058:48.055 N
003:12.236 W

Longhope, South Walls

Bit of a mini adventure today, we caught an Orkney Ferry from Stromness to Hoy, a solid workhorse that ploughed across the spring tide. Our plan was to meet a minibus to take us to the Scapa Flow Museum in Lyness, having spoken with the driver yesterday. However, when he met us today, he said he never drives to Lyness, he goes to another town on the other side of the island! It was one of those heart stopping moments as we watched the ferry pull away and realised we were in the back end of beyond with no through traffic to hitch a lift.

Extraordinary Orkney hospitality followed; he suggested we have a cuppa in the café nearby, and he’d do his minibus ride then return to take us in his own car… sure enough, he returned an hour later towing a digger and took us to Lyness where he was catching the ferry with his digger.

Turned into a bit of a bonus as he then filled us in with his life on Hoy, pointed out a few things along the way including the cinema and theatre where Dame Vera Lynn came to entertain the troops (now sadly dilapidated) and very kindly dropped us at the door of the museum, not taking any money for the ride.

We then had an absolutely fascinating look around the museum which is housed in the original pumphouse constructed in 1937 as part of the base infrastructure for pumping fuel to vessels for the fleet to be fuelled.

There was so much information to absorb, it ranged from pre-1900s, to the 1919 scuttling of 74 WWI ships, to the refurbishment of the site for WWII, so many stories of extraordinary bravery and so often in such brutally cold conditions. So many photos and anecdotes, so much memorabilia and archived materials, countless artefacts retrieved from the sunken ships. We walked through both the boiler room and pump room where everything was beautifully presented, illustrated and explained.

We were therefore all buzzing with information, and swapping questions and thoughts as we caught the ferry and bus back to Stromness.

And so, with a tinge of sadness we slipped our lines from Stromness Marina and have now begun our journey south. A blustery sail in beautiful evening light has brought us to Longhope where we’ve picked up a mooring buoy, ahead of the much anticipated crossing of the Pentland Firth in the morning.

Alarm is set for 0400, slip our mooring around 0500, aim to be on the north side of Pentland Firth around 0630, and all being well, be through by 0730 ~ if we oversleep and delay and find ourselves mid channel by 0930, we should expect to have the full 12 knots of spring tide under us!

Therefore Wick tomorrow night and Inverness Wednesday night; this change of plan to leave Stromness early is due to 40+ knots forecast to whip through the Orkneys on Thursday.

We’ve called the Caledonian Canal and bought our licence, our next stage is just around the corner!