2025 May 15th, Day 46. To Loch Eriboll.

Still pics to be added if the computer can recover the corrupt camera disk with over 2 years worth of hi-res pics on, fortunately most to Kerkwall and from Eriboll sothbound and a few others are either OK or backed up to the lap top, and those from before this trip are separately backed up to two other locations.

I left at 04:30 to arrive at Aiker Ness, east of the Burgar Rost in the last hour of the ebb tide, earlier is definitely not recommended on a spring tide. I arrived 50 minutes before the advertised turn of the tide as there was an unplanned head tide out of Kirkwall. As it happens I could have gone through 30 - 60 minutes earlier as the tide changed early, probably due to the high pressure that has been around for days. A 34 footer, that had started closer having followed me from Sumbough but who had gone to N Orkney, was about half an hour ahead of me. I then had to motor to past Brough Head a little over 50 NM from Loch Eriboll before some wind set in.

The potentially tricky bit from Kirkwall.

Facebook post from some hours later:

I had to have the engine on for a couple of hours but back under Spinnaker again. Dead run but managing 4.5 knots in 9 knots. It’s always a bit frustrating in these winds, they are never quite right, with the wind at c 165 degrees I will usually make 4 knots in 7 -8 knots of wind over the ground, but at 9 knots it would be 4.5, at 10-11 knots > 5 knots and at 12-13 6 - 6.5 knots. So much extra speed for so little extra wind. Then at c14 knots single handed it’s normally time to take the kite down.

But I’ll take 9 - 10 knots! Naturally now the sails are blocking the sun from me and the solar panels and it’s back to winter gear in the cold wind - from shirt sleeves or less.

Making good speed under spinnaker.

The wind was a bit up and down but very up for the last couple of hours to the Loch and it was quite bumpy, and quick, under reefed fore and aft sails.

Loch Eriboll, southern Ard Neackie anchorage.

77 miles in 16 and a half hours.

Click here for rounding Cape Wrath.

2024 June 11th Day 74, a tough trip to Loch Eriboll.

I was away a bit early, a little before seven but, not unexpectedly, when I could see down Hoy Mouth it was white from side to side with breaking waves so I held off until 08:00, the planned time to enter. 30 minutes before the tide turned foul but when the Rost (over falls) have largely subsided.

The Pilot gives general instructions for going west at this stage of the tide, the text suggests following the north shore to avoid the worst of the Rost, this would be essentially obligatory if heading north to Kirkwall and optional if heading west. Elsewhere it is noted that the west going tide is strongest to the north, great to help you through quickly but likely to make for rougher water especially with a strong wind.

The chart shows a fairly large area on the south side that is normally out of the Rost and when I got there is looked reasonably smooth so I opted for the southerly route that, judging by the way a 40 foot boat was pitching on the northern route, regularly showing her keel as she pitched, gave me a slightly smoother ride.

A 40 foot yacht on the northern route.

Entering Hoy Mouth 10 - 15 minutes before slack water.

Best viewed full screen.

The “Old Man of Hoy” as I left Hoy Mouth at

slack water.

It was quite rough as I left Hoy Mouth with the wind at F5 that quickly increased to F6; about 2 hours out things took a turn for the worse, which I did not expect as when I have previously been in these waters the sea was more confused close to the islands, this time a rough sea was coming from the north and leftover waves / swell was coming from the W - NW, when a “set” from one direction arrived at the same time as one from the other the sea became very bad. At this point the autopilot could not really cope and after getting knocked well over and at the same time getting quite a lot of water into the cockpit over the weather dodger I steered manually for over an hour before things improved.

There was a repeat of this at about 12:30 when the tide, previously on the starboard bow swung to be dead on the bow and I had to hand steer again, fortunately that lasted less than 2 hours although I was expecting it to last longer, until the tide changed. Even with the manual steering, after working so hard the autohelm gave the batteries a real bashing but most charge was restored motoring down Loch Eriboll.

The wind decreased to F5 at about 14:00 and the rest of the trip was uncomfortable but not bad except rounding Whiten Head entering Loch Eriboll. Once out of Hoy Mouth the rest of the trip until just before the loch was made reaching under the reefed headsail.

The run down the first mile or two of Loch Eriboll was a little rolly at times as big sets came down but the anchorage at Ard Neackie is fine as the wind first backed to the west and will be when the wind turns east.

This old Sadler was also stuck in Stromness after a trip to
Norway was abandoned, it was berthed next to me for several days.
They arrived a couple of hours after me after battling the adverse
tide through Hoy Sound in the late morning and then making
good time with better tides and two of them to helm manually.

08:00 and already a couple of site seers, coming to

a lot more are likely during the day.

What they are stopping to look at, lime kilns centre left.

Today, Wednesday, I am staying at Eriboll as the wind is in the west, seas are likely to still be high - not something you want off Cape Wrath - and on Thursday the wind should be easterly, and with the tide an hour later it should be relatively straight forward to get round the Cape and a reasonable distance down the west coast.

If the ECMWF forecast model is right I’ll then have a at least a week of fair winds to move south, the UK model is not quite as positive but still good. Fingers crossed!

Tracks to and from Stromness.

57 miles in 13 and a half hours, all spent at or near the helm.

Click here for the rounding of Cape Wrath and Loch Clash.

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 29. Stromness to Loch Eriboll.

Approaching Hoy Sound from Stromness

  

A very quite Hoy Sound, things would
be different in an hour or so later.

The best passage out of Scarpa to the west is via Hoy Sound, conveniently located near Stromness, there is however a catch, as the Clyde Cruising Club's pilot notes:

"The tidal streams in Hoy Sound are very strong (8 knots [with over-falls]) and entry should not be attempted in bad weather, nor with wind against tide, nor on the west going tide. Accurate timing is necessary to ensure favourable wind and tidal conditions"

The good news is that the west passage can be made at slack water so I slipped at 05:15 in time to catch the last half hour of  the west going tide and I was able  to motor the couple of miles through the danger area in very benign conditions.

Some wind started to fill in as I passed out of the sound and by 09:00 it was blowing at 17 knots, again from directly astern which, although far preferable than directly ahead, can be very uncomfortable with the boat rolling and on this occasion with the waves coming from the north and abeam made it difficult to steer. 

Hoy from Hoy Sound.

The NW corner of Hoy

The 500 ft high "Old Man of Hoy", the cliffs are about double that.

Interestingly the simple wind vane steering did a much better job than the high tech autopilot as the latter kept trying to adjust to the sea state and the wind (it has motion sensors and attempts to learn a pattern as well as being reactive), whereas the wind vane steering just keeps the boat as far as possible at a constant angle to the apparent wind and the boat looked after herself with respect to the waves. The wind vane is also quite - the autopilot working hard is very annoying  and uses a lot of electricity. 

Disturbed sea NW of Hoy

The wind dropped during the day and for a couple of hours in the early afternoon I had to use the engine as the boat was rolling so much that the sail - I was using just the head sail - was just crashing about. I arrived off Loch Eriboll shortly before 17:00 and motored for an hour up the loch to the anchorage at Ard Neackie.

Ard Neackie Anchorage, North Side.

I was joined shortly after arrival by the 36ft "Flying Fox",
we would meet again

The "Ard Neackie" anchorages, in Gaelic "ard" means
high or lofty so perhaps this translates to "high neck".

A not very straight course from Hoy Sound to Eriboll due
to the changing wind and choppy sea. 

55.5 miles over the ground in twelve and three-quarter hours.

Slide show all of my pictures from Stromness to Loch Eriboll, 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 30, Loch Eriboll to Loch Ned. 

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.