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Mute Swan’sNest
Login’s Well, Stromness
Stromness Harbour
We crossed to the east side of Scapa Flow and briefly looked in to St Margaret’s Hope, the Orkney terminal of the John o’ Groats high speed ferry. Although the village is attractive, the anchorage is less so, being very shallow and requiring lying a fair way off it. Burray has a well sheltered bay close to one of the Churchill Barriers. There is a good walk round to Hunda Sound and back by the Ayre, where swans are nesting. St Mary’s Bay gave another nice anchorage once we got the anchor to set in the gravelly bottom. We spent two nights in the welcoming Stromness marina. The town was very busy with the Folk Festival, with virtually all events sold out, but there was a good afternoon session outside the Ferry Inn. The excellent little museum has lots of interest regarding the whaling trade, the Hudson’s Bay Co and John Rae, the under-recognised Arctic explorer, discoverer of the final link in the North West passage and the fate of the lost Franklin Expedition. We are now in Kirkwall, looking forward to the arrival of Innes and Janice for a short holiday with us.