An Uphill Sail

We were keen to return to Stromness and there seemed to be a suitable weather window ahead.
So we made the short journey from Papa Westray to the south end of Westray and anchored in Rapness Bay for the night, ready for an early start the next day.

The winds were too light for sailing, so we motored across a glassy sea, with mist obscuring our view of the nearby land.  The conditions seemed to have a strange effect on the sea birds who clustered in large groups on the water's surface.  I counted 41 puffins to starboard of us at one time, just sitting together on the water.  We were used to seeing a few birds together but nothing like this.

The following day we set off in a fresh SW wind that soon rose to F6.  We were ready for a windy sail back to Stromness but had no idea quite what hard work this trip was going to be!

For 5 hours we toiled to round Birsay island, where we could at last turn South with a free wind.  We had forgotten how hard it is to make progress when beating against a head wind.  Added to this, we had an adverse tide and confused seas from the strong tidal streams and overfalls in this area to slow us down.

Birsay Island - that took SO long to pass!

We were watching the time as there was a distinct possibility that we might miss the last of the inflowing tide into Scapa Flow if we did not hurry up.

We were making good progress through the sea at a speed of 6+ knots but the sea was flowing against us and we could not aim where we wanted to go because of the head winds.  How frustrating!

However, we reckoned we had just half an hour to spare in our tight programme when we rounded Birsay and at could at last head South for the entrance to Scapa Flow, 15 miles away.

We made it into Stromness Harbour with the tide just about to turn against us and were very glad to tie up alongside in the marina once more.  Phew, we had made it!

Moored in Stromness Marina Again

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