S/Y Kerpa

Hello!

Long time since I updated our blog, so this will be a comprehensive post to be able to catch up a bit to get closer to where we are now.

Holland

Last blog we were in Helgoland, and we set sail towards Holland, first stop were at the Frisian Island Terschelling. What strike us when we got there was how good the Dutch are to take care of their old traditional boats.

A real beauty

Next stop was Harlingen and on the way, we saw this beautiful boat

As you can see the weather is a bit gloomy, and unfortunately it was Gloomy for most of the time we were in Holland.

Of that reason we came to stay close to a week in Harlingen

It was stormy over a big part of Holland and the Schiphol airport was closed for almost a full day.

But sometimes the sun showed up and we enjoyed the street life

And of course, admire the skilful skippers of the old traditional Dutch vessels manoeuvring in close quarters.

We saw many examples of very skilled skippers, Dutch people are obviously good seamen.

But we do not saw that when entering the Kornwerdarzand Lock  into the lake Ijsselmeer.

When we came to the lock, it was plenty of boats waiting to pass, and as soon the green light was lit, everybody just hurried in towards the lock and it became a bit of a commotion. It was not the only time we saw that behaviour it was unfortunately very common as soon a bridge or a lock was opened, it looked as it was a race to be the first in.

On our way to Medemblik we saw these lowly old ships sailing.

In Medemblik we collected our Starlink kit which was delivered to an Amel friend, Herman Govers, Heman and Hella are preparing their Amel for live aboard cruising so we had a lot to talk about

Starlink at its temporarily place, very easy just plug and play a real game changer for communication with friends and family when fare away from home.

Next stop was Urk.

Urk is also a very nice village with a lot of maritime history, some of it showing the harsh life for people having the sea as their main source for income.

A wife and/or a mother looking for their loved one if they will came home. The text you see on the rocks in the back ground is name of the perish sea men and fishermen over the years.

1868 was difficult year with many persons lost at sea, age from 11 to 68, Life was tough at that time.

More cheerful history is watching and listening to an old engine

We also stopped in Amsterdam and moored at Sixhaven, again we saw the chaos when no one waiting for other to leave ore come. No everybody at the same time.

The marina was packed with boats during the night, and in the morning when mosty of them left at the same time, others was entering. Strange that they did not hit each other.

It was much calmer at the botanical garden

Other reflection from our time in Holland, nice that old smaller boats (24 fot and above) was very common and larger boats 35 feet and above was rather uncommon, and a lot of young people was sailing, nowadays most people that sail has had grey hair for long.

Biking is very common in Holland and several Swedish politicians wants Sweden to follow the path of Holland, but I hope not because there is a lot of chaos especially in Amsterdam, either there are no traffic rules or they are not followed, it is the same behaviour as in the marinas everybody try to get first!

For a Swede it is a bit shocking that no one has a helmet, not even on the infant they have back on the bike!!

Belgium

In Amsterdam my son Kristoffer with family came to visit us. After they have had a short tour of  Amsterdam we set sail towards Zeebrugge, unfortunately the weather gods was not on our side, head wind +/- 20 kn and  shoppy sea, made the female crew very sea sick, and about 1 hour before reaching Zeebrugge the halyard for the head sail broke so that might have been a bit scary for the crew as well, not the best start of a holiday.

Broken halyard

It was not too difficult to pas a pilot line from the top down to the exit for the head sail halyard. I had no spare, so I turned the old one in reverse the top part down so the part with the tension is the old part that has not been under tension.

From Zeebrugge we took a daytrip to Brugge a very nice and historical town

Kerstin enjoining Moules, one of her favourites

France

When sailing on the English channel, one has to take the tide very carefully in consideration. Our next step was for Boulogne Sur Mer, and for that we had to plane carefully not to get into very strong conter current when rounding the Cap Gris-Nez, as a Sweed we are not used to deal with tide, so it was with great satisfaction we manage to time the departure and arrival almost perfectly, it took away some of the anxiety we have had for the strong tidal current in the English channel.

I hope these two pictures from the Marina in Boulogne Sur Mer illustrate the difference in sea level due to the tide.

This boat came in when we were there and they had collided with a big freighter vessel

Must have been a very frightening experience.

