To Mousa, eventually

Dear Reader(s), you will remember that our intrepid fivesome were, at the end of the previous episode, marooned in Balta, and that Balta is a windswept, foggy winderness whence tomorrow may not come. However, tomorrow did come and it was indeed, another day.  It was another windy and foggy day. 

My beloved cooked chicken. It was a special recipe called "Chicken Balta". 

Balta in the windy fog has little to recommend it, apart of course for the chicken.  And so on.

Next off, Burravoe.

Burravoe is nice.  The marina is entirely good and intact (unlikely Balta which is, to be frank, unintact).

Burravoe also has a fleet of four Albacores.  It was Regatta Day.  Amy and Tim were recruited to fill in for absent locals who, we understood, may have been delayed as a result of having to celebrate a wedding on the Isle of Yell.  Amy helmed for a very nice man who turned out to be The King of Yell.  Tim crewed for another very nice man, but he was not the King of Yell. The King of Yell came from Chichester. This was surprising but did have a reasonable and quite understandable explanation which I will not explain yet, or possibly ever.

Tim and Amy did well and won prizes. We all had fish and  chips.  We saw an otter. Burravoe was indeed, very nice.

Sunday, 21st July.

Off to Vidlin Voe.

Vidlin Voe, as well as being rather a pleasant sounding name, is a pleasant place, with a nice marina and very nice people.

Vidlin Voe is also on "The Mainland", making it convenient for taxis etc.

Magnus (Team H's personal driver) arrived early to pick up three-fifths of our intrepid team.

We said "Goodbye" and were sorry to see them go, but at least we knew they would be safe with Magnus.

(for an account of Team H's subsequent journey to Sussex, please download their report "Four Hundred and Eighty things to do at Sumburgh Airport in the fog" and its exceptionally successful sequel "Four Hundred and Ninety things to on a ferry in fog".

Monday, 22nd July.

To Out Skerries.

Out Skerries is probably the most friendly island in the world.

On the way to Out Skerries we saw a whale (forgive the non sequiter), Footloose were following but unfortunately missed it. (This idiom was constructed mainly for my pleasure and that of my son, who will probably pale at its subtle complexities).

We were met at the pier by the Harbour Master and a man on a bike.

Last year 47 sailing boats visited Out Skerries.

The pier is lined with black lorry tyres which themselves are covered with special black stuff.

Some Norwegians arrived from Bergen and went for a swim.

We went for two nice walks.  It was sunny.

There was man with a lawnmower mowing the airstrip.

Another man explained that the newly erected port hand marker in the south entrance to the harbour was in the wrong position and that, as a result, the ferry was refusing to use that entrance.

I wondered if this controversy had been specially engineered in Brussels to aid social cohesion.

Next morning the Norwegians had a pre-breakfast swim.  We didn't.

We left by the South entrance.

Footloose ran aground briefly.

Tuesday, 23 July.

We arrived in Lerwick.

Lerwick means "muddy bay" in Viking.

The marina was quite full.

Mainly Norwegians and Icelanders.  The Norwegians visit Lerwick as a "weekend trip” from Bergen which is only 48 hours away.  Because it is summer, weekends are much longer at these latitudes. The Norwegians like to go shopping and buy stainless steel cooking utensils. The Icelanders seem to sleep a lot.  Most people smile and are very friendly, especially when Ingela is taking their ropes.  Ingela wears shorts.

Whilst in Norway we went shopping (at the Co-op), we visited the museum and the castle and we went out to supper.  Next day we walked to the "Viking Bus Station" and had a nice ride in a bus to see Jarlshof which is a fascinating archaeological site.  The Vikings in Lerwick don't often go out with their traditional headgear fitted.  I found this disappointing.

Thursday, 25th July.

We motored towards Mousa.

We had an especially happy day.

We anchored off Mousa and Jean cooked chicken. We all enjoyed our Chicken Mousa.

It was a wobbly night at anchor.

Friday, 26th July.

We all went ashore and visited the Broch of Mousa.

This is a 2300 year old house, built in stone and 13 metres high.  It is best preserved Broch in the world and looks remarkably like a power station cooling tower.

One day I will post some photographs on this blog. Unfortunately Mousa, which is uninhabited doesn’t have broadband.

Here it is.

Northwards and beyond

Hello again, Dear Reader. Much has happened over these long weeks north of the internet ... a land without WIFI, penguins or even texts, a land of mystery, Vikings and fog, a land of intrigue and awe.  I could go on.

Today we are weather-bound in the "shelter" of the Balta Sound on Unst, considerably north of Watford.

Back to the plot, so far ... but briefly.

