2025 26th April, Day 28 Stromness, rather to my surprise,

The plan was to go to Loch Eriboll and if necessary ride out upcoming bad weather there before moving on to Stromness with tides then favourable for a good start eastward to arrive as the tide turned favourable through Hoy Mouth.

A long distance phone pic of me going
inside Am Balg, 6 miles from Cape
Wrath. Pic by Katrina from SV
Windsong.

With the tide setting north in the early morning I left at 04:45 which would give me fair tide until close to Loch Eriboll or all the way under engine.

At 06:30 I was 9 miles south of Cape Wrath under main and chute making 4 - 5.5 knots and being overtaken by an 11 yacht under engine and I was all set for a lunch time arrival. The inshore waters forecast was making Stromness the next day very doubtful and I managed to get the UKMO model downloaded ahead of schedule but not the others. Sunday looks bad for some distance east of Cape Wrath whilst Monday now looked to be very light winds rather than v strong, and Tuesday also light.

If I was going to have to motor to Stromness I decided I would rather do that immediately rather than in 2 or 3 days time after what could be another uncomfortable night at anchor. Some quick calculations (on the computer) showed that, even with the tide turning foul not that long after rounding the cape, under engine I could easily make the tide through Hoy Mouth / Sound and if the wind kept as it was or set in from the south / south east as forecast I should be able to sail a reasonable proportion of the way. Decision made and I headed for Orkney and a long day at sea.

Approaching Am Balg making about 5 knots.

Heading for Cape Wrath at 07:40 with the wind changing, unusually
sailing goose winged with the cruising chute as I was now on a dead
run (again). 

A couple of miles short of the Cape the wind died and started to veer so I snuffed the chute and carried on under engine.

My fifth rounding of Cape Wrath at 08:09

A few miles east of the cape some wind returned and things then were quite busy for a while and I probably overdid it a bit and was rather achy that night. The cruising chute was still hoisted but snuffed so first I set that. But I really needed more sail and the wind was veering which would need the chute to be flown from the pole so I hoisted the spinnaker.

But the wind kept veering and I needed to gybe back onto the correct course but decided on a rest first (there are times when you wish for a foredeck hand who you can tell to get on with it) but it kept veering and I would be crossing the bows of an approaching ship. So a gybe it was.

After gybing and back on course but the wind was dying.

I persisted for about an hour during which the good ship Windsong extended her lead to over 6 miles but the wind had all but disappeared so on went the engine again. And it was to stay on for the rest of the trip although I did motor sail for a while approaching Hoy when the wind which had set in from the NE - on the nose again and chilly, finally went round the the SE.

The Old Man of Hoy, not a brilliant photo but the best I have
managed in the five times I have past, perhaps on the way back
I will see it in sun shine.

Approaching Hoy Mouth, just over an hour to go.

As I went through Hoy Sound at about 10 knots over the ground there was an unwanted AIS alert, the ferry from Scabster was steaming up behind me at 17 knots over the ground before entering the fast tide. All was set for her to catch up as I turned into the entrance channel to Stromness and being constrained by her draft, arguably in a narrow channel depending on when she caught up and certainly with a lot of tide to allow for, she needed to be treated as the stand on vessel, even though she was the overtaking boat. 

Avoiding the ferry.

As it was just about high water I thought to hide on the western side of the channel to wait for her to pass but then I saw pot buoys so made a dash east to clear the channel, it was a close pass but they didn't have to take any action to avoid me.

I was alongside, very tired, by half eight.

;

80 miles in 16 hours.

Click here for the first push north.

2024 June 13th Days 76 and 77, Around Cape Wrath to Loch Clash.

I left at 05:15 to carry the tide to and hopefully beyond the Cape. If was frustrating and quite tiring sailing with the wind changing frequently then turning to the west towards the end despite a forecast of easterlies. 

I had the Cruising Chute up 3 times and flew if from the pole, as
the wind changed each time before giving up on it a couple of miles
from the Cape.

Cape Wrath, Duslic Rock left. Don't go there.

Cape Wrath Lighthouse

Cape Wrath in benign conditions.

After rounding the wind dropped and I found myself in a back eddy pushing me east and the engine had to go on to get out of it. I lost count of how many times the engine went on and off before I reached Loch Clash, a slight disappointment as I could have made it around Pointof Stoer if the wind had been as forecast, but it is a good anchorage I have not been to before and I was at anchor before two for a relaxing afternoon.

Heading towards Loch Clash which is hidden behind the Island
right of centre.

