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. |
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| 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
19th and early 20th 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!
