Thursday 19 May. Balfour to Ingerness bay off mainland. 5 nm

It’s okay, we only intended to come here today….a short hop and then another tomorrow round to Lamb Holm. Then onto Wick and mainland Scotland the following day🤞🏻. We were glad of our substantial chain bridle overnight as the wind strength got up to 40 knots ! A leisurely start with sun blazing through the bedroom cabin curtains . The calm water of yesterday evening had disappeared and will probably be remembered as the only few hours we had in Orkney, with no wind! However a nice morning of reading and doing little. We set off about 1300 to make our way east. Our destination Ingerness bay on mainland Orkney. As we were only going a short distance we just motored, which at least meant we could make a bit of hot water. Trixie ( our windmill ) charges the batteries, which keeps the fridge going and all the domestics .. lights etc; but not hot water. We had to just cross “The String” a narrow stretch of water leading into Kirkwall. The wind was only 15 knots but the swell was significant with the tide going East. Glad it wasn’t more. These Orkney waters are certainly challenging. We turned into Ingerness bay and picked our spot for anchoring, basically into the wind and in the most sheltered spot we thought. Near the beach in the SE corner. Very near an old wreck 😳 and under the flight path to the airport! The chart doesn’t have a little ⚓️ sign in this bay, a psychological barrier! However the anchor went down and bit with no problem. A sandy bottom. Unfortunately then the wind got up to gusts of 25 knots and we had a few uncomfortable hours until it settled down at 7 ish . I just went to bed as the noise and motion of the constant wind is debilitating . On cue and consistent with the forecast, the wind finally dropped to about 15 knots which feels comfortable. Think our threshold has increased! I cooked quiche, broccoli and carrots for supper and now we’re just sitting up in the cockpit with the French windows closed ( plus draught excluders) , until Gordon Ramsey thing comes on TV at 9pm.

Thanks to our wonderful house sitter, our SIM cards are in the post and probably waiting for us at Wick. Until then I’m going to post the pics separately from my phone.

Sue x

What I learned today………… what a huge difference just 5 knots of wind can make to one’s comfort!