We arrived back onboard Wednesday evening, took a quick inventory of stores and headed to the nearest Tesco and Aldi. Almost £500 and half a van load later we arrived back to the marina with too much rice and pasta as per usual! But at least this time we had an array of Tesco special offers including some gin and rum. Once all stored we hit the bunk as we had an early start in the morning when Pete the local rigger came along to install the cutter furling.

The day turned out to be a proper Scottish windy and rain day but we fought on and by the evening we managed to hoist up the furling to find we were short a few inches! Luckily Pete had some more 12mm wire at his workshop and we made a plan to retry in the morning. Friday brought even more wind but less rain and a few hours later the furling was up and tensioned. I’ve been trying to eliminate mast pump upwind in waves and hoping that this cutter with a better angle than the baby stay will stiffen the mast along with the check stays.

With Lia ready for sea we waited for the tide to turn and wind to ease off so we’d reduce the chances of Lia being introduced to another boat while manoeuvring out of the marina! Around 2030 we cast off and motored out into the Moray Firth once again.

A nice evening motoring out the firth as the wind dropped off gave a chance for Beth to practice helming out the channel without using electronics or chart plotter and relying on the channel bouys and leading lights. Ordinarily a simple exercise but made quite difficult here due to surrounding shore lights and even the local airport. She managed well and gained some more confidence. Although our definition of “close to the red bouy” varied a lot! After a hot chocolate and some star gazing we began watches.

The night was uneventful as the wind dropped of completely before picking up from the south west. By first light we had 10 to 15 knots and were sailing nicely along the coast past Wick and on to round John O Groats and the Duncansby head lighthouse. The wind veered west as we entered the Pentland firth and we held a close hauled course to just make the the southern tip of the island of Hoy. No real issues crossing the firth but there was a few reminders of how strong the currents are and how they decide where the boat is going! We passed along the west of Hoy touching 9 knots with help from the currents and once past the Old Man of Hoy we set course for Torshavn.

The wind stayed west for most of the night and Sunday morning it disappeared and left us motoring again. This was my fifth time crossing this sea between Scotland and Faroe, each time including this one there is a strange feeling to the how the boat travels through the water. The Norwegian sea and the Atlantic meet here and there is also some influence from the North Sea. It really is a strange feeling through the hull, hard to explain but a fair number of people I have met have the same experience. Its just unsettled water. Even in the light winds we had later on. After another fifteen hours on my poor engine and one fan belt later we arrived around 2300 in dense fog into Torshavn were Asha and Mark form Altor of Down were waiting to take our lines. We had met Asha and Mark last year and it was great catching up again. Oddly enough last year a few miles out from Torshavn the fan belt also split!