Kirkwall (Capital of Orkney)
I hit the jackpot in Kirkwall when I moored Good Dog next to a friendly yacht whose skipper turned out to be the recently retired Harbour Master of the whole of Orkney! You can imagine - my notebook went into overdrive!
Kirkwall is the 'capital' of Orkney and there is far too much history to record here, suffice to say this town of 7,000 people has its own cathedral founded in 1137 and an Orcadian, Henry Sinclair, arguably "discovered" America 100 years before Christopher Columbus! Sailing into Kirkwall we passed Westray House (Photo 4) on Rousay Island - home of John Traill of '45 rebellion fame. Photo 8 is the chapel built by Italian prisoners of war who built the famous Churchill barriers to protect Scapa Flow in WW2. There is SO much history here!
Brian Archibald was HM (and more) of this incredible archipelago for 8 years and is very modest about his achievements. When he started, the port (of Scapa Flow) had just 11 oil tankers operating, no ship-to-ship operations, 65 cruise ship visits and made a £2 million loss. In his final full year, the service saw 36 oil tankers, 165 cruise liners visit, 66 ship-to-ship operations and made a surplus of £6 million. More about oil and Scapa Flow later.
Brian captivated my crew and me with so many stories.
- How Razor Clams are flown live to China.
- How wind farm electricity is being stored using new Hydrogen technology.
- About underwater turbines.
- About the Orkney / Scandi / Mainland triangle that attracts over 1,000 yachts each year.
- The fact that Orkney is the busiest Cruise Liner destination in the UK.
- And more significantly that each cruise passenger creates £57 of wealth fo the whole island.
- About the cargo ship that sank with all hands in 2015 in the notorious Pentland Firth.
- .....and much much more to be covered in my next posts!
Thank you very much Brian for all your information, advice about sailing these tricky waters and for your very generous donation to SeafarersUK! Thank you also to Craig the local reporter who was also the Lifeboat despatcher and Leesa who ran Orkney Marinas as a charity.
Kirkwall is the 'capital' of Orkney and there is far too much history to record here, suffice to say this town of 7,000 people has its own cathedral founded in 1137 and an Orcadian, Henry Sinclair, arguably "discovered" America 100 years before Christopher Columbus! Sailing into Kirkwall we passed Westray House (Photo 4) on Rousay Island - home of John Traill of '45 rebellion fame. Photo 8 is the chapel built by Italian prisoners of war who built the famous Churchill barriers to protect Scapa Flow in WW2. There is SO much history here!
Brian Archibald was HM (and more) of this incredible archipelago for 8 years and is very modest about his achievements. When he started, the port (of Scapa Flow) had just 11 oil tankers operating, no ship-to-ship operations, 65 cruise ship visits and made a £2 million loss. In his final full year, the service saw 36 oil tankers, 165 cruise liners visit, 66 ship-to-ship operations and made a surplus of £6 million. More about oil and Scapa Flow later.
Brian captivated my crew and me with so many stories.
- How Razor Clams are flown live to China.
- How wind farm electricity is being stored using new Hydrogen technology.
- About underwater turbines.
- About the Orkney / Scandi / Mainland triangle that attracts over 1,000 yachts each year.
- The fact that Orkney is the busiest Cruise Liner destination in the UK.
- And more significantly that each cruise passenger creates £57 of wealth fo the whole island.
- About the cargo ship that sank with all hands in 2015 in the notorious Pentland Firth.
- .....and much much more to be covered in my next posts!
Thank you very much Brian for all your information, advice about sailing these tricky waters and for your very generous donation to SeafarersUK! Thank you also to Craig the local reporter who was also the Lifeboat despatcher and Leesa who ran Orkney Marinas as a charity.