Stepping Stones

It was time to return to sea after a happy few days in the beautiful and relaxing Canal!  So on Wednesday 12th June, we exited the Clachnaharry sea lock and headed into Beauly Firth and on into Moray Firth.

Ready to leave the last lock

It was already 16:00 as we motor-sailed under the Kessock Bridge and we wanted to gain as many miles as possible northwards before nightfall to assist our progress the next day.

As so often on this trip, we had a small weather window and were expecting strong winds to arrive later tomorrow, so needed to press on while we could.

We decided to head for Cromarty for the night and picked our way inshore of the main ship channel, hugging the southern shore to keep out of the strong ebbing tide.

We dropped anchor off the old town in the shadow of several active and de-commissioned oil rigs, with their ghostly shapes stretching towards the horizon.

Cromarty anchorage

Sun setting over the rigs at Cromarty

We set off at 06:00 next morning to catch the north-going tide, headed for Wick - 60 miles away.  We spotted a large ship in the entrance to Cromarty Firth on AIS and were rather surprised when this turned out to be a huge cruise ship rather than something connected with the oil industry.

Cromarty Harbour next morning

We motor-sailed at first in light and variable winds but later were able to sail and even had to put in a reef as the wind rose to ESE F5 at 14:00.  The seas were rising and we were rather glad to reach Wick and turn to port to pick our way into harbour at 15:30.

Wind farm leg sections on the dockside near the marina at Wick

Friday brought NE F7 winds and we were grateful for our sheltered marina berth.

We entertained ourselves by restocking our food, doing the laundry and visiting the tourist hot-spots along the coastal path south of Wick.

More windfarm parts stored next to our path

Wick is now the main port supporting the brand new Beatrice Windfarm (completed in 2023) just offshore of here and also stores parts soon to be fitted into new windfarms currently under construction to the south of Beatrice.

More windmill leg sections stored next to the coastal path

Our walk took us past the historic bathing pool called The Trinkie which is set into the local rock platforms and on to the Norse Old Wick Castle.  It was all very wild and woolly and we couldn't really imaging wanting to swim here!

Shoreline close to the remains of The Trinkie

Old Wick Castle

The ever so friendly Harbour Master encouraged us to stay a bit longer to enjoy the Harbour Festival in aid of the RNLI tomorrow, so how could we refuse!

Wick Lifeboat doing wheelies with flares as they open the festival

Longhope Lifeboat came along too

Stalls at the Harbour Festival

We took a tour of both lifeboats and the Hon Sec of Longhope RNLI very generously offered us the use of their showers when we were in Longhope - hopefully very soon.

We bought a lobster from one of the stalls (luckily already cooked) and then had a bit of a messy job extracting the meat at dinner time!  Who knew lobsters had so much gunge inside them :)





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