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.