About Me

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I first crossed the Atlantic in 1975 aboard 'Stormalong', a 28ft Wharram-designed catamaran. Back in the UK, Pete and I bought an ex 6-metre racing yacht, 'Sheila', living on her for 4 years. Wanting to do more and go further with a boat we could completely trust, we built 'Badger' - the best boat in the world - sailing her 110,000 miles, into the Arctic and the Antarctic, around the Atlantics North and South and into the Baltic. She had junk rig - the only rig I ever want to cruise with. Pete wanted to build again - a 38 ft junk-rigged catamaran, 'China Moon' - which he designed. But before the project was finished, we went our separate ways. A year later I joined Trevor Robertson aboard his 35ft 'Iron Bark'. We explored the Canadian Maritimes, crossed the Atlantic twice, wintered in Greenland and crossed the Pacific to Australia and New Zealand. I fell in love with NZ and jumping ship, bought my own boat while Trevor carried on voyaging. I put a junk rig onto ‘Fantail’ and, having decided that N Island offered better cruising opportunities than S Island, sailed up there in 2012. Looking for a boat to see me out, I am now building a 26ft, wood/epoxy junk in Whangarei.

Monday, 22 October 2007

STROMNESS HARBOUR

54o09'S 36o42'W
Chart 3589, Approaches to Leith, Stromness and Husvik Harbours

General

My apologies for the photograph, which has come out in black and white. This happened during the scanning process and I no longer have the colour original.

Stromness is the site of a whaling station, which was latterly used as a ship repair facility for the whaling fleets in the area. In 1995, the main wharf was in a reasonable state of repair and had some newish, black rubber ship fendering in places. There is a depth of 6m alongside.

Anchorage

Curlew reported that they often lie between the main dock and the one to the S of it, with lines to each. It is shallow enough to anchor between the docks until the boat can be tied up.

The bottom drops away sharply from the dock to over 30m, so it would seem impractical to lay out an anchor to hold the vessel off. Although Grass Island protects the bay from the E, there is still a 1½ mile fetch, and it would probably be very uncomfortable alongside in a strong E'ly blow.

The station is of interest, but it is falling down and has been subject to vandalism. The Manager's Villa at the S end of the station, is where Shackleton and his companions arrived after crossing the island. A plaque to commemorate this has been placed outside the house on the land side.

There are walks to Husvik and Leith and a longer one over the col to Fortuna Bay.

The Pilot warns of very strong winds during offshore gales. A large, yellow mooring buoy maintained by the Admiralty, lies in the bay.

If obtaining water from the stream it is advisable to go well up above the tanks, which may be leaking and polluting the water.



STROMNESS HARBOUR – THE MAIN WHARF, LOOKING N


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