As one gets older, inevitably, one accrues more experience and certain niceties fall away in favour of expediencies. So it is with sailing, gone are the days when I am prepared to sail close hauled to windward for hours on end, beating into a lumpy sea, tacking back and forth, barely making any progress, getting... Continue Reading →

Firstly, I have to say that Richard’s contribution to the last blog was rather exaggerated and mostly ‘out of context’. I didn’t edit it as this would be rather akin to censorship and we are not in Putin’s Russia, so it remains as a tribute to the freedom and integrity of the blog, for what... Continue Reading →

Arriving in Stornoway after lunch on a Sunday proved to be  something of a challenge when intending to victual. It is a very pleasant place but closed on a Sunday. We did manage to establish that a basic shop, part of a petrol station on the edge of town, would be open until 4pm so... Continue Reading →

Hoy Sound lived up to its reputation and gave us a rollercoaster through the overfalls as we left Stromness bound for Cape Wrath. We made the small diversion to take a look at ‘The Old Man of Hoy’ and we were pleased we took the trouble, although the passage  along the coast was a gauntlet... Continue Reading →

Quite often, hurricanes recurve and diminish off the American Atlantic coast. Remnants can then track across the North Atlantic and eventually influence the situation in the British Isles. Sat on the train back up to Scotland, the weather ‘over the top’ has been a discussion point and uppermost in our minds. Thankfully, hurricane Beryl which... Continue Reading →