Over the North Sea, Shetland, Orkney.

Dear Friends and Allies of The Orkney Boat,

The Orkney Boat has returned to the land from which we set out. 

In Trondheim the mornings have the quality of appearing to be early long after they have ceased to be. We left the fjord-side in dawn light to meet our homeward bound vessel in Buvika. 

I had met Davie Meddes quite by chance, in a quayside pub in Orkney, on the May evening before setting sail for Bergen. Unbeknownst to me, earlier that afternoon he had seen The Orkney Boat in Stromness harbour, unattended and waiting to be stowed on The Swan. (Not so) secretly he had stood in the footprints and become interested in the story. And so followed his amazingly generous offer, to join his crew and family as they sailed south along the Norwegian coastline, and return The Orkney Boat by sea when the time came. 

For two days we fought our way south with the wind directly on our nose. The stone and trailer were lashed to the deck, the trailer becoming satisfyingly rusty in the salt air and the rain. No-one could doubt now that it had made a sea voyage. During a night in Måløy harbour and a briefing about how we would tackle the following days in the North Sea, Davie prepared me for a potential abrupt departure of the stone, should things get too difficult out there. He was expecting a tumultuous crossing; the winds were expected to come round to suit us, at high speeds. He would take over the 12-4 watch to save too much struggling in the dark, and we would all be clipped on when on deck to avoid any man overboard crises in the pitch black. Mildly appalled at the suggestion that we might have to lose the stone at sea, I supposed that if the stone decided to work itself loose and return to the North Sea it might be a rather poetic end to our journey together. It took three further days, on a permanent port tack, heeled hard to starboard in rough seas of 4 metre waves to get to Shetland. (During this time there were some valiant attempts at porridge making below deck, many bouts of sickness and all the soft fruit on board was more or less annihilated.) Having put a fourth reef in at 4am, to temper the 35 knot gusts, the main sail was about the size of a king-sized bedsheet, yet still we were rocketing along under sail at 8 knots. Happily no-one was entirely lost to sea sickness, conditions calmed down on approach to Shetland and the stone remained firmly in contact with the deck. 

Here we are in Orkney again, 82 days since we departed these shores. The Orkney Boat has not quite made it to the right portion of coastline yet, since we still have the last few miles between Orphir and Kirkwall to walk together. Do join us at 10.00 on September 7th for the opening talk of the Orkney International Science Festival by travel writer Christopher Somerville and the final steps with The Orkney Boat.

Thank you Davie, Gill, Mathieu, Tess and Aaron for returning us home.
Antony and Ross thank you, as ever, for just being on hand for everything.