Page 17 - SOA 109

Round Britain 2007

Next day calm seas saw us motoring past John O’Groats, and “the merry
Men of Mae”, a particularly nasty current that goes to the Orkneys, but
the Wick harbourmaster’s advice was good and we had no problems,
though you could feel Zig Zag being pulled and see the distinct line of
current in the water.
After a night in Scrabster, overcast skies and an F4-5 Easterly gave us a
chance around Cape Wrath. Live firing was scheduled on the range there
but the weather was too bad for the RAF and we were able to motor sail
through the range, keeping an eye out for low flying aircraft just in case!
th
The wind gusted to 35 knots rounding the cape, and by 1845 on the 20
June we were happy to be alongside a very tall harbour wall at

Kyleakin Harbour and the Bridge to The Isle of Skye

Kinlochbervie on the West coast of Scotland. Dinner, fish and chips of
course, at the local fisherman’s mission.

This was our first experience of mooring alongside a piled quay and we
had to improvise a fender board by taking a length of timber from an old
pallet – which served us for the whole of the rest of the trip.
nd
The 22 saw us at Flowerdale Bay, Loch Gairloch, very pretty, and tied up
ahead of another round Britain voyager from the Up River YC, on the
Crouch. We stopped at Kyleakin near the Bridge to the Isle of Skye for 3
nights as strong winds were again forecast, and had a bus trip around the
Isle.
We had been fortunate with the weather, as far as excessive wind and
rain went, but it was cold in Scotland with morning temperatures at 10 or
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