The Stack

An entire blog post about one hour of sailing.

We were tacking away from Scotland when I arrived  for the 9pm-midnight watch.  David suggested tacking before long to get back on a bearing that actually "makes good" some ground towards our destination (at the moment we're almost at right angles to our desired course).

I looked at the angles to Cape Wrath (great name!) and decided to keep on tack out past some rocks, the main one called Sule Skerry with a light on it and a smaller (though no less dangerous) rock called Skerry Stacks with no light on it.  Thus the course when I tacked would be well clear of Cape Wrath, which is generally regarded as a "Good Thing".  The depths were more than 50m even a short distance from the rocks, so no concerns there.  My plan was to sail between and tack after I was far enough past Skerry Stacks that my new course would be a safe distance from it.

Remember I can see exactly where I am on the chart plotter but the "Stack" is invisible, it's pitch black out there.  It was a bit nerve wracking to watch our position crawl slowly along to the chosen point.  The waves seemed to get rough and unpredictable as I went past, they must have been diffracting around and interfering.  I chose to go about alone.  David offered to help just as I was about to execute and he'd be available "soon" so I decided to do it myself.  I muffed the tack a bit and found my self passing closer to the Stack than I'd calculated, the wind had changed a bit too.  My adrenaline levels are right up there as I'm watching how things play out.  David and Martin turned up just then. Martin took stock of the situation and seemed surprised, "Oh, that's the Stack!  Too bad it's not light enough to see it go past!".  Right about now I'm starting to feel better about our course and my plan to jump to the engine, get it started, and steer away might not be necessary.  Mind you, the next 10-15 minutes while we sailed past the Stack were still tense in case the wind changed.  Martin muttered something to that effect and went down on the galley to make a cuppa.  Good man in a emergency, Martin, keeps his cool. I couldn't resist moving to the back of the cockpit, to try and see it in the darkness.  A huge mass of black rock, apparently a bird sanctuary, about 200m away?!

So, I document a number of questionable decisions but basically I shouldn't have gone past Skerry Stack, I should have tacked early.  The desire to stay clear of Cape Wrath is good but that's many hours away, who knows what the wind would do by then.  I would have avoided an hour of stress.  I was relived (in both ways) of my watch and collapsed into bed at midnight in three layers of clothing.