Can’t say that the harbour is particularly nice, but other parts are very nice.

Our plan was to have a stop in Cherbourg, but the marina was closed due to a sailing race, so we took a trip of 180 Nm to St Helier on Jersey, (The crew had booked flight tickets from Jersey and the weather was not the best so we took a decent weather window to be sure we get there)

On our way to Jersey, we were overtaken by this a bit faster boat than us

Else the passage became rather pleasant.

The tide in Jersey is up to 12 meters, very amazing, and it must be very difficult to have a boat and plan sailing. Not only weather but the tide put constraints on when to use your boat

Mont Orgueil Castle

We managed to get at least on good day for sightseeing in Jersey, other days it was very windy and rainy.

In Jersey we shifted crew, my brother Thomas with partner Brita came to visit us.

We took a trip out to the Elizabeth  Castle

The castle is in the background of Thomas and Kerstin

It was a very strange vehicle who took out the tourist to the castle, we opted to walked in the mud and water instead.

Leaving Jersey, towards Brest became a very rough trip, and Brita became extremely seasick and was totally out for most of the trip.

In Brest we meet our friends Anika and Kent who were there with their boat.

We had a  very nice lunch together and Kerstin got her favourite dishes again moules!

New update to come soon.

Last year we left Kerpa in Västerås in lake Mälarten about 100 km west of Stockholm.

The plan now is to sail south and cross the Atlantic with Viking Explorer scheduled start is January 6 2024, so we have plenty of time, aim to be on Grand Canaria end of November.

We left Lagos 19 of April and arrived in a beautiful sunny Stockholm, excellent weather for commission a boat.

Especially for those with old classic wooden boats.

Unfortunately the weather turned to be very cold and rainy, while we worked on Kerpa at the yard in Västerås.

But at least the sun came on launch day May 3. And on our two days trip to Stockholm we had a wonderful morning at anchor outside Rastaholm

Later that day we passed the lock out to the Baltic and our daughter took some photos when we passed the area where she lives.

Very cold but no rain

Kerpa in central Stockholm

Kerpa at Wasahamnen in Stockholm, we can strongly recommend to moor at Wasahamnen if you plan to sail to Stockholm, very central, walking distance to downtown Stockholm and the surrounding is the green and very large park called Djurgården.

Storholmen

Next visit was Storholmen the family summer cottage just outside Stockholm. It was here my dream started about sailing the oceans.

My first sailboat, a very small dingy made for rowing, if you look carefully, you can see the swords on the sides, like a Dutch tjalk, sail was sewed from an old bed linen. Not fast but it worked.

Now Kerpa at the same spot, would have liked my mother to see Kerpa at Storholmen, but she is not with us any longer.

It was a delight to see some of our grandchildren playing where I played as a toddler.

They also came a long weekend to sail on Kerpa, really nice and we were lucky with the weather as well, May can be very nice in Stockholm, the archipelago is extra beautiful as the air is very crisp and clear, you can see very far.

But now it was time to head south,

Nåttarö

Nåttarö

Kerpa at anchor

Full activity aboard Kerpa, baking bread and trying to fix one of the fridges.

I have had problem with one of the cooling units, it was leaking cooling water and I thought it was the pump, so ordered two new ones, to have one as spare, but it showed to be the cooling coil which is integrated with the compressor. So probably need a new unit.

Håskö

Another stop we made were at Håskö, a very lovely place ca 80 nM south of Stockholm.

One of the few places we can Med moor at.

Nice to see the cows from the boat.

A very beautiful island

They have an old sawmill, which is still used for own need.

Ålö another fantastic island

It sometimes feels strange to leave Sweden as it has one of the most beautiful sailing areas in the world, add to that no tide and no gale (at least very rare) during the summer months an ideal area for cruising, but the season is rather short, and the weather can be both good and bad. I can strongly recommend sailing the Swedish east coast from North of Öland all the way up North to “Höga Kusten” ca 350 Nm.

Ålö anchorage

Most building are from the late 1800 and very well preserved.

Old type of foundation simple but durable, timber probably 150 years old and still strong.

