Final Thoughts

 

Balta Sound - our most northerly anchorage

      Now we are home, here are a few thoughts about our trip:

  1.  Certainly harder than any of our recent long sailing adventures, almost brutal at times.
  2. Colder and windier than we've experienced before in these waters.
  3. 2024 was a particularly demanding year for weather with frequent spells of gale-force wind around us.  There seemed to be a succession of stationary Lows centred on Iceland.
  4. It seems that the new norm is for the wind to gust from F3-4 to F6 and above in a very short time, making it hard to decide the best sails set-up plus adding to the stress of passage-making.  Is this a product of global warming we wonder?
  5. We seemed to have head winds both heading North and South!
  6. It was (once again) great to meet up with other sailors also battling to take their boats into these wilder waters.
  7.  Shetland was so different to Orkney and full of impressive rock formations as well as high hills.
  8. Oil money has brought some riches to Shetland that can be measured by the provision of high quality public buildings and resources.
  9. It was always surprising how light it was late at night in northern waters..
  10. We were so lucky to have 2 weeks of great weather for our time in Shetland.
  11. Stopping off at Fair Isle on the return journey was a bonus!
  12. We were "adopted" by kind Colin Bates, the Operations Manager of Longhope Lifeboat Station after meeting him at the Wick Harbour Festival and it was so nice of him to give us the use of the lifeboat crew showers when we were in Longhope.
  13. Orkney is a wonderful place and it was good to travel through the islands once again.
  14. The birdlife we encountered was magnificent as ever and we were so glad to see them again.
  15. We will never forget the shearwaters on Skomer who sheltered in pairs at the back of our cockpit when they fell to the deck and could not take off until I had lowered them into the water in the morning.
  16. We are privileged to have had these experiences in such precious waters.


Fair Isle


Dramatic Cromarty Sky


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