Burra Voe, South end of Yell

Last Thursday we had to get out of Scalloway to find shelter from a forecast gale from the east. We shot over to Skeld, only 5 miles away, and rode it out. Ashore we found the UK's northernmost cheese factory a one man operation processing local cow and goat milk. Very tasty too. On Saturday we sailed north and west to the remote Island of Papa Stour (Island of the Priests). Viking history recounts that there were Celtic monks there in the 6th Century. If so, they must have been a hardy lot. Even the sheep had to lean sideways to stay upright in the wind on the western side. The next day we sailed around the wild western side of the island where the constant pounding of the North Atlantic waves on the 200ft+ high cliffs has created an amazing display of arches, caves and stacks. The wind was 15 knots from the NW and the swells had been building for several days, so the whole scene was one of unrelenting force - crashing waves, white spray against black cliffs, deeply troubled waters, and above wheeling birds, pure whites and blacks against the blue sky. The flood tide was against us, but soon it changed and we carried the ebb up the coast and around the north end of Mainland Shetland Island. Great sailing. Close reach, small genoa, and two reefs, but it was a long tiring, though memorable, day and a relief to get onto the leeside of the Island and into a quiet anchorage.

Today were took advantage of the morning flood tide to run down the Sound of Yell where the tide can run up to 7 knots between the scattering of islands and reefs. Around the Shetlands you have to go with the tide. Sometimes it can run at 7 knots at "springs" and the overfalls at headlands etc. can be awful. The Sound is well marked and charted as it is the route for tanker traffic taking oil out of Sullom Voe Oil Terminal which is the landing point of a pipeline from the North Sea Piper Oil field. At times we were making over 10 knots over the ground even though all we had up was the small genoa with the wind behind us.

From here we plan to sail north up to the north end of the Island of Unst where we have heard there are some interesting museums displaying the boats and times of the booming herring fishery in the late 1800's. At the north end of Unst is Muckle Flugga, the northernmost point of the UK.