The Sadler yacht and it’s 2 crew arrived that evening, I suspect
if they can sort out their engine problem we may well meet again.

Loch Clash anchorage.

Loch Clash is quite a nice anchorage although over looked by several houses and an area people use to park their camper vans. The down side is that it is exposed to the south west and quite a lot of Kelp, when I arrived the wind was NW and the anchor was secure against going hard astern with the engine. 

Later the wind swung to the SE and I dragged, bringing up the anchor there was a lot of mature heavy Kelp on it with stems over an inch thick, I may have been anchored by it or the swinging wind may have unscrewed the anchor and on dragging picked up the Kelp. I suspect the former.

 

Anchor pro track: Initial position at the top with
dragging top left as the wind changed then increased.
Overnight plots below.

I re-anchored and had a piece full night in a brisk wind, in the morning a larger yacht to my south that probably anchored just before me, was quite some distance behind her former position in deep water, presumably also having dragged.

 

A day of Cyclonic winds.

33 miles in 8.5 hours.

Friday is uncertain, forecast strong easterly winds are not a particular problems but they may turn south or south easterly head winds which could be getting any distance.

Update Friday:

I woke at 04:00 and checked the domestic forecasts (that are updated frequently for the next few days) and the midnight inshore forecast and decided to go back to sleep, it is unlikely that I would get much past the Point of Stoer and, with the exception of the fishing port of Lochinver, the anchorages are rather restricted, either by wind direction or swinging room - an anchorage 100 yards wide is rather tight when the wind is forecast to swing most of the way around the clock. 

 

Another reason to stay put, it arrived a bit late but is
Forecast to last until early Saturday or a bit beyond.

Hopefully the forecast for tomorrow is correct showing northerly winds that should allow me to get the 45 miles to Loch Ewe or perhaps a little further before the wind increases overnight on Saturday when I will need a secure anchorage in a Northerly.

Click here for Loch Clash to Loch Gairloch.

2024 May 27th Day 59, Around Cape Wrath to Loch Eriboll

The phone signal in the anchorage was very iffy but I finally got a rather confusing set of weather forecasts downloaded but with generally easterly winds over the last few days (when there was any) it seemed likely that I would be able to get around Cape Wrath in relative comfort although the engine was likely to be needed. I set off very early and was soon sailing in light variable winds with the cruising chute. 

I probably persisted for longer than I should have done which meant there was rather more tide than I would have like leaving Cape Wrath that resulted in very bumpy going for 20 minutes or so as can be seen from one of the short  videos below.

Cape Wrath

And just after the above………

Rather bumpy 

I had hoped to anchor in the Kyle of Tongue but with a northerly swell and wind forecast that did not seem like a good idea so I made the long trek down Loch Eriboll to the anchorage at Ard Neachie, naturally as I arrived the wind filled in at 15 knots from the north which would have saved some diesel so I went to the southern side. The forecast SE wind overnight was likely to be light or non existent and in any case there would be some shelter from it and, at least in theory, there is less Kelp in that section. 

For the second time in two days it started to rain as I came into the anchorage and again stopped a few minutes after I had anchored and made ready for the night.

The Ard Neackie Anchorage.

It was difficult to plan the next leg, Hoy Sound tidal gate was not “open” till 20:30 and east or north east winds were likely, Scabster anchorage exposed could be exposed. So the plan was to try for Sandside bay then Stromness via Hoy Sound Wednesday , if Sandside proved not to be tenable due to a northerly swell or wind, Scabster Harbour was a fall back or to hang around until late evening to go through Hoy Sound, but with the very early start that would be a very long day.

35 miles in seven and a half hours

Click here for Sand Side Bay

2021 Round GB Day 30. Loch Eriboll to Loch Ned

This was another leg requiring good weather and timing to avoid rough seas off of Cape Wrath, as last year I was quite lucky with reasonable weather and a sensible start time to make Cape Wrath at slack water (c 13:00) before the south going tide would help me down the west coast. Strangely enough Cape Wrath is not named for wrathful seas but is derived from old Norse for "turning point".

It was a day of three parts.

Motoring I could have reached the Cape with a later start but preferring to sail as much as possible I was off at  08:30, after the almost obligatory motoring part up the loch I caught a reasonable breeze and used it reach well out to sea to hopefully keep clear of rougher seas off the Cape and to make better speed.

I had two routes planned, one offshore for heavy weather (shown)
and one inshore for good weather, in the event I split the
difference, starting offshore due to the sea state then coming
inshore for the run down the west coast.

