058:27.364 N
005:02.976 W

Kinlochbervie

Midsummer’s Day in Cape Wrath, now only 14 miles away, has 18 hours 23 minutes of daylight today - we have been sleeping with a blackout cover on the forehatch for a month now as the nights are very short!

Yesterday’s howling wind reduced through the night and today dawned very special with blue sky and minimum cloud cover. We left the 2 reefs in the main from yesterday and sailed out of the Loch into a brisk breeze with 2m, post-F7, lazy ocean-type swell, whose waves made TC rise and fall in an unsteady and wobbly rhythm.

The wind came and went, reef in, reef out, pole up, pole down, reef in, reef out, gybe, gybe back, wallow, jib away, jib back out. We passed the “Old Man of Stoer”, a stunning 60m high sea stack whose dramatic profile rising out of the sea was very prominent at the bottom of cliffs being pounded by waves.

It wasn’t a long day sail but thoroughly enjoyable with the sun shining in between cloud cover. It is great to have a wildlife photographer on board and some shots are below.

As we approached the entrance to this Loch, a somewhat lunar landscape, we could see the breaking waves working their way along the cliffs on both sides creating an eerie roar in stereo. The Loch entrance was spectacular and exciting, quite narrow and we sailed in slowly with the swell behind us.

Kinlochbervie is a “scattered harbour village” and the most northerly port on the west coast of Scotland. Its one pontoon for visiting yachts is only 3 boat lengths; we certainly feel like we are about to sail off the top of the country. But its spectacular setting with a mountainous backdrop, seals in the harbour, sheep on the beach (and friendly French neighbours who have just given us some cooked fresh mackerel) is a real gem. 

We’ve been scaring ourselves by reading the Sailing Directions for rounding Cape Wrath and into/out of the Orkneys, so a windless day tomorrow will be spent swotting up on everything we need to know. Get it wrong, and we’ll meet 5m overfalls and/or go backwards at 8 knots, get it right and we’ll wonder what all the fuss is about.