Bow Light

My bow light packed in on day one of the trip (overnight sail from Portsoy to Clachnaharry). It was a Lalizas FOS 20m LED unit - completely sealed - and it started to flash rather than stay on. It was about four years old.

I've replaced it with a Helas lamp plus an LED bulb - more conventional and more repairable.

It's a bit exposed, so I tried making a cage for it. Not an aesthetic triumph, but it will do for a week or two. I learned from the failure and have a better plan.

Home Again

From Stroma, we caught the last of the flood round Duncansby head and anchored in Sinclair's Bay. Here is the Duncansby race in calm conditions (4 knts through the water, and 8 over the ground):

From Sinclair's Bay we motored (again) back to Lossiemouth, passing through the Beatrice Field and the Smith Bank wind farm:

A nice sailing breeze from the East sprung up as we were putting out the ropes and fenders ...

Stroma

From Thurso Bay, we motored across to Stroma. I had been motoring for much of the way from the Summer Isles - clement weather has its drawbacks.

Entering Stroma harbour was a bit tricky - it's tiny, and there is a considerable eddy current just outside it. We chose to go in an hour or so before high water, and then let the boat dry out.

While we were there I got a chance to grease the prop, replace its anode, and check the CopperCoat (which looks pretty good, I think ..)

Stroma was abandoned in the early 1960s, just after the harbour was built. Local folklore has it that the wages from building the harbour financed the final exodus ...

Kinlochbervie to Talmine

Another trip I've done before. Here's a phone video of Cape Wrath - I should have used the GoPro (if it seems a bit long, skip to nearer the end when the cliffs of the North Coast appear):

On other visits to Talmine, I've anchored behind Rabbit Island. This time, I wanted to go ashore, so anchored in the bay:

I had to leave earlier than expected - my son was due to join me, but his bus arrived late in Thurso and he missed the connection to Talmine. There were only two buses a week, so far as we could see online.

I decided to head through to Scrabster, where I picked him up late in the evening before anchoring in Thurso bay. (Mean or what?)