Day 8 -Stromness - Rousay 29 miles

You have to get the tides right to sail in Orkney waters . . . tides run up to eight knots or more in places, and ferocious ‘rosts’ or tide races form in various key channels at certain times. We left Stromness at quarter to three, a couple of hours into the ebb in Hoy Sound, with a view to catching the first of the flood through Eynhallow Sound about half past eight that evening. We left with a reasonable breeze, alhtough there was a fog bank hanging about in Hoy Sound which had been there most of the day. As we left it cleared, and a pleasant trip seemed to be in prospect.

Until we got out into the sound and into the tide that is . . . then the wind died and we found ourselves motoring into vicious two metre high breaking waves as we negotiated over three miles of some of the nastiest overfalls we had ever encountered. There was a little wind over tide, but essentially this was just the normal Atlantic swell meeting the ebb pouring out of the Sound. The engine only just gave us enough power to maintain steerage way in these steep seas, although the GPS showed we were making seven knots over the ground.

Finally we were through the overfalls and nursing the engine, which was threatening to overheat again. What little wind there had been now dropped away to next to nothing, and we had to get the main down to prevent it flogging itself to death. (Although we do have a new mainsail on board - must get round to trying it out sometime).

The wind threatened to blow a couple of times, but for most of the rest of the trip we motored slowly . . . the four or five knots of tide we encountered going through Eynhallow Sound was most welcome, and not an overfall in site. (Most of the rosts are worse on the ebb than the flood)

The lack of wind meant we were much later than we had planned, and ended up motoring up Wyre Sound in the gloaming trying to spot the visitors mooring we knew was there. Finally we spotted it - quite easily, as there was a yacht on it. The area round about was full of moorings, so we pulled in to the East side of the Rousay pier and tied up. Most of the piers in Orkney have one or more yacht berths available, and can provide snug shelter if you get it right. We felt quite smug as no sooner had we tied up than a strong westerly wind got up and roared down the sound, hanging us nicely off the pier in a little spot of shelter while the yacht on the mooring began to pitch uncomfortably.

3:57 PM - Jul. 20, 2005 - post comment