Kalmar

When arriving Kalmar our bowthruster lost its propeller, not fun at all, it looks as the Bowthruster is my Sisyphus task, it never ends.

I start to get routine on retrieving the Bowtheuster when Kerpa is in the water.

Missing the propeller

The difficult part is usually to get the BT shaft into the motor, but this time it whent rather smoothly, the problem this time was that the new propeller did not fit well on the propeller hub so some time was spent on that issue, which should not be necessary, there Amel has some improvement to do on that spare part.

I also got a new compressor for the fridge, the Isotherm agent in Sweden is in Kalmar, I sent the old unit to them without the pump, they took the old electronic unit from my old compressor and sold a new unit including the pump! at a very fair price, delivered it to the marina, very good service, now I have three spare pumps to the two water cold units!

Kalmar is an old town with a lot of History.

And a very nice Castle

Leaving Sweden

We left Kalmar to sail to Warnemunde outside Rostock (215 Nm)

We had a splendid sailing

Just by chance we ended up with pooled out genoa and the code sail on the other side.

We made + 7 kn with apparent wind between 3-5 kn, never done that before.

7,6 kn speed over ground and only 3 kn of apparent wind!

Warnemunde beach,

It was a lot of tourists in Warnemunde, even if it is early in the season, however not many at the beach.

Besides touristing I mounted the new compressor, so now we have two fridges again it feels good.

It was to much gas in the system, so I had to bleed some out, I hope it is good now, at least no frost on the return line to the compressor.

Kiel

Next stop was Kiel, we found out that we arrived the first day of Kielerwoche so no space in the marinas, but we found a good place to anchor, from where we could enjoy the scenery from the regatta.

Transiting the Nordostsea canal was rather straight forward, some red signals that did not make sense, that we passed without stopping, right or wrong? I do not know. Moored at Rendsburg about half way.

A small but rather nice place for a day or two.

The next stop was Brunsbuttel at the end of the channel.

The marina is just at the lock and one can see the big ships going through the lock.

We went up very early the next day to get out of the lock at high tide (05:20) and set course towards Helgoland ca 53 Nm away, this time we were right about the tide and we went out of River Elbe at very high speed.

Helgoland

Helgoland is known for tax free shopping and a lot of birds, we took advantage of both, our diesel tank was almost empty, the stock of wine and beer was low, now it’s better

We could get very close to te Gannets.

Gannet

Gannets with chick

We left Helgoland for a 130 Nm long trip to Terchelling, Holland, we had to motor all the way as no wind at all, but that was the window for us, as strong westerly were to be expected and as it showed also end of good weather, more about that next time.

We can highly recommend sailing in northern Norway during the summer, The midnight sun is fascinating, the mountains with snow at the top looks fantastic, especially the days when the sky is clear and the sunshine gives bright sparkling colours, blue sky, some white clouds, green grass, black mountains with white snow at the top creates very strong contrasts all this surrounded by the blue ocean, it’s just amazing.

But you will find that there is not much wind so be prepared to motor a lot. We also found it difficult to find good sheltered anchorage, they were often small but deep and as we want to have at least a scoop of 5 time the depth, we would end up on the shore in  many places if wind would turn. Further it is difficult to land a dingy as tide is close to 3 meters, the shore line is often hard rock or gravel so hard to pull up the dingy. Water is not very warm either just over 10C when we were there, so to swim the last few meters to shore was not an option for us.

Most harbours for pleasure crafts are small places, only space for a few boats and service are limited, showers and laundry is not easily found, but the jetties are often of highest quality, as most things in Norway. No doubt Norway is a rich country, it shows everywhere, from fish farms assisted by large boats in pristine conditions. Warehouses for the fishing industry most often looks new and of very high standard. Houses were of high standard and a lot of new development was going on. One draw back that comes with that, is prices, Norway is a very expensive country to visit.

Weather

We had both good and bad weather, from Tromsö and north we had excellent weather, sunshine most of the time, and locals claimed it was 20 years since they had such a summer. But south of Tromsö in the Lofoten area, we had not much luck with weather, plenty of rain and mist and also some strong wind keeping us from leaving our mooring for a few days. locals claimed it was the worst summer in 100 years?

