2021 Round GB Days 25 - 26. Peterhead to Hunda Sound (Orkney).

Sailing with the cruising chute, its about 45 square
metres, half as big again as the already large genoa.

The day started with light winds and quite big waves from previous high winds, I slipped at 06:00 and motored north until 09:00 when some wind got up. Unfortunately it was almost dead astern, with a "sloppy" sea and the prospect of more wind to come I started with just the headsail but quickly changed to the larger cruising chute.

Sailing with just the cruising chute and no mainsail allows it to work on a dead run, with the mainsail up it collapses. The alternate is to fly the chute or the symmetrical spinnaker from the pole but setting that was too much like hard work and with variable winds and a choppy sea was unlikely to generate a lot more speed as I was already making 5 - 6 knots and only needed 4 knots or a little more to make the tidal gate to enter the Pentland Firth.

The wind finally settled to a nice force 4 from the south east and I made good progress, there was even some sun! And whilst it wasn't particularly warm it wasn't cold and I went until evening with warm feet 😀 

For a while I even took a lead from sailors in the trade winds with two headsails, or in my case the cruising chute and genoa which makes the best of a dead run, never a happy point of sailing, without the bother of a spinnaker which would have been a bit of a hand full in the prevailing conditions. It also means you don't have the mainsail flapping about and wanting to gybe and with all of the power in front of the mast it makes the boat more stable, a bit like having front wheel drive and not having the power on the back wheels and the weight further back trying to flip you round - and in the case of the old Porsche 911s frequently succeeding! The down side is that the cruising chute can't be dropped behind the mainsail so care is needed even with the snuffer, in an emergency it would be gybed onto the genoa before lowering.

A variant of the classic two headsail approach to the dead run.
Cruising chute on one side, 150% genoa on the other and
both drawing nicely. If using this configuration the Genoa should
be held out with the spinnaker pole for better stability.

Making 4.9 knots in 10 knots of wind. It would be 5.5 - 6 knots
with the mainsail and 60 square metre symmetrical spinnaker
but this configuration is a lot easier to handle in gusty conditions.

Crossing the Pentland Firth:

Tides run strong though the Firth, even out of races they are often faster than many yachts can run under engine, Sancerre has more than twice the power originally specified and can move somewhat above the maximum theoretical hull speed of 6.8 knots, and that is not sufficient to stem the flow even before it really gets going. Timing is therefore critical, to get to Scapa flow from the south or south east the pilot recommends being 2 miles east of Duncansby Head 1 hour 15 minutes after High Water Dover as the tide changes and then to follow the planned track shown by the blue line on the chart below, that does not mean pointing the boat in that direction, at the best of times the current will push you away so you go across crab wise.

The squiggly lines are tidal races, all dangerous to small boats
and some to large ships as well. The Admiralty chart says
that 16 knot currents have been reported close west of the
Pentland Skerries, a few hundred yards east of the planned track.
This part of the Firth is quite confined the gap between  Swona
and Barth Head is 1.5 miles, much of which is not navigable
due to the race on the west side.

I was  about 2 hours ahead of schedule at 19:00 when the wind died so to be on the safe side I used the engine to get further ahead of plan heading for Duncansby, after a couple of hours the problems started as the adverse tide was far stronger than estimated and this worsened the already awkward sea steep, often breaking, 2 - 3 metre waves. 

Finally I almost came to a halt 5 miles short of the off Duncansby Head waypoint despite making over 6 knows through the water and sometimes surfing the big waves at 7.5 knots. This stretch of water does not have any tidal prediction Diamonds, severe tides are not mentioned in the pilot and it was mid way before neap and spring tides so it is likely that part of the problem was weather systems to the West, NE and SE. Certainly the tide was late as it was against about an hour after it should have turned, at least the tides within the Firth would also be delayed.

I was well over an hour late vs plan passing the Pentland Skerries and moving at over 6 knots in calm water the autopilot was steering more than 45 degrees above the desired track to stay on it. Passing the Lother Rock the tide was running at over 6 knots and to make progress I allowed her to fall off 30 degrees for a short while to get out of the east-west channel, if I had been any later and the tide correspondingly stronger I would have had to bail out going well south of Swona and the dangerous race on its south side.

And just to make life more interesting two merchant ships were moving west through the Firth and one moving east all crossed less than a mile ahead of me and one about a quarter of a mile, not a major problem with AIS (Automatic Identification System) and Radar, and particularly at night when ship's lights make judging angles and relative movement easier, but it certainly kept me busy.

My track through the Firth.

It was now well past 02:00 so I went on to Hunda Sound for the rest of the night.

Hunda Sound on the south side of Scarpa Flow looking NE
at 04:00 after I had anchored and shut everything down.

I was unable to contact Stromness marina until late Monday morning by which time the weather was looking iffy with a strong wind and rain promised for this afternoon so I will be staying here tonight and will move on tomorrow.

98 nautical miles over the ground, and more - about 117 - through the water, in 22 hours.

