Peace at last and did I mention the fog?

We said our farewells to Kirkwall and headed out for the delicate bit of pilotage out into the Atlantic via the Eynhallow Sound. It is delicate because of the narrowness of the narrows, the tidal race and the many, many rocks that get in the way. The wind was behind us and only the genoa was set as the wind was due to pipe up a bit. The view behind shows the cathedral spire, most useful in navigating these parts. Our visit there was inspirational and baffling, such a big building and such a small population and so old.

We passed the deep water quays with a rather strange cruise ship along side.

Ah that'll be the reason then, it's two, not one. The lesser is the Star Legend and the greater the Magellan.

A little further out is the Coastguard ship "Herakles", son of Zeus of course, anchored in the bay.

I didn't have a lot of time to take any more piccies, the wind was now 25 knots behind and I was keen not to make the acquaintance of any rocks. Suffice to say we made it out of the clutches of the Burgar rost and turned south once out of the Sound.

The Atlantic is making its mark on this battered coast. Impregnable rock is carved and moulded.

Rounding another headland the Kitchener monument comes into view. Perched on the top of the cliff it reminds us of the loss of the warship HMS Hampshire in June 1916. There are plans afoot to add a circling wall to the monument. This wall will have the names of the 736 who were lost not just Kitchener. Kitchener is maybe best remembered from the recruiting posters of the Kaiser war (WW1). His was the face and pointing hand "your country needs you" if I recall correctly. The Hampshire hit a mine just off the coast here and that was after surviving the battle of Jutland where another 6000 odd lives were lost and that was on our side.

Predictably the wind, now upon the nose, had increased to 33 knots over the deck and it was getting a little lively. I only hoped the Bay of Skaill was going to be a tenable overnight stop, it being rather exposed to the Atlantic. We had to steer round some of the worst of the swell and slow down, which was a pain because the discomfort lasts for longer. The Bay of Skaill appeared over the horizon as a welter of broken water and spray and I had my doubts at to whether it was going to be an option. Slowing down was now not possible as the wind and waves were demanding near full power just to keep way on. Further into the bay the waves eased and allowed us to make decent progress. The gusting 8 offshore wind was not allowing any swell to make it into the bay but the waves in the bay itself were enough. We had to drop the hook nearly on the beach to get shelter, but it was sufficient and a fine meal was eaten in comfort. The wind dropped overnight and what a fine place the Bay of Skaill is.

Here you can see the settlement, sadly overshadowed by the rather large farm buildings.

It was a fine day and I planned to take a passage through the Pentand Firth and, once having been spat out of the other end, to a safe place to wait out the forecast easterlies.

Timing is once again rather important and I was expecting the tide to give us a 7 knot helping hand, maybe 9 in places with a bit of luck. The eastbound passage is not as fraught as the westbound, still not to be trifled with mind, but the Merry Men of Mey do not play rough on the eastbound.

We make our way out of the Bay of Skaill past the hole in the cliff.

And, after a couple of hours sailing, reach the cardinal marks of the energy test site. Here they test machines that generate electricity from the action of the waves. I wonder what makes this place special for that then!

Plans have to be changed and we alter course to take us into Hoy Sound and then into Scapa Flow. The fog has surrounded us and I don't want to do the Pentland Firth in fog. I would rather like to see what I am about to hit thank you.

And just for good measure the Hamnavoe (8780 gross tonnage) appears, wraith like, through the mist.

It is less than 1/4 of a mile away, yeah right and he's doing 22 knots. Whatever happened to "navigate with safe speed" as the Graemsay fast ferry comes clattering into my give way sector and I have to do an emergency 180 to get out of its way. His AIS transponder was not operating, so there. We managed to get across the fast tide without any further incident and anchored, thankfully, in the Bay of Ireland, Scapa Flow. Here follows a series of photos of the fog, how quickly it comes and goes and how deadly it could be.