Shetland



Shetland, for us, feels very much home from home, having both spent time here with work previously.  It is a lovely group of islands, super friendly and with a huge amount of landscape sass!  The rolling greenery ends abruptly at almost corner, with huge vertical cliffs hewn into the land, imposing, towering, looming and yet, when you look more closely, their nooks and crannies are the comforting home to a range of intrepid seabirds - puffins, guillemots, razorbills, fulmars.  It really is magical.

We set sail from Pierowall, Orkney, on the 20th May with the sun rising on the horizon.  Evolene settled into a comfortable close reach on port tack after leaving the shelter of the Islands and Stuart and I settled into a watch rhythm of approximately two hours each.  Thankfully we managed to complete most of the crossing like this but we knew that the northwesterly wind of the earlier hours of the day would gradually veer round to being on the nose and sure enough, a couple of hours from Sumburgh head (the southernmost tip of Shetland mainland) we had to start motor sailing.  It was bouncy, with a swell of about three metres, but Evolene rode the peaks and troughs with her usual calm finesse, even when the occasional wave broke over the sprayhood, causing Stuart and I to dip our heads for cover!

Dawn departure

Sumburgh Head, marking our arrival in Shetland

The anchor for the night was in Channerwick - a bay on the east side of Shetland mainland, approximately halfway between Sumburgh head and Lerwick - and delightfully protected from the persistent northerly winds we were experiencing.  We dug in the anchor and then settled in for a relaxing evening aboard and an incredibly restful sleep that night!

Channerwick - three boats makes it busy for Shetland!


With the northerlies forecasted to continue, followed by quite a significant depression passing through, there was no urgency to head up to Lerwick and so we decided to stay put for the following evening (and the evening after that as it turned out!).  Stuart cracked on with some boat jobs - renewing the electrical connections to the VHF aerial - whilst I did some boat cleaning, using magic sponges to polish up the cockpit.  We were very kindly invited to an old friend's for dinner (and showers - double bonus!) and in preparation I decided to bake some chocolate muffins.  These need a bit of finessing (and I won't share the photos of the galley mess explosion I created in the process!) but at least the second batch, which was less muffin and one single cake layer, turned out vaguely presentable!  We dinghied ashore and enjoyed another lovely evening, catching up with Elizabeth and her family, whom we hadn't seen in over five years but felt like time hadn't shifted at all.  

The next day we decided to have a 'holiday day'!  We resigned ourselves to the fact that, due to the weather, we weren't going anywhere quickly (nor indeed needed to go anywhere quickly!) and settled into a truly decadent day of not doing much at all!  We bobbed around at anchor, reading, building lego, playing the tin whistle, eating chocolate muffins for breakfast, and watching the wildlife around us.  A juvenile diver - bird, not human - (we reckon Great Northern) was industriously fishing beside us, at one point emerging from its dive with a small fish (likely sand eel) visibly held in its beak before it was gulped down. 

The rhythm of sailing is wholly dependent on the conditions around us and one of its qualities that I find so endearing.  You can't ever force it and, in a world where everything is designed to be immediately accessible at the click of an app, I love the simplicity and permission that comes with waiting.

And, that is where we find ourselves currently.  We are nestled into the harbour at Lerwick, waiting out the current weather and depression about to pass over us in the next couple of days, along with around five or six other boats with similar intentions to ourselves of crossing to Norway.

Lazy days in Lerwick

I gave the interior of the boat a particularly thorough clean yesterday (including the deckheads (ceilings)!), did a further provisioning run with Elizabeth and her husband, Steve's help (the car makes all the difference in transporting heavy and bulky items - thanks so much, both!), and Stuart has been tackling some varnishing!

In addition, we belatedly celebrated one month aboard with the treat of take away fish and chips, and champagne - what a combination!

 

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