The weather closed in and we (Freya too and myself) had to sit it out in Kinlochbervie for four days. There is a food store, Hotel and a garage on the edge of the village and that's it. Its just a question of reading, sorting out little jobs on the boat and watching the weather forecast. This year is very different to last year as the weather just doesn't seem like getting hotter or more like summer. Finally there appears to be a one day weather window! not perfect by any means but its take it now or leave it for possibly another week. The thought of sitting in Kinlochbervie as nice as it is for another week twiddling my thumbs and looking for things to do is not an option. So if it is not too bad in the morning I will be leaving to do Cape Wrath and over to Stromness on the Orkney Islands.
The Forecast wind is West 15Knts veering Southwest 10Knts. So its all go. Departed Kinlochbervie at 08:30hrs.
There are no photos of this as I was far to busy staying in one piece and trying to control all the various elements to take photos.
With only 10 miles to go the wind suddenly died to absolutely nothing although the swell continued. I suppose it must take a couple of days for the swell to die down as there is nothing but sea for about 3000 miles. I had to use the engine and very gently motored in to the Sound of Hoy I could see the overfalls to my Port side (left) and they were big! but by keeping a very close eye on the depth I was able to run alongside them without actually getting in to the overfalls until the end of the sound where I would have to turn and run with them through the centre of the channel. Once in the middle of the overfalls the boat was being lifted like a floating match and we were vertical on the way up and vertical on the way down, well that's what it felt like anyway. I was just hanging on to anything and everything. Suddenly we were through the overfalls and the narrowest part of the channel and in to very flat sea. One moment vertical and the next back to being horizontal what a surreal experience. one that I will deffinately never forget.
Arrived Stromness Marina at 22:10hrs.
A kind fellow sailor grabbed a line for me and thankfully helped me to tie up alongside a finger. Arrived at last. Cape Wrath lived up to its name and some. The helper explained that I would be lucky to get anything to eat at this time of night and ushered me on to his boat for something to eat. There is a camaraderie this far north more so than elsewhere. But what I didn't expect was for him to wake his poor wife up in order to fry me two bacon egg and mushroom buns. All I could do was apologise in between great mouthfuls washed down with a bottle of beer. A really big thanks to you!
The Orkneys are there somewhere!
The next morning I awoke to voices coming from the bow of the boat. I quickly pulled some clothes on and went to find out what was going on. There seemed to be some discussion going on with five men standing on the pontoon at the bow of my boat. I thought perhaps that I had taken someone else's mooring and was about to say sorry when they set upon me with a deluge of questions about my trip round Cape wrath yesterday. It was as if I had become a minor celebrity for a moment. They couldn't believe we had sailed round Cape Wrath in 'that' weather and single handed some of them had been storm bound in Stromeness for a week or two and had tried to leave only to turn back again. Again quite a surreal moment but a good feeling of camaraderie.
BUT what a feeling of achievement after reading and hearing so much about Cape Wrath it had built up to a very big step to take. It was and still is the biggest and most terrifying leg that I was to undertake and now having done it in a weather window of a day felt fantastic. and now time for a rest and time to explore some of what the Orkneys has to offer. The boats in the marina where to stay storm bound for another week!!
The Forecast wind is West 15Knts veering Southwest 10Knts. So its all go. Departed Kinlochbervie at 08:30hrs.
Extract from my Log book!!!!
Suffice to say the weather forecast was on this occasion grossly understated. By the time I was leaving the loch at Kinlochbervie I already had, not the forecast 15Knts but 27Knts across the bow and the sea was big and rough. I was in VHF radio contact with 'Freya Too' and as I was the faster of the two boats so I explained to them that the wind and sea conditions were a lot more difficult than previously thought and we discussed turning back rather than have another 15 hours of being beaten by the wind and the waves. However I said I would give it another half an hour and see what it was like knowing I could turn and be back in the safety of Kinlochbervie in a third of the time its taken to get this far. Once out in the open sea the wind and sea state although the same didn't seem to be so much of a problem and I had calmed down and found a rhythm that was working. Once again made radio contact with 'Freya Too' explaining the situation and they followed me out.
