AHoy

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 of semi submerged fishing pot markers.

Our target was Stornoway on the island of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, a 111mile passage, but we had a dilemma. Never having been to Stornoway before, and unable to make a booking to receive a berth allocation, I was reluctant to arrive on spec, in the dark. An alternative was to sail through the night at a reduced speed to arrive after dawn. This option was unattractive as the reduced canvas would leave us wallowing uncomfortably in the big Atlantic swells. We tried to contact Kinlockbervie,15 miles ‘round the corner’ from Cape Wrath on the mainland as we could make an early evening entry.  It is a small fishing harbour with a recently installed pontoon for yachts, but we only received a text saying, ‘probably, there might be space’. This wasn’t very encouraging but with the option of an adjacent anchorage as a fall back, we decided that this was the best option. Thankfully we won the potluck jackpot and there was space for Hejira alongside the pontoon.

Desperate for a beer, we phoned the Kinlockbervie  hotel which was the only likely establishment. The reception made it very clear that the public bar entrance was ‘round the back’, they presumably didn’t want our type offending the hotel residents. It was buzzing with locals and had a very dated atmosphere with a juke box, pool table and dart board. The beer was good (for Scotland) and the homemade steak and ale pie was stuffed with  meat. Happy and replete, on Richard’s suggestion, we successfully took a welcome shortcut through a field of sheep back to the harbour.

Another early start took us across the North Minch, 48 miles to Stornoway under a poled-out jib with the Force 4 wind directly behind us. It was such a pleasure to spend a leisurely morning, quietly under sail, with no tidal gate deadlines to meet and with the sun making a rare appearance.