Going south

After Nordkap we visited Hammerfest

Towards Hammerfest, and as always the scenery is breath taking

Kerpa moored at Hammerfest

Nice trekking close to Hammerfest

We continue south and found a safe anchorage at Söröya

But we fouled our anchor as we caught a rather big fisherman’s anchor tangled in our chain

It took some time the get lose, the anchor was rather heavy but half an hour later we were on our way.

Skervöya

We have had some times with good weather, much better than expected, but it was about to change

A front of bad weather is coming towards us

Svolver

Svolver is highly recommended, the town itself is not special, but walking distance you have many spectacular trails to choose from, several of them within walking distance from the harbour.

The most well known is probably the Devils gate, but that trail was closed due to work on the trail, so we could not go there, but we found good alternative, maybe a bit more demanding hike.

I have “stolen” this picture on the web.

Devils gate

Our trail was not to bad

We had reasonable weather on the way up, but 15 minutes after we started to climb down the weather changed, mist and rain so we got totally soaked before we got back to Kerpa

Mist just came in

The top we climbed, just got clear of the mist

My son with family came the same day as it started to rain. And it did not get better when we came to Vaeröy

My son had really looked forward to visit Vaeröy, but the weather did not cooperate!

We had hoped that the sun would burn away the mist, but not.

The other day we walked across the island in drizzling rain and fond this interesting rockformation

Saltstraumen The world’s strongest maelstrom they claim

After Kristoffer and his family left, we had a few days before our oldest daughter with family should visit us, luckily we got one day of nice weather so we decided to take one of the Rib’s to visit Saltstraumen. (if you like to know more about Saltsraumen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saltstraumen)

On the way we found this very special erosion on the cliffs

A short video from Saltstraumen, it was not extremely strong as it was between neep and spring tide, but still about 14 kn at the time we were there, it can be up to 24 kn at spring tide. The trip is well worth to do as the sorunding is very beautiful

Bolga

Bolga from the sea

Emelie with Family at Bolga

As it was a bit demanding to get the kids up to the top, Kerstin and I decided to return to Bolga a few days later after they left during the few days before next batch of visitors arrived!

Kerstin is brave climbing down from this rock.

From Bolga one can see the glacier “Svartisen”

We would have entered the fjord and visit Svartisen if we would not run out of time

Ingrid looks like a happy crew

Alexander is a bit tiered, maybe due to sea sickness

A bit gloomy weather when at Söröya

The weather was grey and wet most of the time when they visited us, but it would become worse when next visitors came, my brother Thomas with partner Brita and our youngest daughter Linnea.

Reine again

We changed crew in Bodö and when Thomas and the others came, the forecast was for southerly severe gale and rain, but we might get one day with reasonable weather and as Reine is just 50 Nm away and a very spectacular place we decided to go there.

We climbed the Reinebringen a rather demanding trek ca 650 m hight, the sun was up a few moments and Linnea really enjoyed the hike. But the day after the bad weather came. Not from south but from SW-W so we got the wind on the side, not the best situation with strong wind and very strong gusts the highest was 55 kn. I used most of that day to adjust my fenders to avoid damages to Kerpa’s topside, I managed, only a bent guard rail.

We had to stay for additional three days as wind did go down only slowly, and then of course no wind so we had to wait another day for the waves to go down as well.

On our way “Home”

Due to weather and logistics with all our visitors we were behind schedule it was now mid-August and high time to head south, at this time of the year strong south-westerly wind is common, luckily the weather was favourable with many sunny days and not so strong southerly, so we could often motor south in comfort. With several nice sceneries and a few nice hikes.

Torghatten

A very spectacular place is Torghatten

A big mountain with a natural tunnel right through it

Inside the “Tunnel” it is very large and high to the roof

View from the other end amazing

Kristiansund

One of our stop was at Kristiansund a rather large village. We found a nice outdoor museum where they took good care of old boats.

Seeing all the hard work they put in to the old boats I got the energy to fix our bowthruster that broke when we were in Nordkap so we have been without a bowthruster now for more than 6 weeks. It is not that easy to moore an Amel SM without a bowthruster, so one has to choose a harbour which has enough space for manoeuvring and that is not easy to find in northern Norway, luckily the wind has been rather gentle when we had entering tiny small harbours so no mishap, and I want it to stay that way so now time to fix it. It is the gears that need to be replaced, I had ordered new from Amel and my son Kristoffer brought them to me, so no lack of spare part just lack of confidence that I could fix it.

