North from Caledonia - at last!

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Saturday 30th July - Having said goodbye to Dan and Andrea in the morning, we prepared to leave the canal.  Our mindset now had to change to "open-sea" and therefore ready for anything this could throw at us.

The sea lock asked us to be ready to enter the final set of 2 locks and the rail swing-bridge at 2pm.  This was to fit in with the local train scheduling and we mustn't be late, they said.

Lined up and waiting behind another yacht "at 2pm exactly"

Due to some misunderstanding between the final two lock-keepers, we entered the first lock later than expected and were told we had missed the 2pm slot for the swing bridge.  No choice but to wait another hour!

So it was that we finally exited the sea lock at 3:30pm and motored out into a brisk breeze with steep waves running into our exit channel.  We hoisted sails and headed out under the tall Kessock road bridge and into the Moray Firth.

The tides here are ferociously strong and there was no way we could have made progress if they had been against us.  We touched 10 knots at times and were past the narrows at Fort George in just over an hour.  

We then had a lovely sail along the northern coastline past Cromarty in the early evening sunshine.  However, the wind was steadily rising from NW F4/5 to F5/6 by 1830.  We put 2 reefs in the main and continued to make fast progress towards our destination for the night: round the prominent Tarbat Ness headland and into the bay beyond.

We had slight reservations about finding good shelter in a F6 wind but this was forecast to moderate and become light overnight, so we pressed on.  The harbours along the Moray Firth are all rather shallow for our deep keel and this was too near low tide to attempt entry anywhere, so anchoring was the only choice if we wanted a night's sleep!

We chose an anchorage just off the beach and tucked ourselves in behind tiny Embo Point and, as predicted, the wind died down as we dropped anchor at 21:45 - quite a relief!

Our overnight anchorage next to Embo Point

The next day we set off after breakfast to sail the 45 miles northwards to Wick.  The wind was light and variable from NW F4 to SE 2/3, involving much motor-sailing and resetting of sails.  But at 17:15 we entered Wick Marina and were met by the harbourmaster to take our lines.  He had been watching our progress up the coast on AIS - very nice!

Wick Marina

After a walk around Wick to see the area and buy some food, we headed out to sea again at midday.

On our walk - looking up the Wick River at low tide

Our passage this time would take us across the Pentland Firth with its notorious tides (up to 9 knots) and sometimes nasty overfalls to reach the Orkney islands.  The sailing directions in our pilot book advised us to be at Duncansby Head (the NE corner of Scotland) at 15:00 to catch the start of the west-going tide and not too much of it!  

We arrived at Duncansby Head at 14:30 and gingerly set a course to cross the Pentland Firth, heading towards the island of South Ronaldsway.  The wind was a light SE F2/3 and we motor-sailed across in tame conditions and bright sunshine.

Our first sight of the Orkneys as we cross the Pentland Firth

We passed between South Ronaldsay and Flotta and entered the open water of Scapa Flow.  After this, it was a pleasant downwind sail to reach the sheltered harbour of Stromness at 19:00.

View of Stromness from the marina

The weather in these parts can change rapidly and strong winds from the NW up to F7 are forecast into next week.  

We made a decision that the Orkneys is probably as far north as we should go this Summer.

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