The full story of the Orkney cruise will no doubt regale us through the long winter hours: of strong winds that become gales in the retelling; breaking waves that became bigger than houses, fierce tidal rips (true) and chambered cairns into which you could disappear and eat your lunch (also true).
For now just a selection of photos will suffice to give a taste of what John O called an 8/10 cruise, which is high praise. Not all plain sailing; fast pasages, mainly with the wind and some tricky tidal calculations to avoid the tidal maelstroms that are a feature of the islands. And a fair degree of sunshine. Many islands conquered, including the seldom visited Eynhallow and tiny Auskerry, and many brochs and cairns and castles explored.
And all returned safely: Twister, Mollymawk, Goldseeker and Hestur.
Participants: John, Heather, Karen, Adrian, Shona and Finn (Twister); Paul, Seumas, Kate (Mollymawk); Scott, Robyn (Goldseeker) and a bunch of hungry-looking pirates on a blue schooner by the name of Hestur (Dan, Ash, John and Charlotte).
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With rain forecast Twister wishes she also had a couple of nice umbrellas
like Hestur's |
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| Goldseeker, the fleet's mothership, powers up with the day's beer supplies |
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| Two Vegas having a little quality time. Bless... |
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| Mollymawk creeps up on an unsuspecting Twister |
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The Hon Sec strides on, oblivious to the fact Mollymawk is dragging
towards Iceland (not true) |
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| John checks out the design of Finn's new kennel. Finn is impressed |
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| Paul's manually operated wind vane self steering gear: called Seumas |
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| We've found a big one. Actually the biggest in Orkney |
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| Another day another church, this time on... what was its name? |
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Seumas, Paul and Kate watching the camera
seconds before running aground (not true) |