The main issue is to get off the bearing and the cogwheel, when I put it together last time I had to force it together it was with a lot of tension on the spanner when forcing the cogwheel on with the bolt that also should keep it in place. After some result-less attempts to get it off, I thought maybe I can cut it off with my dremel and a cutting disk. It worked, Halleluiah, when putting it together again a smoothed the surfaces so it was a snug fit, the main issue was the wedge that had grades by file down the grades it should not be to difficult to take it apart again, something I hope I do not need to do the coming 10 years

From Kristiansund we had two stops before we went directly to Mollösund and Sweden the last stretch was 412 Nm, were off 2/3 was by motor as no wind.

Great sunset

Mollösund in Sweden has great sea food, we bought some delicious crayfish, they were perfect

Kerstin enjoying a beer in Skärhamn, a place were we lived for 8 years, and our kids went to school

A stop in downtown Göteborg, just in time to celebrate Linneas 30^th birthday

Just passed under the Öresund bridge

Lisselön

We made a few stops on the Swedish East cost, and we found a fantastic place, Lisselön, a great place with sauna, hot bath and a bar all in a fantastic setting

Not often one can make Med mooring in the archipelago

We had a lovely day to walk the island

Fantastic to wake up and fine a cow grazing on the grass

Our Final destination for the season was Västerås in lake Mälaren ca 45 Nm from the Lock in Södertälje.

Fantastic weather but no wind

Strängnäs a small old town at lake Mälaren.

Kerpa on her way up worked very handy

Kerpa wrapped and ready for the winter, we had some logistical issues as we had no car and nearest shop is 5 km away from Kerpa, we managed, it took us almost a week to winterize, clean and pack things that should be taken off Kerpa during the winter.

All in all, we casted off from Lagos March 23, arrived Västerås September 21. 4942 Nm, half distance by engine as we have had very little wind.

Now we are home in beautiful Lagos  

Will spend the winter planning for next adventure, which probably will take us over the Atlantic fall 2023

Lerwick

Last time we were at St Ninians Island, from there we went to Lerwick, were we spent a few days strolling around in the town,

but also spend some time on maintenance.

We had a leak from the raw water pump on our VP TMD22, I felt I had just replaced it, but figure out it was 1200 engine hours since it was replaced, hence I had not repaired my old pump! fortunately after walking around and asking different chandleries, hardware stores etc, I got a suggestion to ask a mechanical workshop who might be able to fix my pump. It was a + 40 min walk to ask if they could fix the problem (did not feel for take-off the pump before I knew if they could fix the problem). They could fix it, Great. So I had to go back to Kerpa dismantle the pump walk back with it, it would be ready after lunch time the next day!! (not usual this days with such prompt service).

Most of the day was spent walking.

The next day when I collected my pump, they said that the shaft was in bad condition, they had done what they could to fix it but could not guaranty that it would not leaking, not good. I asked them if they also could fix my old spare pump as fast, yes bring it in and I fix right away. Back to Kerpa put the pump back, luckily no leak, but did not know for how long, so I dug out the old pump, walked to the workshop again. Again, a lot of walking and time spent.

Also realize that our bilge pump did not work as it should (it must work not only for safety but water from sinks drain into the bilge and are pumped out), I had a repair kit so should not be any major issue, but it did not help, I had a spare bilge pump, it did not help!!! Ok I have to rely on my manual bilge pump, help! it did not work either, fortunately I manage to fix that rather quickly.

As we were heading for Lofoten and had found a good weather window, time was limited for maintenance . I had hoped for a day of rest after spending a few days working in the engine bay and walking back and forward to the mechanical workshop, but not, the day we cast off was spent from early morning to just before cast off to finalize the maintenance.

After finishing the last bit of work, we cast of 18:00, 9 of June, about 15 minutes of motoring then we could sail all the way to Röst, Lofoten. We had a fantastic crossing half of the time wind on the beam +/- 20 kn, so speed was very good the other half the wind eased down and came more from behind, but we were able to sail the full 564 Nm, first time ever for us to sail such a long stretch without the need for the engine.