Click here for Hunda Sound to Stromness.

Stages 19 & 20, Stromness – Hunda Sound – Sinclair’s Bay (N of Wick).

On Tuesday morning the wind was still adverse but rather better than forecast with mist largely gone by 11:00 and no rain forecast until late afternoon so I decided to move south to shorten Wednesdays trip and to make it easier to time the run to Cantic head – critical for the smoothest trip out of the Pentland Firth and round Duncansby head and to allow a later start which would hopefully avoid rain forecast for Wednesday morning.

Leaving Stromness

So I moved to Hunda Sound between Burray and Hunda islands, cutting short a site seeing trip along the eastern side of Scarpa Flow short as rain approached but then bypassed me, for the moment.  

Rigs parked north of Hunda.

As I had dinner an inquisitive otter came to look me over but when I moved there was a "splosh" and I watched it swim away under water.

Slide show all of my pictures from Stromness to Hunda Sound. 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:

3 hours and 14 miles bringing the total over the ground to 999 miles.

The weather was rather strange that evening and in a little over an hour the wind went from SE 12 knots to no wind and a slight mist to fog with visibility 1 – 200 yards and with the wind returning from the SE at 15-20 knots. Then came the thunderstorms, always a nervous time when you are on a boat with your metal mast the highest thing around for some distance. The portable electronics all went into the oven or grill which makes a good “Faraday Cage” to protect them, fortunately I had already had dinner. 

My plan for the morning almost worked with rain stopping at 7:30 after dropping an inch overnight, But it started again shortly after as I was pulling up the anchor (or rather the windlass was) so I set off with poor visibility in mist and fog banks and rain and neither cleared until I approached Cantic Head.

My route out of the Pentland Firth was described as “Sneaky” and "Champaign Sailing" on the owners forum, perhaps it was, but it is the route recommended in the Pilot, passing Cantic head to take the last of the west bound tide to around Aith Hope then head out into the Firth passing south of Soma and north of Stroma both of which have dangerous races around them. With strong tides getting the timing wrong could result in being swept into the Merry Men or more likely getting set on to Soma, care is still required as tides of 9 knots (at springs) run in the centre of the passage south east past Duncansby head to the south and the Pentland Skerries to the north and 16 knots has been reported close to the Skerries.

I had about the most benign conditions possible, one day before neap (weakest) tides, no wind and small waves, initially from the west then from the east. With spot on timing I passed through at the optimal time, just at and after slack water so that although the current never dropped below 1 knot it did not reach more then 3 or 4. The clouds then cleared and for a few hours it was the warmest it had been since I rounded Land's End. With little wind the seas had quietened enough to anchor at Sinclair’s Bay north of Noss Head and Wick.

Noss Head at the south end of Sinclair's Bay with one of two castles 

within a couple of miles, I assume the seat of the Sinclair clan. The other

was too far off to get a good pic but looked like a baronial castle still

in one piece.

32 miles in six and a half hours mainly motoring or motor sailing but with some sailing towards the end.

Slide show all of my pictures from Stromness to Hunda Sound. 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:

Sinclair’s Bay to Peterhead

Stage 18, Scabster – Stromness.

I was too tired to restart the next day as the tide required either an early start or a late finish even if I anchored in the southern part of Scarpa Flow. On Monday the 3^rd, with the tide an hour later I slipped at 06:47 and went back to where I had left off on Saturday as this was the safest route to clear Dunnet Head and other hazards, the wind was light so I was under engine and making good progress until about 2 miles off Scabster when the sea got up and became surprisingly rough and uncomfortable so I slowed to between 3 and 4 knots (which the plan allowed for) and a little late turned east and even with a light following wind a seriously uncomfortable ride east with the easterly tide increasing to about 2 knots.

As I came to the “Merry Men” the tide increased to over 5 knots and the seas miraculously calmed. The pilot notes that east of the Merry Men the seas would be calm but now, with the east going tide, it calmed as I hit the western side of the charted position. It was then a quick and pleasant passage into Scarpa Flow under sail. I even had a sight of the local Killer Whale pod, of course by the time I had got the camera from below they were too far off to photograph.

It was a pleasant sail past Flotta but the wind then blew up to Force 6 and I was not going to weather a  dangerous rock formation with the intriguing name of the “Barrel of Butter” so I started to motor sail and then motor up to Stromness.

Then the next drama unfolded, manoeuvring to get onto the marina pontoon I put the engine into reverse to do what was in effect a 3 point turn, nothing happened and nothing happened when I put it back into forward. Being blown about by a brisk wind I had the anchor out in record time after missing a small moored boat by inches (It was only small so I could have fended off) and came to a halt in an indicated 2 metres of water, the boat draws 1.7, about a hundred yards from the pontoon. So with a falling tide it was another tow, this time from a local power boat owned by the duty volunteer marina “berth master”.

The gear linkage was OK and a quick look under the boat showed the propeller was missing!

Slide show all of my pictures in Stromness. 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:

To be continued - 

9 days in Stromness?