The Orkneys are indeed beautiful and it was delightful to sail here in good weather yesterday. Virtually every person we spoke to in Scrabster kept telling us there was going to be bad weather at the weekend and to take good care, it was a popular topic of conversation, even the taxi driver! Its hard to believe when you are sailing on the top of the UK in just a T Shirt and sunscreen. Today however, we started to see what they meant.
The weather forecast warned us of Severe Gale 9 and “Perhaps” a Storm Force 10 later. Oh joy! This is the first time during our trip that we have heard such a forecast. Our plans to sail around to Kirkwall in readiness to hop up to The Shetland Islands have now changed!
The weather forecast didnt completely deter our skipper Tank as he announced we were going for a play in Scapa Flow!
This photo looks out away from Scapa Flow out to sea - it looked very rough there!
Scapa Flow
(Pronounced “Scarpa” by our posh crew members, like scone, bath….John!) is brimming with history, it was the base for the Royal Navy’s Grand Fleet during the First World War, and Stromness was the Naval HQ and and is a must to visit for UK scuba divers!
We enjoyed a beautiful sail, and experienced heavy weather sailing with good seas.
We are not really sure why they call him "Tank"!
But we do have a very strange flag!
Tank showed us how to rig up a “Preventor” onto the boom, which holds the boom safely in position whilst running with the wind – and my bowline creations were challenged once more as I secured the line!
Use of a preventer on the boom whilst we are running......
We could feel the wind increasing as our day went, and felt a real thrill as we recorded wind speeds of over 33knots. I managed to take a quick shot of the instrument as we reached 32.9knots just to prove!
This reads 32.9 knots!
Sailing in Scapa Flow
We managed to sail 27 miles just pootling around Scapa Flow, and headed back to Stomness. We had to secure ourselves to the pontoon with a strong wind blowing us off. I stepped down from the port side next to the Stanchions and secured our bow line, then turned around to find RBE spinning around on it as the stern line was still on the boat. It was thrown over to me and as I lept down the length of the pontoon, narrowly missed it. The second attempt and I managed to secure the stern line – with just me on the pontoon and the boys on the boat – so near yet so far away as they were several metres away from me! With a little determination, we finally secure her in.
I transformed last nights dinner “left overs” into a thick soup (“Stommy Mess”)which was enjoyed by all with a mountain of toast once we had secured our lines. Sailing does give you a hearty appetite!
Exhausted by our days adventures, we all took to our bunks once more for a siesta, and woke to find text messages from our skipper 1.”I’m in the Pub” 90 mins later “I’m still in the pub” Well – it would have been rude to have left him there by himself wouldn’t it!
We joined him and sampled the local beer – The Dark Island was like Guinness without any fizz so I settled with the Scapa Special which went down very nicely indeed!
Supporting the local economy!
We were joined later by Micks friend Barney and his wife Pam, and I really enjoyed having another woman to chat to! It was interesting to hear of their life here on the Orkney Islands and the transition they have made from life in Sheffield!
The weather forecast does appear correct and through lashing rain we headed back to the boat to try and sleep through the storm! Goodnight!
