Gerd Scheurer
What a week! Hard to find the right words: stunning, fantastic, unique…
That’s what the whole crew felt sailing with you from Inverness to the Orkneys, Fair Isle and finally Lerwick, Shetland. Remote on fabulous Fair Isle, challenging rocking the tidal waves in Sumburgh Roost, even sailing the Shetland west coast where you never managed to get before. Anchoring there in beautiful St Ninian’s Bay with steam spa and barbecue on board.
The 13 degrees water temperature could have been a little warmer, but this was the only thing you couldn’t fix :-).
Your hospitality was perfect, fine food, excursions to Scapa distillery and Fair Isle bird observatory, it could not have been better!
Thanks so much for this very special experience.
It was great to compare the HR46 with my own X-Yacht.
Good bye mainland Scotland! Destination: The Northern Isles.
I did the RYA Yachtmaster last year, and so it was good to get into tidal navigation again. It’s fun and rewarding to understand the tides!
I love chartwork and it was fun to exactly predict the change of the tides and plan the route to take maximum advantage of the currents.
One of the many cozy nights in the salon of Regina Laska with the rest of the crew.
Leon serving one of his delicious dishes.
Breakfast onboard Regina Laska. What is this? The Swedes call it “Kalles” and put this caviar in a tube on their eggs… I need to try!
Visiting the Scapa Distillery. I liked the whisky a lot, since it was not peated at all!
Whisky tasting at the Scapa Distillery.
In Kirkwall, Orkney
It was great talking about so many interesting topics. Here in a pub in Orkney.
Practicing celestial navigation on our way to Fair Isle.
Gerd practicing his celestial skills, which he hopes he can present for Allan Hogton, the RYA Yachtmaster Ocean examinier in due course. Gerd is planing to do the Yachtmaster Ocean with Allan later this coming autumn.
Regina Laska berthed in Fair Isle
Going for a walk on Fair Isle. What an Island!
If you sit totally still, the puffins don’t mind you at all and go after their own business. They are so cute!
Fair Isle is full of wild life! Seals, puffins, seagulls, gannets…
Taking the dinghy to explore the caves of Fair Isle.
Inside one of the caves with the dinghy.
Drinking one of the last bottles of the Valhalla brewery at the Bird Observatory on Fair Isle. The brewery has now unfortunately shut down on the island of Unst in the northern most Shetland.
In the lounge of the Bird Observatory on Fair Island.
A lot of photo opportunities when you are sailing on Regina Laska!
When I was walking by my own on Fair Isle I suddenly saw Leon sitting on a lonely stone just looking out over the fantastic landscape. Apparently, he too, was totally overwhelmed by the northern nature on these high latitudes.
Sheep are fun to take photos of, even though the sheep don’t always understand why we love seeing them so much!
A Fair Isle sweater to become!
We all visited Hollie Shaw on Fair Isle. She’s like the spirit of the island! None of us could resist to order a sweater from her, even though it will take 3 years to get it! It’s worth the waiting! We discussed colours and I decided to go for “Prussia Blue”.
The view from Hollie’s studio. This blue sea, the green grass, the natural colours of the sheep outside… they must all be so inspiring!
I bought a hand made hat so I could bring home a souvenir right away. I will always think back to these days on Fair Isle when I wear it!
Hollie taking the measurements for my new sweater!
The atmosphere outside Hollie’s studio. It was so romantic!
The notorious Sumburgh Head in the background, approaching Shetland coming from the south.
The Regina Laska Crew 10-2018 with our new Hollie-hats from Fair Isle. We all ordered a sweater each (including Leon) corresponding to 20% of Hollies annual production. There are not many who can say they wear a true and real Fair Isle. After all, there are not more than 56 people living on the island!
Doing sauna in St Ninian’s Bay on the west coast of Shetland. It’s not often weather permits sailing on the west coast of Shetland! The water was freezing, however: no more than 13 degrees! But we all did it: We jumped into the sea after the sauna. For sure, I understood the importance to wear a life west when sailing in this area.
Rounding Sumburgh Head toward Lerwick.
At Sumburgh Head with Fair Isle in the background. Photo by Ronnie Robertson
Gerd Scheurer, Germany, X-45C owner with over 1o,ooo miles of experience, sailing leg 10-2018 from Inverness via Orkney and Fair Isle to Lerwick, Shetlands.