BLUEMOMENT

Spent a wonderful week diving in Scapa flow in the Orkneys last week. Not strictly sailing, but some sailing links, and all pretty much boaty.

Old man of Hoy, from the ferry


Historic well in Stromness


6" gun on the WWII cruiser 'F2'


Stromness sunrise:


Lyness (Hoy) museum


Stunning multiscan image of HMS Royal Oak.


October diving:


Stromness German exhibits:


Nervous crossing of the Churchill barriers


View from the Ferry on the way back:


We also visited the ring of Brodgar and Skara Brae. A lovely week, and we'd definitely go back.

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Nice pix. Is that you diving in short sleeves?

Nick wrote:.
Nice pix. Is that you diving in short sleeves?

Nope, that was a friend, and, according to him, after 40 years of diving, that was his last.

He and his wife dived the whole week in wetsuits. Braver than I.

Nice pictures.

One of these years I'll sail to Orkney. Anyone know if you can tie up anywhere near the museum in Lyness? I'd love to go and see it.

Rowana wrote:Nice pictures.

One of these years I'll sail to Orkney. Anyone know if you can tie up anywhere near the museum in Lyness? I'd love to go and see it.

It's only a day sail for you - very surprised you haven't been. We were just talking of going back there yesterday - especially if we fit a heater this Winter!

There is a wharf at Lyness. I can't say that you could definitely tie up there, but as I understand it, many of the dive boats tie up for an hour between dives, so maybe you can. You can see it, though not very well, behind the guy's head in this picture.



The museum is well worth a visit. My missis was in tears at some of the stories. Stromness museum is more of a general maritime museum, and we spent a couple of hours in there. They even had a sabre from a chap who sailed with Bligh on the Bounty. Marvellous, if you like anything to do with the sea.

There is a small set of pontoons at Stromness, and we saw a couple of yachts having great sailing.

We really fancied the Orkneys as an area to sail - it was so calm, even with F6 and F7. There looked to be lots of places you could anchor, and I'd love to visit some of the beaches on the outside of the islands. The one we saw at Skara Brae looked stunning.

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Orkney is great for sailing. The marina at Stronmess is excellent, as is the one at Kirkwall. There is also a wee marina on Westray, and loads of piers to tie up to elsewhere. It was unfortunately mostly grey and freezing when we were up there in July 2005 and we only stayed a couple of weeks, but we do want to go back. Lots of good sailing, challenging tides, sheltered waters and as much wildlife, prehistoric tomb-crawling and ruin-exploring as anyone could want.

























Check out Orkney Marinas for more info on sailing in Orkney

We're going to have to bite the bullet and sail up one year. We did our day skipper at Oban when we started, and keep on saying we'd come back. There are so many places we know through diving, but have never sailed. It's so much easier than down here, with the smaller tides, and so much shelter from bad weather.

We had an all-too-brief trip to Orkney last summer. Barely scratched the surface, in part due to being stuck in Stromness (a nice place to be stuck, though) for five days, which was half of our time used up in one go. We hired a car for a day, after we'd run out of things to do in Stromness, although upon visiting Scara Brae found it was closed due to poor weather (!)

The sailing was quite exciting. Flying across Scapa at 9kt (thanks to being at mid-tide) was a bit of a shock to the system- the buoys come up very quickly.

Nick, can I suggest that your fifth picture(appropriately called 5.jpg) would make a cracking calendar picture?
They are all lovely though.

Pete Cooper wrote:Nick, can I suggest that your fifth picture(appropriately called 5.jpg) would make a cracking calendar picture?
They are all lovely though.

What are you suggesting?

Pete Cooper wrote:Nick, can I suggest that your fifth picture(appropriately called 5.jpg) would make a cracking calendar picture?

I think it has already been one . . .

I've a nice sombre November pic in preparation, should be up in the next half hour or so.