Nice new berth…
The rest of the country seems to have ground to a halt with the falling of some snow, upto 6 inches in some places. We have a couple of inches, with much more forecast over the next few days, but it seems to be very matter of fact - Oh yeah, its going to snow….so what. A couple of years ago Hazel had to dig the road out of the farm with the tractor! I guess its all relative, bad weather elsewhere is ok weather up here. Face it, anything less than a force 10 is only a bit breezy by some Orcadian standards!
We head down to Stromness to shift the boat from where it lay on the ice-plant pier, an exposed area in the harbour to where Bob had been tied up. He has headed off south to get the Halton re-painted on the slip and so will be away for a few weeks. A double spring is used to get us off the pier as the wind seems to be intent on holding us fast, but as i let go of the rope it catches on the fixings for one of the fenders on the pier. Panic as no amount of tugging or shaking the rope will allow it to run free and let me pull it in! Bollocks! One of the guys from the fishermans society saves the day and feeds the line through for us. We manoever into the middle of the harbour and then slowly forward in against the inner pier, Hazel nudging into reverse and then forward, inching all 160 tonnes slowly towards the concrete. Any crunch right now would spell disaster for us. We touch the pier so gently that i hardly feel it, and i climb the ladder with the spring (the first rope we pass to the pier) over my shoulder. Once this is around the stout black bollard we are pretty much safe, as the boat can manoever anywhere we want from here. Soon all our other ropes are up and secure, my heartrate slows to a gentle purr and the adrenaline wears off. In the stormdrift this would have been such a routine operation we wouldnt have batted an eyelid. In the new boat everything is new, its like learning to drive a mini and then suddenly driving a huge 4×4. Of course Hazel takes to it like a duck to water, despite the odd complaint that the Valkyrie handles like a hippo with both back legs broken, i struggle a little more. Ropes cant be tied where im used to, everything takes longer as i have to leg it up onto the whaleback or right round to the stern. Im struggling a little, the mountain i need to climb looks bloody huge. Not only do i need to be able to do all the new things safely and quickly, but i need to be able to do it without guidance from Hazel, something i cant do at the moment.
But we are getting there, making sure we dont run before we can walk and ensuring we are smooth at docking and picking up divers will take a little practice.
We head around to see Andy and Ronnie on the Jean Elaine and to retrieve our dive kit which has been festering on board since last season. Asking Ronnie to grab my computer from the wheelhouse we both notice that the walls in there have been painted a really fetching shade of purple. I guess thats what happens when you go away for 6 weeks eh Andy? 
hehehe
On our way back to Holm we stop by at the Ring of Brodgar and i take a few snaps as it looks stunning in the snow.