Sunday 1st July.

We went to Shapinsay and moored in Elwick Sound where only 800 years ago King Haakon stopped with his fleet of 100 longboats on his way to Largs to do battle (which he lost). How might history have been different if he had won, but as he didn't, I won't discuss this further (yet).

We flubbered ashore and walked along a very long straight road which wasn't built by the Romans.

Shapinsay.

We hired bikes and "did" Shapinsay. We inspected and enjoyed Burroughston Broch (100 BC).

Shapinsay is the preferred home of the otherwise extinct Orchadian Vole. However, we saw no voles.

We cycled across a sandy swamp but failed to find Shapinsay's second most important monument The Odin Stone (perhaps it had been nicked).

Home via the teashop for a Shapinsay Flapjack (comment still in construction).

A good day. (We didn't bother with Dog Geo Caves, for obvious reasons.)

Wednesday.

Peter and Sara arrived.  Much celebrating and they cooked us supper.

Thursday.

Tim arrived.  Further celebration.

We refuelled the boat at Lidl and stored the victuals under Tim's bed.

Friday 5th July.

Off to Otterswick on Sanday Island, our staging post for the big push to Fair Isle.

Otterwick was the scene of one of my ideas  .. it seemed very sensible at the time, at least.

For a number of very sound maritime reasons, we joined up 6 lengths of rope to connect Albatross to Footloose. For safety reasons I securely attached a fender (belonging to PB) to the middle of this line.  We had supper, the fender drifted off, the line got caught around our anchor and I had to drive the flubber most of the way to Norway. It all ended happily and I have avoided having too many good ideas since.

Saturday.

We sailed to Fair Isle.

We all like Fair Isle.

We had lovely walks.

I got attacked by Bonxies.

Tim got attacked by Bonxies.

We had an excellent supper at the Fair Isle Bird Observatory.

Two lovely days on Fair Isle.

8th July

We sailed to The Shetland Islands, anchoring in Bigton Wick on the east (left) side behind St Ninian's Island, beside the finest sand tombola in Europe.

We had nice walks.

9th July

A rough and roly ride to Scalloway.

Scalloway (pop. 1200) is Shetland’s second city and has a very nice shop that sells everything and a castle which we explored.

Next day.  Off to Walls.

Anchored in Walls, we were invited to join the  Round Foula Regatta, unfortunately we declined.  We later heard that only one of the five entrants finished, collecting the £500 first prize.

Jean, Tim and I all WENT FOR A RUN.

Thursday

Off to Papa Stour.

We anchored without seeing where we were anchoring because it was "slightly misty". Radar is a good thing.

Papa Stour has the "best caves, rock arches, tunnels and stuff in Europe".  It really does.  We had a wonderful walk together.  The Bonxies considered attacking Tim but thought better of it.

Saturday 13th July

To Aith where we eventually rafted out from Footloose on the harbour wall just in front of the lifeboat.

We plugged into the lifeboat hut's washing machine's electricity plug and filled up with water and food.

We had a wonderful tour of the lifeboat and the crew promised to come and rescue us at any time should the need arise.

We liked Aith, its sports centre, pier and shop.

We scrubbed and polished the boat and made ready for Linda and Amy's arrival, and they did.

15th July.

A foggy roly sail to Hamna Voe.

Many places in these islands are called "Hamna Voe" possibly because of limitations in the Vikings vocabulary which is based mainly around words for harbours, islands, inlets, islands and puffins.

Hamna Voe is "poorly charted" but very pleasant even in the mist.

PB explained to me the importance of proper chart work and passage planning.

I reaffirmed my belief in the sound practice of following closely behind anyone (eg. PB) who appears to know what they are doing.

16th July

Whale Firth

Complete absence of whales.

Did see a Basking Shark, wasn't collecting a lot in its guitar case.

17th July THE MUCKLE FLUGGA ROUNDING

No fog, a nice sunny day.

Team Tim and Linda went walking, Amy was on Footloose.

We rounded Muckle Flugga, Gannet colonies and all.

Very nice.

Arrived Balta Sound.

Picked up Linda and Tim and Amy.

Balta Sound Harbour has a pontoon but it is broken and sits on the harbour wall awaiting repair.

Balta exports talcum powder from Unst.

It will take a little more than talc to remedy the crews' collective dermatological and hygiene issues.

We opted to anchor off rather than enjoy the harbour.

Balta has the most northern pub in Greenland and the foggiest post box in the Faeroes, not to mention the only shop in Iceland.

Last night it got a bit windy.

We didn't drag our anchor.

I slept till 10.

Today I wrote blogs.

Tomorrow is another day.