Leaving Loch Eriboll

The wind did not last and in the second phase of the trip the engine had to come on for a couple of hours to north of the Cape by which time it was clear that the seas were not as bad as feared and conveniently the wind  came up to around 14 knots from the north east and I was off reaching under headsail only at good speed. "Flying Fox" that had shared the anchorage at Eriboll almost caught up to me at the cape but then headed offshore towards the Outer Hebrides.

Biggish but not excessive seas coming into Cape Wrath.
(Big seas rarely look as big in pictures!)

Coming into Loch Ned there was an unwelcome announcement by Stornoway Coastguard that a GPS jamming exercise would shortly start as part of a huge NATO event and I was 5 miles inside the area that could be effected. And just as I would be looking for the entrance to the loch which is not that easy to spot. 

Meall Mor, three miles from Loch Ned, the entrance to which
is just to the right of the island.

Less than a mile to run and its still tricky to see the entrance
even with binoculars.

Fortunately I was navigating boats well before GPS was even a twinkle in the eye of the US Dept. of Defence and I still carry lots of paper charts. The chart plotter and iPads would display charts without GPS but its much easier to get your bearings with a large scale chart, in this case a 1:25,000 chart of Eddrachillis Bay. As things turned out my GPS was unaffected but GPS spoofing (introducing positional errors rather than jamming) can be subtle so caution was needed even with good visibility. 

Less than half a mile out, the entrance is just to the right of the
shroud and above the guard rail stanchion.

Entering Loch Ned

Looking out from Loch Ned pictured in 2020.

Seals basking on an islet at the top of the Loch. 

48.5 miles over the ground in 11.5 hours.

Slide show all of my pictures from Loch Eriboll to Loch Ned, page through by clicking the arrows or click in the centre of the pic to view from Flickr in a new window or full screen:

Click here for day 31, Loch Ned to Stornoway.

Stage 16, Loch Nedd to Loch Eriboll.

With strong winds coming through in bands it was another difficult call on the weather and with Cape Wrath being notorious for big seas I was expecting to be stuck in Loch Nedd for a day or two but on Friday morning (the 31^st) the weather maps showed a potential chance as a front moved through giving calmer conditions with continuing offshore winds keeping the seas calm.

This was not reflected in the met office forecasts which covered a much larger area so I phoned a forecaster at weatherweb.net to review and that confirmed my suspicions and even better the wind should likely swing to the southwest early in the evening (we estimated 17:00 or a bit later at Cape Wrath) which would help me to move east  towards Lock Eriboll. Further good news was that the tides should work and be favourable all the way so I quickly got ready and left at 10:00.

And things worked out very well, as on the previous day I started off with just the reefed genoa but as the wind dropped I progressively moved to the full genoa and mainsail, approaching Cape Wrath I could have put up the cruising chute but decided not to as squally showers on the approaching front were a distinct possibility.

Cape Wrath from the west. Lots has been written about how impressive the cape 

is. Initially I was not impressed but then I realised I was 2 miles away and then 

I saw the north side - see the next picture.

Three miles short of the Cape the wind ran out and then veered 90 degrees in 20 minutes and perking up to F3, however it kept dying so I used the engine on occasion to reach the entrance of Loch Eriboll a little before 6:30. 

The north side of Cape Wrath.

My planned anchorage was on the western side of the entrance, the pilot mentioned that mooring buoys restricted swinging room but that was an understatement, additional mooring buoys now in place would have made it unusable before a lot of pot buoys(?) were put down so I had to abandon that and moved further into the loch to Port Portnancon, another small anchorage on the west side. When I arrived I found a new looking, unused mooring buoy in “position A”. Other sailors are reporting this sort of thing a lot and there is a growing belief that buoys are being put down to keep visiting yachtsmen away to preserve the privacy of house owners.

I anchored as close as sensible to the mooring buoy in what appeared to be good holding but very close to the shore so set the anchor alarm with very tight parameters. As it happened that proved unnecessary because just after the tide turned I noticed the anchor was dragging and I got the engine running just as the alarm went off. I had anchored in thick Kelp which held against the engine when tested but let go as the boat swung. Fortunately the windlass was powerful enough to haul it all up. Parts of the plants reached back to the middle of the boat and I doubt I could have lifted it by hand. Fortunately there was another anchorage on the eastern shore and I moved there and spend a quite night.

48 miles in eleven and a half hours plus moving the anchorage.

Slide show all of my pictures from Loch Nedd to Loch Eribol. Page through by clicking the arrows or click in the centre of the pic to view from Flickr in a new window or full screen:

Loch Eriboll – Scabster.