furthest north

It’s been a long time. The Western and Northern isles of Scotland do not have many marinas with shore power and we’ve spent most nights anchored in remote little bays with only seals and skuas for company. I’m still here, so is the boat – where is here? Scallaway in the Shetlands today. This is a long way from anywhere, it took a day and a night to get here and we didn’t see another ship on the way. The sailing here was wonderful, a gentle swell to give us little bursts of speed, a spectacular sunset, a bright moon and a warm sunrise.

Since Skye, all that time ago, we have been to the outer Hebrides and to the Orkneys. From the sea, the outer Hebrides don’t look as spectacular as the Western Isles – but they are a truly magical place. They really are as old as the hills, approximately 3000 million years old. We hired a car for the day in Stornaway and went to Callinish, a kind of Stone Henge lookalike but a thousand times better. You can actually walk around the standing stones and touch and hug them!

As for beaches, I reckon Uig, on Lewis, is probably the most stunning beach I have ever seen. It is an endless expanse of the most golden sand ever, with the bluest-greenest sea and not a soul in sight.

After a mind emptying walk on the beach, we went to a ceiligh (sp?) and did energetic eating and dancing.

Then back to the mainland, to Loch Eribol – a place out of a story book. Dramatic cliffs and mountains with a glassy smooth water surface. We anchored near a fish farm and a local fisherman gave us a lobster. It didn’t scream when dunked in a pan of boiling water.

Then onto Stromness in the Orkneys. The most notable thing I can say about the town of Stromness is that the marina has shore power, so I finally managed to charge up my computer. We had a little sail around Scapa Flow, famous during the war when the surrendered German warships sank themselves rather than be handed over to the allies. Churchill had some of the entrances to Scapa Flow blocked up and the tides are now totally unpredictable.

We visited the 5000 year old village of Scara Brae, uncovered by a violent storm at the beginning of the 20^th century. It was packed with American tourists who had arrived that day in Kirkwall (the capital) on a cruise ship. We had a peek at another standing stone circle, Brogar, which has also been there for more than 3000 years.

Reeling with ancient history, we set sail yesterday for Shetland and now we are here.

I think my sailing blog is a series of ‘went there, did that’ kind of entries. The next entry will be more about what life is like at the moment – if I can focus my mind enough to get reflective........

19.8.05 14:30

passive smoking

Categories

Links

furthest north