In the Pilot guides and Almanac etc it explains that if the sea before 'Alm Bag' a small island is reasonably calm it should be OK to round the cape. We, 'Freya Too' and I had a cracking sail up to Alm Bag and everything was going well. Infact I was exactly on schedule and exactly where I had charted myself to be. For once! So all was well.
Once past Alm Bag though the sea steadily became much larger and the wind although constant was blowing very strong most of the time being in the top twenties to early thirties. Gulp. I arrived at my waypoint at Cape Wrath at 12:00 exactly on time for the tides but was met with a very confused sea with waves being a very conservative seven metres at least. I had taken a further out to sea route than 'Freya Too' who was going to hug the coastline and go to Scrabster on the mainland where I was going to the Orkneys in one hit, hence the deep water route I had chosen missing Cape Wrath by at least five miles. At this point we lost radio contact.I had at this point 2 reefs in the main and 2 reefs in the genoa. but the wind was still building so I decided to drop the main completely and run with just the genoa and two reefs. I was still making a GPS speed of up to and including 11.6 KNTs wow what a ride. Again Morgen acquitted herself admirably the weak link once again is the human. I was going so well that I was going to arrive at the Sound of Hoy which is the entrance to Stromeness on the Orkneys a good two hours early. This was not as good as it sounds. Although enjoying and being frightened at the same time as speeding down the waves by arriving two hours early at Hoy Sound I was going to meet ferocious overfalls the such that I have never seen before.
With only 10 miles to go the wind suddenly died to absolutely nothing although the swell continued. I suppose it must take a couple of days for the swell to die down as there is nothing but sea for about 3000 miles. I had to use the engine and very gently motored in to the Sound of Hoy I could see the overfalls to my Port side (left) and they were big! but by keeping a very close eye on the depth I was able to run alongside them without actually getting in to the overfalls until the end of the sound where I would have to turn and run with them through the centre of the channel. Once in the middle of the overfalls the boat was being lifted like a floating match and we were vertical on the way up and vertical on the way down, well that's what it felt like anyway. I was just hanging on to anything and everything. Suddenly we were through the overfalls and the narrowest part of the channel and in to very flat sea. One moment vertical and the next back to being horizontal what a surreal experience. one that I will deffinately never forget.
Arrived Stromness Marina at 22:10hrs.
A kind fellow sailor grabbed a line for me and thankfully helped me to tie up alongside a finger. Arrived at last. Cape Wrath lived up to its name and some. The helper explained that I would be lucky to get anything to eat at this time of night and ushered me on to his boat for something to eat. There is a camaraderie this far north more so than elsewhere. But what I didn't expect was for him to wake his poor wife up in order to fry me two bacon egg and mushroom buns. All I could do was apologise in between great mouthfuls washed down with a bottle of beer. A really big thanks to you!
The next morning I awoke to voices coming from the bow of the boat. I quickly pulled some clothes on and went to find out what was going on. There seemed to be some discussion going on with five men standing on the pontoon at the bow of my boat. I thought perhaps that I had taken someone else's mooring and was about to say sorry when they set upon me with a deluge of questions about my trip round Cape wrath yesterday. It was as if I had become a minor celebrity for a moment. They couldn't believe we had sailed round Cape Wrath in 'that' weather and single handed some of them had been storm bound in Stromeness for a week or two and had tried to leave only to turn back again. Again quite a surreal moment but a good feeling of camaraderie.
BUT what a feeling of achievement after reading and hearing so much about Cape Wrath it had built up to a very big step to take. It was and still is the biggest and most terrifying leg that I was to undertake and now having done it in a weather window of a day felt fantastic. and now time for a rest and time to explore some of what the Orkneys has to offer. The boats in the marina where to stay storm bound for another week!!
No comments:
Post a Comment