at a loss for Noss

My objectives of getting to all the trig points was at this time starting to hit stumbling blocks? getting to islands without ferries along with getting to the ones with ferries was proving troublesome, some of this was due to it being winter some of it due to this ongoing pandemic, there was also the weather to consider, for example I had tried phoning to book myself on the ferry to out skerries and back, the best time for me to do this perhaps the only viable time to do it is on a Friday from vidlin, the ferry would leave at eleven and get back for eight giving me around three hours on skerries plenty time to get to the trig point and back, this ferry is bookings only I tried phoning but couldn’t get through, there is no option for booking as a foot passenger online, then I had a check at the weather forecast it was going to be fifty mile an hour winds! Skerries will have to wait now along with Foula and fair isle

This left the isles of vaila and Noss achievable in the time I had left? I had been messaging DRS (young Dunc) he reckoned it could be possible to get me to Noss on Saturday morning (the next day) but I would probably have to jump into waist deep water, no problem with that I got a second set of warm clothes all packed and a towel I would meet him at the marina at 08:00

I got up at six AM the weather was ace as I marched through to the far side of town with hardly any other people or cars about, it’s a walk mostly along the shore so I could see the water along Bressay sound it looked reasonably flat I was thinking my luck was in, the previous days weather was bad with strong winds coming up from the south, how does that affect getting to Noss? Lerwick is on the mainland there is a reasonably short stretch of deep water between lerwick and Bressay which Is an island shaped like a sort of five mile long squished rugby ball with a north and south end, the wind generally comes from the north or south pushing the water into the ends and curling water around steep sea cliffs, each end of Bressay gets choppy with this large body of water swinging round each end, in general this makes the water in the sound at the middle is nearly always reasonably calm for boats, take the previous day I strolled around lerwick harbour thinking it was a wee bit windy and wet, I walked up the knab into the south mouth the difference was night and day I was drenched as the water hit me sideways as I put my hood up to turn from the wind, but I still loved watching the angry sea smash into the shore all around, there was an impressive swell in this area yesterday, the wind had whipped the sea into a frenzy the wind was huge the day before, it was to get a bit more blowy later, when I got to the marina at that time of the morning it looked perfect

Dunc arrived and said Kenneth we have a problem, he is about the only person on the planet that calls me Kenneth, I think he does it for fun I don’t mind he has a very informal way of saying it, whereas normally when I hear people call me Kenneth its in a formal situation, the problem was the key for the marina gate was in his brothers house who had perhaps had a guid Friday night out and could not be wakened, we would go for breakfast first untill the key could be obtained this was fine we went to the harbour café in town and had a traditional Scottish fair breakfast, well I had the vegan breakfast so only slightly traditional, strange to find the only place I could get a decent vegan breakfast in town was this traditional greasy spoon braw

We got the keys and back to the boat but the battery was completely flat, dunc changed it over with his van battery, then once the outboard was started an overheating alarm kicked in! DRS done some investigation for such a young man he never ceases to amaze me with his problem-solving skills at work and now wherever I meet him on Shetland, he had a look at the wiring and reckoned dampness had ruined a connection, he has tools everywhere and chopped the offending connector off and rewired a new connector, he was spot on with his diagnostic of the problem, we had a scoot round the harbour making sure all was well before we headed out to sea properly,

If you think of the isle of Bressay shaped like a squished rugby ball and lerwick in the mainland being somewhere in the middle of the ball, then directly over Bressay from lerwick being the island of Noss (our objective) Noss wasn’t an island a few thousand years ago, as the worlds water levels rise so the more of an island Noss becomes, it’s a narrow gap of shallow water between Noss and Bressay that we were aiming for, to get there we would need to head round Bressay`s northern tip where the sea gets a bit choppy! then on the way back round we would go round its southern tip where the sea gets even choppier! I am going to recall it in future as my circumnavigation of the horn of Bressay`s north wrath to the southern tip of the cape of Noss`s southern turbulence, I filmed this journey on the calmer bits but round the ends, I was white knuckle holding on while the wee boat slapped heavily with a judder at every big wave, big to me Dunc seemed unfazed and in control

When we got to the narrow gap between Noss and Bressay, I think the tide was high it was certainly a bit choppier than I expected but not as bad as it was going round the capes! Dunc slowed us to a stop and we had a look at the conditions, i had seen photos at low tide the gap is much narrower, jack morton reckoned i could wade over most of it at low tide with only a slight swim! tom moncrief had said i could borrow his inflatable kayak to do it should be alright for it he says! not in these conditions on this day it wouldnt, duncan reckoned he could potentially get me close enough to jump in waist deep to get ashore which I was alright about, but he was unsure how he could get me back on board in one to two hours’ time! I wasn’t game for being marooned I had a bag of dry clothes on the boat but no provisions for being stuck we opted to play safe there would be no Noss trig point this day

This island’s name comes from the Norse word for ‘nose’, possibly in the sense of a headland. The Norse who arrived in the 8th century were far from being the first on Noss though – perhaps 2000 years before then, Neolithic families had settled here. Islanders have worked this land and kept livestock on it continuously for thousands of years. In 1870 the Marquis of Londonderry leased the island for use as a stud farm. He bred Shetland ponies to work underground in his coal mines in northern England. I could easily see the restored pony pund, built to house the mares, next to the buildings near the landing spot that we couldn’t use

In 1633 a cradle was strung from ropes connecting Noss to the detached stack of the Holm of Noss. This gave islanders access to gulls’ eggs, but later a larger basket provided carriage for up to 12 sheep. The cradle operated for over 200 years and numerous sketches and narratives were made by visitors and passing mariners. Visitors attracted by the cradle notably included Sir Walter Scott in 1814. The same as every other island Sheep farming continues today on Noss. For most of the year the sheep are free to wander where they choose but during lambing they are brought onto the better land to the west of the dry stain hill dyke, hopefully I will see this next visit

I will investigate further once I actually get on the island, Duncan gave me a final wee boat tour along the front of lerwick, which I loved it looks great from the sea then we went back to the marina, we secured the boat to go for lunch it had only been a few hours but felt like a full day to me, what a wonderfull wee adventure I can’t thank young dunc enough for it.