Selkie Dancer - Westray - 6th June 2006
Hello everyone, Andy is being a bully and won't take me out to dinner here in Westray until I have written this - so I'd better get on with it!
Our stays everywhere always have something of note and Wick was no exception; an amazing heritage centre crammed full with everything you can imagine and rather disturbingly with objects we all found familiar. For our stay we were rafted up against a motor sailing vessel and a long abandoned rather handsome green fishing boat. Sitting quietly in the cockpit enjoying a cup of tea we were slightly alarmed to be boarded by a Wick pirate, earring through the eyebrow, high on something and claiming to be the son of the fishing boat. His colourful language, some of it most recognizable was entertaining but we didn't know how much to believe. After a cup of tea his parting words were 'thanks - next time I'll bring my cousin and we'll mix the genes!' Later, in town I saw him on a bicycle hanging on to the passenger door of a car which was speeding down the high street, holding a conversation with the occupant - crazy man.
Thence to Orkney where Alasdair left us. We need him back. He's stayed the longest this year, brought with him the stiffest winds and there was nothing he could not tell us about bird life. Our entrance to Kirkwall marina in a force 7, after being battered by spray and wind was not helped by Andy having failed to update the chart showing an extension to the harbour wall that was obscuring the entrance. But now at last we have had three consecutive days of sunshine and have seen the Orkneys as they should be seen. The sky a wedgwood blue with soft streaks of white painted across. Low lying islands, sharp cliffs one side with fertile grassy slopes down to the shores. A bit more global warming and they might disappear. The lambs of Stronsay were the fattest we have seen and the explanation is that because it is light for 23 hours a day they are doomed to munch away waiting for the dark and so only cease eating for 1 hour a day!
The most surreal moment yesterday was speaking to Nick in Afghanistan while watching a minke whale circle closer and closer to the boat. Every time we thought we had him in our sights we would hear the blow behind us and whirl around only to watch his tail disappear. There are many video clips and photos of black blobs.
Well I'm off to tart u Jinti and Andyp for my evening meal.
Our stays everywhere always have something of note and Wick was no exception; an amazing heritage centre crammed full with everything you can imagine and rather disturbingly with objects we all found familiar. For our stay we were rafted up against a motor sailing vessel and a long abandoned rather handsome green fishing boat. Sitting quietly in the cockpit enjoying a cup of tea we were slightly alarmed to be boarded by a Wick pirate, earring through the eyebrow, high on something and claiming to be the son of the fishing boat. His colourful language, some of it most recognizable was entertaining but we didn't know how much to believe. After a cup of tea his parting words were 'thanks - next time I'll bring my cousin and we'll mix the genes!' Later, in town I saw him on a bicycle hanging on to the passenger door of a car which was speeding down the high street, holding a conversation with the occupant - crazy man.
Thence to Orkney where Alasdair left us. We need him back. He's stayed the longest this year, brought with him the stiffest winds and there was nothing he could not tell us about bird life. Our entrance to Kirkwall marina in a force 7, after being battered by spray and wind was not helped by Andy having failed to update the chart showing an extension to the harbour wall that was obscuring the entrance. But now at last we have had three consecutive days of sunshine and have seen the Orkneys as they should be seen. The sky a wedgwood blue with soft streaks of white painted across. Low lying islands, sharp cliffs one side with fertile grassy slopes down to the shores. A bit more global warming and they might disappear. The lambs of Stronsay were the fattest we have seen and the explanation is that because it is light for 23 hours a day they are doomed to munch away waiting for the dark and so only cease eating for 1 hour a day!
The most surreal moment yesterday was speaking to Nick in Afghanistan while watching a minke whale circle closer and closer to the boat. Every time we thought we had him in our sights we would hear the blow behind us and whirl around only to watch his tail disappear. There are many video clips and photos of black blobs.
Well I'm off to tart u Jinti and Andyp for my evening meal.
Selkie Dancer, Wick - 30th May 2006
Well here we are at last in Wick after our rest and healing week in Findhorn. It's amazing how the body mends - even old bodies! We couldn't have chosen a better place; home for me and many friends from different times in both our lives. Hospitality from friends old and new was wonderful. Hopefully before we got to be a nuisance we moved on. The stitches are out and we have a new crew member, Alasdair Gordon-Rogers. He is earning Mediterranean sea miles!
We sailed from Findhorn on Sunday , waving goodbye and hoping I wouldn't make a complete molehusband (ballsup) negotiating the sandbar. Then, for the next seven hours I wanted to be anywhere else but on a boat. I nibbled ginger root and finally succumbed to the chemicals and took stugeron. Later Andy came below because he had noticed someone was missing (glad he did eventually!).
He searched fore and aft before he finally located me slumped by the nav station fast asleep! I don't like that stuff, I felt odder than normal for a while. I perked up when the coast got nearer and we identified Lybster.
It is always a real mystery where the entrances to new harbours are until suddenly they reveal themselves to you. Lybster is a perfect little natural harbour, quiet so quiet. We stayed for a day and visited the Waterline Visitor Centre and North Lands Creative glass works ( www.northlandsglass.com ) met three creative artists in residence, ate delicious crab sandwiches, dined with an air cadet colleague of Andy's, marvelled at the wide streets and the random parking habits of the inhabitants, dodged the rain and hail and finally the next morning met up with an old friend I had lost touch with nearly 30 years ago.
After a brisk three hour sail we are here in Wick, which on first glance is a sad place. A once thriving bustling herring port. Now the harbour buildings are looking for a new role. We look forward to exploring tomorrow with the intention of sailing for Orkney on Thursday as the Gab of May gives way to flaming June - or as the harbourmaster told us 'last of the North winds, first of the South'.
Missive from Orkney will follow in due course
Jinti and Andy
We sailed from Findhorn on Sunday , waving goodbye and hoping I wouldn't make a complete molehusband (ballsup) negotiating the sandbar. Then, for the next seven hours I wanted to be anywhere else but on a boat. I nibbled ginger root and finally succumbed to the chemicals and took stugeron. Later Andy came below because he had noticed someone was missing (glad he did eventually!).
He searched fore and aft before he finally located me slumped by the nav station fast asleep! I don't like that stuff, I felt odder than normal for a while. I perked up when the coast got nearer and we identified Lybster.
It is always a real mystery where the entrances to new harbours are until suddenly they reveal themselves to you. Lybster is a perfect little natural harbour, quiet so quiet. We stayed for a day and visited the Waterline Visitor Centre and North Lands Creative glass works ( www.northlandsglass.com ) met three creative artists in residence, ate delicious crab sandwiches, dined with an air cadet colleague of Andy's, marvelled at the wide streets and the random parking habits of the inhabitants, dodged the rain and hail and finally the next morning met up with an old friend I had lost touch with nearly 30 years ago.
After a brisk three hour sail we are here in Wick, which on first glance is a sad place. A once thriving bustling herring port. Now the harbour buildings are looking for a new role. We look forward to exploring tomorrow with the intention of sailing for Orkney on Thursday as the Gab of May gives way to flaming June - or as the harbourmaster told us 'last of the North winds, first of the South'.
Missive from Orkney will follow in due course
Jinti and Andy