4 Kidneys and a Wonky Leg

Having safely sailed through the Pentland Firth, we are now ahead of schedule. Sunday we look a rest day, well if doing the laundry and going for a long walk is resting, then that’s what we did. The weather over the last week and looking forward, didn’t bode well to sail to the Orkneys as part of the trip. However we still wanted to visit.

On Monday we look a trip via the ferry from John O’ Groats over to the islands, where we took a days’ coach tour to various places of interest:-

The Italian chapel, which was built by italian prisoners of war out of a nissen hut during their internment in WW2. Every part of it built from scrounged materials, apart from the nissen hut of course.

Scara Brae. A 5700 year old settlement discovered when a ferocious storm in 1850 washed away the sand dunes that had covered it for thousands of years. Then Skail house, the home of William Watt, the local Laird on whose land Scara Brae sat. Fascinating to see the level of complexity of these very old structures.

We passed over several “churchill” barriers which are a series of roadways joining the Islands around Scapa flow. In October 1939 a german U boat penetrated the Royal Navy’s defences of Scapa Flow and sank the Battleship “The Royal Oak.” After the sinking, Winston Churchill ordered the barricades to be built thus sealing off the eastern approaches to Scapa Flow. The added bonus was that roads were built on top of the barricades linking several Islands together.

Stone Ring of Brodga, Orkney’s Stonehenge

Also a lunchbreak in Stromness and a shopping break in Kirkwall made for a very long day.

But then came the ferry ride back. By the late afternoon the wind had been blowing fresh at F5 all day and the dragon had stirred. As we left harbour we were warned not to take camera’s out on the outer decks because of the amount of sea spray that would be considerable. Sure enough for the first 15 minutes it was rough. The 200 ton ferry rolled badly as it pounded it’s way through the tidal rips of the outer sound, waves pounded the sides and several people not used to such motions were soon looking or being ill. The cabin sounded like a roller coaster with a mixture of nervous laughter and screams as we pitched and rolled. We could see why the almanac paints such a dire picture, it wasn’t actually all that windy. We’re so glad we made it through when we did!

The Wessex Kidney Patients Association is a charity that helps patients and their families deal with the upheaval caused by Kidney disease. If you enjoy reading our blog please consider giving to this cause . Many thanks Louise & Martin