



Skye bridge light house



Just kept getting better and better

In the clouds

Watch that speed!

Have I Mentioned It's Cold Here?

June 25 - Scotland West Coast
56.47N and 5.10 W

After leaving the Caledonian Canal we motored down Loch Linnhe in flat seas with what little wind there was on the nose. We had been so busy with playing with the kids that beyond departing the canal and heading west, we had no destination.  Not to worry, there appears to be a beautiful anchorage every few miles.  It just becomes a matter of what looks inviting.  Sailing down loch Linnhe was the water version of the rode trip we had just taken to return Julia and George to the airport in Edinburgh.  Spectacular is not a strong enough word.  Craggy rock strewn mountains covered in a lush green carpet enclosed us on each side as we sailed down the Loch toward the Sound of Mull. The only excitement was the Corran Narrows where the water appears to boil from a rushing tidal stream  and eddies on each side.  We set the hook down for the night in Loch Aline on Morvern, where we began to hatch a loose plan for what we would do now that we had finally arrived.

Tinker's Hole

June 26 - We headed off South the next morning for the Isle of Iona to visit the Iona Abby established in the year 563.  Our first night was spent in Tinkers Hole.  Two other sailboats had arrived before us so the anchorage in what the Pilot quoted one visitor as calling it a "half-flooded quarry" was a bit tight.  Robert Lewis Stevenson reportedly came to Tinkers Hole to write.  While obviously inspiring to him, it was not our most brilliant evening.  Sometime around 9:00 pm the wind piped up from one direction and the current from another.  What had been a quiet spot suddenly sprouted boiling water and waves within the tiny area surrounded by large boulders.  All three boats emptied out from the rocky hole early the next morning. 



Ostinato at anchor in Iona

Iona (56.20 N 6.23 W) does not have much of an anchorage.  As with many places, the best spots are
taken up by mooring balls for permanent residents and local fishing boats.  Add the traffic from the large ferry boat, buried water/power lines, copious amounts of seaweed, a little fog and, well you get the picture.  We trolled up and down the tiny anchorage and King finally pointed to the spot we would claim.  I weaved Ostinato between a troller and two small tenders on moorings to inch up to the shore.  It took two tries but we finally bit into something that would hold us a bit.  It was too bouncy to put the dinghy engine on so King rowed us ashore.  In a town with only one road, somehow we took a wrong turn and ended up in yet another cow pasture.  By now we are undeterred by a few cows so we carried on, carefully watching our steps, and arrived through the Abby's back gate to join the site's pilgrims and sightseers.

 

Hoping those are friendly cows as we came in the back gate at Iona Abby

 

  

While the history of St. Columba, the Book of Kells and its medieval buildings was interesting, what made this visit special was a group of about 30 women who had taken over St Peter's chapel to sing Gaelic songs and hymns, acapella.  The music was quite spiritual.  During the tour of the sanctuary, the guide shared that the original alter was made of Iona marble and had to be restored because legend was that if a ship had a piece of Iona marble aboard it would never sink.  Apparently, every sailor wanted his own little insurance policy.  I am glad to report that we did not chip off a piece of the new alter but picked up our piece at the Iona general store.
 



The tide retreated leaving the dink high and dry

 



We returned to the dingy three hours later to find her high and dry on the beach.  We were able to slip out of the anchorage with only a few feet under the keel.  The good news was the wind had died and Iona Sound was like glass.  We motored on north to reach our night's anchorage on the north side of Ross of Mull in Loch na Lathaich or Bunessan (as if that's easier?)  at 56.20N and 6.16W.  As we made our way, you could see the fog beginning to descend on the mountain tops.  It was a race to get the anchor down before it enveloped us.  We lost.  The radar guided us in and we spent a quiet night playing dominoes.  King whooped me bad.

June 28 -We left early the next morning in light rain and force 4 winds from the west taking us on around the top of Mull.  The word for the day is "grey".  During the sail we saw everything from swirling eddies, fog, and winds from 5k to 25k.  And have I mentioned its still cold?  We tied up at the dock in Tobermory. I really looked forward to a long, hot shower.  However, while the facilities were new and spotless, the $3 charge per 7 minutes of water sent me grumbling back to the boat head for my washing up. 

June 30 - We thought our arrival in Tobermory would be our departure point to head north to Skye but plans are like the weather, forever changing.  A gale was forecast for today so we decided to leave the dock and seek shelter back in Loch Aline.  It blew like hooey all night but the eight or so yachts that sought refuge in this long narrow loch all appear to be holding well.  I even saw what appeared to be the sun peak out for a minute but refuse to get too excited.  It was probably a hallucination.

We have begun again to rethink plans.  Long range forecasts are not very encouraging for improvements in the weather.  There is so much to see here making this a very hard decision but we are in great need of a little warmer weather.  I'm thinking 60 degrees would be a good start.

July 1 - We continue to sit in Loch Aline where we are awaiting mail which will bring replacement credit cards....another story.  Expect Gus and Helen on Wings to arrive tonight.  It will be fun to see a familiar face.



Exiting the Canal

This castle on the Sound of Mull reportedly
was used in several 007 movies

Southern coast of Mull

Leaving Tinker's Hole in the fog



 

Iona Abby from its proper entrance



Small museum at Iona has some stunning artifacts

 

 

Anchorage of tiny village of Tobermory



Every Island seems to have their own distillery