Practical Boat Owner – May 2018

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CRUISING NOTES

breakers develop rapidly in heavy weather.
Light south-westerly winds meant we
had a calm motor-sail, reaching Boreray
and the high sea stacks that surround this
island group by 1700. We gazed in
wonder at the gannets, fulmars, puffins,
shearwaters and petrels using the rocks to
rear their young. Concentrated here, 40
miles west of the Hebrides, are most of
the largest colonies of seabirds in western
Europe. Bird numbers are estimated at
roughly a million and have earned these
islands World Heritage Site status.
On the final five-mile trip to Hirta and our
anchorage in Village Bay, the air above
was so thick with birdlife that Clive and I
joked about a ‘proper’ St Kildian breakfast
menu: gugga (air dried Gannet) pan-fried
in seal oil, puffin eggs, plus an extra side
of sea-salt bladderwrack salad (seaweed)
with a garnish of baked bonxi (giant skua)
beaks. A salty bird selection, indeed.
After a gentle night at anchor we awoke
to see sportscotland’s yacht, Somerled,
part of Cumbrae’s Hebridean cruising
programme, just departing the harbour. It
was good to see a boat I’d chosen for my
old sailing centre still going well. They
were departing while we went ashore to
visit Hirta.
Tuesday is personnel and resupply day
on the island with the helicopter whizzing
twice to and fro from Benbecula. Clive and
Stuart were lucky enough to meet one of
the three wardens on their walk up the
hills. The warden was collecting skua
pellets to analyse their diet and mentioned
that, as well as the usual sea birds, this
year they’d seen two falcons – a peregrine
and a merlin – plus an owl and, quite
unusually, five red phalaropes.
We spent another good night at anchor
before leaving on a fast sail back, once
again enjoying the company of a slightly

SCOTLAND

N

Little

Minch

Atlantic

Ocean Sound ofHarris

Loch

Scavaig

Loch

Bracadale

Loch

Coruisk

Cope

Passage

Leverburgh

Channel

Arisaig

RUM

BENBECULA

SKYE

SOUTH

UIST

EIGG

CANNA

BARRA

SOAY

Lochmaddy

Leverburgh

Orbost

Lochboisdale

Village

Bay

HIRTA

ST KILDA

BORERAY

DUN

SOAY

nautical miles

0 2

ST KILDA

NORTH

UIST

HARRIS

nautical miles

0 20

larger and livelier pod of

dolphins. On our return trip

we used the more northern,

deeper, Leverburgh

Channel through the Sound

of Harris to Lochmaddy,

where we enjoyed a fine

meal ashore of scallops

and black pudding.

The next day was the first

of two gentle daysails using

the gennaker. The first was

to Loch Bracadale, dropping anchor at a

lovely anchorage close to Orbost where

we watched a sea eagle being mobbed

by a buzzard. The next was to the

amazing inshore Loch Coruisk, which is

linked via a narrow channel to the

northern end of Loch Scavaig via a quick

pit stop in the north of Soay to the site of

Gavin Maxwell’s old shark factory.

Unfortunately, the engine stopped while

leaving Loch Bracadale, and we

discovered the starboard fuel tank was

empty. It took Clive and I some time to

clear a blocked fuel line and re-bleed the

engine, but we finished a fine cruise with a

fast sail back to Arisaig.

This was my second visit to this amazing

island group. If you ever have a chance to

visit St Kilda or anywhere quite remote by

yacht, try and grab it with both hands.

BELOW Stuart with a

World War I gun on

Hirta, Tintin anchored

in the bay

ABOVE Thousands of

seabirds on Boreray

LEFT Village Bay, Hirta