The crossing was rather cold, but a very nice experience to notify that the nights got shorter and shorter until it became light the hole night. We celebrated to Polar  circle crossing with an Irish Coffey much better needed than a glass of Champagne, which we probably will choose when we cross the equator one day.

It took us 3½ day to reach Röst, Lofoten,

First sight of Lofoten

Röst

We arrived 13 of June 05:45 in the morning a rather gloomy day.

Röst harbour

We could not resist to have a short walk and was amassed about the vast amount of cod hanging for drying.

But it was a rather large number of fish heads also hanging to dry.

We were rather tiered after the trip, so we took a nap, when one is tiered the brain play games with you or at least me. When I woke up after a few hours of sleep, I went up in the cockpit and looked aft and found to my surprise and other Amel SM behind us, my first thought was, what is Kerpa doing there? and where am I? A few seconds later I realize it was not Kerpa, but just another Amel.

It was a French couple that we had meet before in Horta, The Azores.

Generally we did not found Röst to be a place worth spending to much time on, so a day later we decided to continue to Vaeröy.

Vaeröy

On our way to Vaeröy there were not much wind, so we stopped the engine and put down the hook, in less than 10 minutes we caught a nice size cod.

Witch Kerstin was happy to clean

Approaching Vaeröy, we aimed for an anchorage just behind the peek you see on the photo

We had a very spectacular evening there, we experienced our first encounter with the midnight sun.

The next day we went into the harbour

And had a few days of walking the island

We had some very nice views and I saw a beautiful flower, that become one of my favourites it was very common in the northern part of Norway.

Called fjällviol in Swedish, or Viola biflora-Two-flowered Violet

It was down in this bay we anchored when we first came to Vaeröy

Reine

By chance we continue up to Reine, which showed to be a very beautiful place, one of our favourite

Approaching Reine a grey afternoon, but already at distance we were intrigued by the mountains and to se snow in the middle of the summer, somethings we would continue to see in rather large amount the whole time we spent in northern Norway, might be obvious for some, but it was not for me.

Reine village is surrounded by the most beautiful mountains, it’s like a dream

A trip up to Reinebringen is demanding but rewarding

Reine is really worth a trip on its own.

Svellingen

From Reine we took a short trip to one of the few “natural” anchorage, it was rather exposed, but weather is rather calm during the summer, not much wind at all, so it become a lot of motoring

Evening view from Kerpa at anchor

And the morning offered fantastic weather and view

Midsummer

Midsummer is sacred for a Swede, and one can’t find a better place than northern Norway who offer sunshine 24h/day during the summer, we ended up at Bjakröy

Enroute to Bjarköy

Bjarköy harbour, not many boats, and a very small harbour. This is common in northern Norway, few boats and not many guest moorings. But you will notice that Norway is a rich country, most jetties are very new and of highest quality, even at very small local boat clubs. Electric installation of very high standard, but showers and washing machine were less common, even toilets were not always to be found.

Pickled herring and beer for midsummer lunch

Nice view from the lunch table

Plenty of midsummer flowers

Hamn, Senja

Another fantastic spot is Hamn on Senja, maybe we become a bit biased as we there had our first real midnight sun, one of my main objective with the trip was to experience the midnight sun.

Approaching hamn

The harbour in Hamn, so beautiful

Enjoying the evening sun together with our friend and crew Anna-Lena,

But it will become better.

Midnight

It is fantastic to feel the warmth from the sun even that the sun has passed midnight.

Not too bad to trek around Hamn.

Further North

On our way to Nordkap, which is as far north as we plan to go, we passed Tromsö, a rather large village

Again, some time to be spend on maintenance so down into the Engine pit again.

I have a leak from the oil cooler, a bit irritating and the leak was increasing so time to fix it but might be easier said than done. It is the connection between the hose and the cooler itself, to make along story short I ended up putting in a fibre washer in the connection, and it held it tight for quiet some time.

Some paper tissues wrapped around the leak to identify from where it leaks

Drainage of the oil.

It worked so we could continue north towards Honningsvåg, Nordkap.

