As forecast the southerly came through early this morning. I sensed the wind shift (the calm before the shift, rather) at about 3am and quickly got up to leave. Our anchorage was not ideal in a south-easter as we would be on a lee shore – every sailor’s nightmare.

I weighed anchor and motored out of Whites Bay and west, bending on the mainsail as we entered the channel between Middle and South Percy Isles. The wind picked up and soon we were hard on the wind in a fresh south-westerly, backing all the while to the south. I soon decided to make for the protection of Scawfell Island as that would put us on a run before the breeze, making life a lot easier.

We dropped anchor in Refuge Bay, Scawfell Island, in the early afternoon, and by now it was blowing 25 knots from the south-east…