Location	Accuracy
Distance to here
Time	Type
Signal	Battery

Notes

An absolutely fantastic day on the sea and a great walk around the island with my new camera and drone.

The timings for trip were absolutely perfect, although on the initial leg heading north from Groats we caught the last throes of the Boars Of Duncansby. The sea wasn't intimidating by any means, but it certainly kept us on our toes until we left it behind. In retrospect on a trip profile like this it would be beneficial to follow the coast relatively close in until beyond the westerly extent of the Boars, then undertake the northerly run.

Arriving at the island the tide was doing exactly what I had expected it to do, and it was an easy landing at the Stalker. Unfortunately before having taken a single photo with my new and very expensive camera I managed to slip and graze the screen, badly bruising my arse in the process.

We had a walk up to the lighthouse to see what the Swilkie was doing. It was surprisingly sedate, but growing slightly in strength. It would have been easily navigated from either end with its extent heavily contained compared to previous visits.

A lazy and meandering walk down the west coast of the island to the church took us past the Gloup, where a lone sheep seems to have become stranded. Whilst she looked lonely, she certainly didn't look injured or malnourished. I have no idea how long she has been down there or how long she will remain.

From the church we made our way slowly back, allowing some time to take photos and explore a few houses, one of which was in decent shape and had two reasonable remnant box beds.

On returning to the Stalker we took one last short walk to a point where we could see the Swilkie, and whilst it had grown in size, it was still very sedate by Swilkie standards.

There were hundreds of lazy seals basking on the rocks, although they seemed unusually squirelly when they noticed that we were there.

Our return to the boats was perfectly timed for departure, and after an drama free trip down the island's east coast we headed due south into the Inner Sound. The trip across seemed to be perfectly timed for completely slack water, with the easterly stream just starting up as we turned towards Groats itself.

All in all it was a great trip, a vindication of my Pentland planning, and a nice bit of paddling to add to the slow-moving 2024 tally. This experience and the observations I have made during my trips to Stroma are standing me in good stead for opposing and executing my trip to Swona, which will be undertaken at the earliest opportunity.

Oh, and my new drone is sensational by the way.