Towards Nordkap

We had some amazing scenery on our way

But the highlight was sailing during the midnight sun

So fantastic, a dream came true for me

When close to Honningsvåg on Nordkap, the weather changed rather rapidly.

Gusting up to 40 k, and when approaching Honningsvåg, the rain came, further to our disappointment the harbour was very industrial and had no space for us, the small jetty they had was for a few days reserved for tenders servicing the cruising ships. It was only an exposed concrete quay covered with very large tractor tiers for us to moor at. To make matters worse, while manoeuvring in the harbour our bow thruster gave up. We tied up and decided next morning to head south again. All beautiful places we saw on our way south will come in next blog.

We left Stornoway for a 138 Nm overnight sail to Kirkwall, Orkney, rather strong wind with good speed but cold, so hot chocolate with a generous addition of dark rum gave comfort and warmth to the body during the night shift. We arrived Kirkwall early morning, still cold and grey weather.

Kirkwall

The town itself is rather small, but have a very impressive cathedral St Magnus Cathedral, built mid-1100s,

The bishops palace had been an impressive building as well

Kirkwall street view

Before we left, we bought some local crafted beer, as well as a bottle of local Rum, but they should stick to making beer!

Westeray

Left Kirkwall for a short trip to Pierowall harbour on Westray small place ca 24 Nm north Kirkwall

We went into Pierowall harbour which is very tiny harbour, but well protected on the north west side of Westray. We had looked forward to visit a local Pub, but no such was to find

Pierowall harbour

The disappointment was soon gone as a fishing boat came in loaded with fresh Crabs and lobsters, we bought some at one for us attractive price. 20 pounds for three large crabs and a one kg lobster, we were happy, and I got the impression that the fishermen thought we paid well too.

A feast on one Crabb and a Lobster, we saved two of the crabs to the next day.

.

We left Westray the day after for fair Isle only about 47 Nm away and the wind allowed us to sail about half of the way.

Fair Isle

Approaching Fairs Isle

We were lucky and found a free spot at the rather rough cay

There was one boat at anchor as well, but there is not much room, so I think it will be difficult to anchor another boat.

Fair Isle has two “Harbours” North and South Haven

We stayed a few days and several boats came in and for some time we had two boats outside us and the swell picked up so not 100% comfortable with the situation.

First boat outside Kerpa. I’m very surprised and a bit annoyed when other boats approach and ask if they can moore outside us, usually only 2 or 3 small fenders out not unusually also very dirty and sometimes even punctured. and then they use old sheets to more the boat with. The non stretch mooring ropes creates unpleasant jerks and squeaking sounds along fairleads and cleats. One wants to be friendly, but from now on I’m very firm, I say you are welcome to moored outside our boat if you have adequate with fenders and when they use the non-stretch mooring ropes I ask them to replace them and if they do not have that, I offer them to use some of mine ropes after informing them, that next time use proper ropes when mooring along another boat.

Fair isle is known for its abundance of birds and the most popular ones are the Puffins, so our first excursion on the island was of course to see Puffins. There were plenty of them and they were not afraid for us, so we could come very close to them.

A creative way to use old fence wire. Very nice we thought.

We wanted to take a closer look at the north lighthouse which we saw from the water when approaching North haven on fair Isle, so next trip went north

Beautiful scenery on our way north

The north Light house

Out on the cliff there is an old impressive foghorn

Time for a picnic before exploring the bird cliffs

The white stuff you see on the small cliff fare away are birds!

A few Pictures on the beautiful scenery on the way back to Kerpa

The next day we decided to go south

 and found out there is a school on Fair Isle, in total only 5 children in the school.

Fair Isle south Light House

There are a lot of Sheep on the Island

Fair Isle is a fantastic out-post, very beautiful, a very harsh place to live on and well worth a long detour to visit, but you need a reasonable good weather forecast, the wind and weather shift rapidly in Scotland, so one has to be prepared for rough weather, the harbour will probably be untenable at moderate wind as swell build rather quick, however Fair Isle is not fare away from reasonable shelter either at Orkney or going north to Shetland Islands (n.b. Fair Isle is part of Shetland Islands) which will be our Next stop on St Ninians Island a wonderful place