Westray, Stronsay, meeting another Vancouver and waiting for weather (again).

Our final day on Westray was still relentlessly windy but, once the overnight fog (known as haar in these parts) had cleared, we had bright sunshine – perfect for a long hike up to the NE corner of the island to bag another lighthouse. But first we called in at Hume Sweet Hume, a successful designer knitwear business where we chatted to the owner and then enjoyed a delicious pizza lunch at the new café, Saintear. Noup Head light, another Stephenson design, is perched precariously close to a sheer cliff face that is home to thousands of nesting seabirds.

Lighthouse facts – the tower is 24m high but the light is 79m above sea level, Built in 1898, it was the first light in Scotland to use the concept of floating the rotating lens on a bath of mercury. It was automated in 1964 and the lighthouse keepers’ cottages were demolished shortly afterwards.

Di giving Graham palpitations - it looks as though she's a lot closer to the edge than she was!

During our island hikes we also came across this little stone-built structure on the edge of one of the beaches.

At first we assumed that it was very old but it appears to have been constructed recently with an excellent purpose:

Inside there's a bbq basket and even a bag of kindling!

The SE winds were forecast to continue for several days and the outlook for Sunday night was for them to increase to Force 6-7. The otherwise excellent little harbour and marina in Pierowell was open to wind-driven waves from that direction so we decided to get out while we could and sail the 23 miles over to Stronsay. Of course, the wind was on our nose, so we tacked (zig-zagging toward our destination) the whole way and it was a reasonably challenging sail, with some fierce tides to contend with at the end.

The red track was our route into Westray, the black track is the passage to Stronsay

Whitehall harbour is well sheltered in SE winds

The departure turned out to be a good decision because we found perfect shelter in Whitehall Harbour, alongside the substantial stone pier. Amazingly, we found that a boat already there was another Vancouver. Maude is a Vancouver 34, built the same year as Maunie, and owned by Adele and Martin whom we’d met last year at the owners’ association annual dinner in Bristol! With a much-needed easing of the wind the following day, we were able to fly the drone to get some photos of the two boats together.

The evening after Maude left (for Kirkwall – they are heading the way we came, towards the Outer Hebrides), the wind calmed completely for a few hours to give us a wonderful sunset.

A calm sunset, before the next batch of wind

Stronsay is an interesting island – it’s very flat (the highest point is only 43m above sea level) so wind is a pretty constant feature. The land is obviously very fertile, so beef and sheep farming are the main activities here. The sleepy little village of Whitehall has a small shop, a café and a hotel. The hotel was bought by the community in May but is struggling to get going, (familiar challenges of staffing and skills availability) so hasn’t been open while we’ve been here.

 Only the larger-than-average stone houses on the waterfront hint at the island’s previous prosperity. In the 19^th and early 20^th centuries this was the epicentre of Orkney’s thriving herring fishing industry. When the herring season came each year, the island would have over 4000 people working on landing, gutting and salting the ‘silver darlings’ which were packed into barrels and shipped all around Europe. 

A ship loaded with barrels of Stronsay herring, c 1924

Whitehall village, at its peak, had 40 pubs and the old Stronsay Hotel boasted the longest bar north of Inverness! The boom collapsed in the 1930’s as over-fishing destroyed the once-huge stocks of fish and, with it, Stronsay’s prosperity came to an end.

Today the island is home to only about 320 people and Whitehall has a slightly dejected feel about it. However, there’s obviously a lot of effort being put in to keep the place alive and funding has been sought to try to widen its appeal to visitors (though we suspect some residents aren’t that keen on encouraging incomers!). We were amazed to find that there are four excellent electric bikes available to borrow, free of charge, so yesterday we took two of them to go and explore. We were very thankful of the battery assistance as the brisk SE’ly wind had returned with a vengeance and were able to see some of the superb coastline features.

The amazing arch at the Vat of Kirbister 

Nesting Kittiwakes

We’ll be here for one more day. The wind is forecast to ease a little tomorrow, so we’ll sail east and south down to the Churchill Barriers on South Ronaldsay, ready to cross the Pentland Firth on Friday. Spot-on tidal planning will be vital for the 30 mile passage to Wick as the Pentland Firth is probably the most tidal stretch of water in Britain, with currents running at up to 12 knots if you cross it at spring tide. We will, naturally, be crossing at spring tide so our traverse of the 6-mile-wide scary bit will be timed to coincide with the least current. We’ll let you know how it goes!