Old Man of Hoy

Sailing out on a gentle southerly breeze past The Old Man of Hoy... heading for Loch Eriboll... 


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Sailing Round the Top

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Wow! After so much thinking and planning and buying a yacht and upgrading it and sailing (almost) round the UK last year, today was a fantastic day. We motored out of Stromness to catch the tail end of the westerly-going flow, just so that we could escape from the Hoy Sound without a roost (rough water overfall). We motor sailed for a couple of hours in a feeble east south easterly breeze. It was brilliant to sail past The Old Man of Hoy, one of the most famous, exciting and inaccessible rock climbs in Britain. But then the wind picked up and backed to become an east north easterly blowing around 14 knots and gaining so we ran for eight hours at an increasing speed. By the time we came close to our destination of Loch Eriboll we added a bit of tidal flow in our favour and hit 9.1 knots of speed. This is comparable to a fast runner but us sailors get excited whenever the speed goes beyond a fast walk. As we sailed into the wider section of Loch Eriboll, Mark was enjoying himself on th...
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