Two night watches and one day watch later we arrived early morning – still in the dark – at Newcastle. With Storm Benjamin lurking threateningly only a short distance to the south it was felt sensible to wait it out. The entrance to Royal Quays Marina is a lock and not a lot wider than the Tecla, so it took some fairly masterful boat handling to get in, up against...
Once in Kirkwall we really had to do the tourist thing and two minibuses and tour guides were duly arranged to pick us up at 9am. We then did a whirlwind tour of mainland Orkney – the home for three-quarters of the population of the Orkneys. The name Mainland sounds a slightly weird one but is in fact a corruption of the Old Norse name for the island – Meginland...
This morning we did the shortest passage so far – about a mile and a half across to an anchorage just off Egilsay. The Zodiac was hoisted into the water and we all headed ashore to walk a mile or so to St.Magnus’s Church. Between 1103 and 1117 Orkney was ruled by two Viking Earls – Magnus Erlendsson and Hakon Paulsson. In 1115 Paulsson’s men started some...
I stuck my head out first thing to try and get a better sense of where we had anchored. I got little sense at all! With low cloud and drizzle, the view was little better than it had been in the dark the previous evening. With a strong breeze we hoisted the mizzen and staysail as soon as the anchor was up and headed off south towards Rousay. This took us on a...