My Hand on the Tiller

Back across the Minch we visit anchorages in and around the Isle of Skye. One of my favourites is South Rona just north of Raasay. South Rona, (not to be confused with North Rona which is over 100 miles away in the North Atlantic) is a completely deserted island which was inhabited until 1919. The reason for the population leaving the island is thought to be the scarcity of water. The island is rocky and treeless and it is difficult to imagine anyone trying to make a living there as crofting and agriculture would seem to be almost impossible. I remember as a child visiting South Rona and exploring the old village. Many of the cottages were still standing and there were even items left in some. There were bibles in the church pews and slates on the schoolhouse desks. It was as if the people had suddenly disappeared into thin air. The anchorage Acarsaid Mor on the west side is very sheltered, indeed the world voyaging yachtsman Eric Hiscock described it as the best small boat anchorage he had ever visited when he cruised here in Wanderer III.

From Chapter 7 Classic Yachts

On the Friday it blew hard and racing for the smaller boats was cancelled. Altair and Adix made a spectacular sight as they had their own private duel. There was also an historic contest between old and modern America’s Cup challengers. Endeavour and Ville de Paris battled it out in a match race to establish how fast the modern America’s Cup Class design was compared to the 58 year old “J” class boat. Many assumed the result would be a foregone conclusion in favour of the new design but upwind Endeavour had a significant lead. Downwind, Endeavour with a crew of 50 on board set her 13,455 square foot spinnaker, nicknamed the “planetarium” as it is covered with stars but the lighter, smaller Ville de Paris pulled ahead and beat her to the finish. It was a spectacular sight and I had a good view of the start and finish along with the huge crowd on the harbour wall.

From Chapter 8 Tall Ships

The next day, Saturday was disappointing. The sea was like glass and it was warm and sunny, The Christian Radich passed us far away to port where she had a light breeze and the Statsraad Lehmkuhl crossed ahead of us on starboard tack. Ships do come together in a calm; it was amazing that after 600 miles we were all so close. The race was now on again in earnest and we were all keyed up to beat the others. We tacked again three times during the night in light airs and hoped our superior windward performance would pay off.  Gradually the wind increased again and during one tack the topgallant brace got jammed in the lead block, as the brace had not been properly flaked out on deck before tacking, which was not helped by dozens of cadets running over it. There was a lot of strong language from the bosun and others and we listened intently to see if we had learned anything at our Russian lesson! A sweepstake was held for the finishing time; we expected to finish early on Monday morning. I estimated that if the wind held we would finish around 04.15.