Sitting at anchor was a pattern we were becoming accustomed to – waiting out one or more low pressure systems before having an all too brief respite in which to set sail and explore a more remote, less visited but often more exposed location. We had been voyaging along the Outer Hebridean chain of islands from south to north for almost two months now and summer had so far eluded us. While the rest of the nation baked in often unbearable heat, we had seldom experienced temperatures in excess of 14°C and it was already mid-August.
On more than one occasion during the preceding weeks, we had positioned ourselves in a suitable location from which to make the westward hop to the famous St Kilda group of islands (110 miles or 180km from the mainland), but repeatedly, at the last minute, the weather window had shrunk or closed altogether. We were not in the habit of visiting a location for a day and then departing. We liked to explore, get a feel for an area, absorb its atmosphere. It is a yacht’s ability to visit wild and remote locations and then make them our temporary home that has led my family to choose to live an ocean voyaging existence, aboard Free Spirit, our beloved steel, long-keeled, cutter-rigged Koopmans 39.
While anchored off
