Happy New Year/ Godt Nytt år

Our first new year in Unst and aboard Quickstep.
It's been a windy few days although Storm Frank hasn't been quite as fierce as down south. From us up in the far north, Happy New Year! We look forward to all 2016 will bring, here's hoping we will take in 2017 aboard in Norway!

Going for a walk on a sunny Winters day

Muckle Flugga lighthouse in the distance

Christmas aboard Quickstep

Exploring Unst

Back aboard in Baltasound

After a difficult few months we are now back aboard with plans to continue our previously planned journey to Norway when the conditions allow.
It is good to get back aboard and settled in, we are now aiming to spend the winter aboard in Unst, making the most of our time here exploring the local surroundings.
Then when the weather and tides allow we will head for Norway.
In the meantime we will keep you updated on our time in Unst by regularly updating the blog.

From us up North, Merry Christmas!!

Papa

Sadly on the 15th of October, Daniel's father, Roger Wakeham passed away.

Rogers love of art continued to the very end and from his bed he painted this very special piece of art, "Daniels and Amanda - mooring, Quickstep, Melfjord - Norway 2014"
Roger was ever supportive and took great pleasure in watching Daniel's boating adventures. His wish was that we continued our adventure with Quickstep to Norway and we plan to do just that.

The collection in memory of Roger at the kirk was to two charities one of which was RNLI, we will put the RNLI part of our donations with this and send to them within the next few days.

For family reasons, Thursday saw us fly back to Orkney leaving Quickstep in Baltasound Marina.

Thank you to the folk from Flugga boats and the harbour master for all their help.

Viking Ships!

Last year on our way back from Norway we only spent a night in Balta Harbour, Unst and then continued our journey home to Papay via Skeld. This year however we are waiting for the right weather to cross to Norway and so we have got some time to explore the island.
Today we walked north from Baltasound towards Haroldswick and its been nice to see the island from land instead of sea. We stopped in a scenic spot for a quick picnic of Stockans Oatcakes, Chilli Jam and cheese!
On our walk we found the Skidbladner, a full size replica of the Viking ship, Gokstad. At 24+ meters long and 5+ meters wide she certainly dwarfs Quickstep! A beautiful example of a clinker built Viking ship she stands impressive next to a reconstruction of a traditional Viking Longhouse.
The Gokstad would have seated 32 oarsmen and carried up to 70... so a bit more space than Quickstep too! The Skidbladner was restored with the help of locals, with the longhouse traditionally built by locals too, sourcing materials from not only the island, but Scotland mainland and in fact birtchbark from Norway. Walking down the brae towards Skidbladner and the longhouse makes for striking viewing!
Unst is rich with Viking history, home to many Viking longhouses, thirty or more in the islands.
We also did a quick interview for Radio Shetland explaining a little about what we are doing.
The weather, although calmer than previously forecasted, still remains windy and suitable weather windows seem to disappear as quick as they appear! So for the next day or two at least we will continue to explore Unst. Although the enforced stay is no great hardship!!

Living in Unst!

Looks like we might be here for a while. The weather is set to stay around force 5/6/7/8 for the next few days.

Took the opportunity to explore a bit today in the rain and wind, lovely walk though!

Hopefully in the next few days we will try to see the north end and west side of the island

For now...we shelter aboard in the calm of the harbour.

Heading north along the coast of Shetland

Heading north along the coast of Shetland

Cruising past Fair Isle before we entered the more confused seas.
Someday we will visit Fair Isle too!

Saturday night clouds in Papay.
Didn't look good for leaving the next day and as it happens it was!

On our way

A couple of months later than planned we have tied up the loose ends in Papay and arrived in Unst, Shetland the first leg of our journey.
This morning at 7am we left the mooring in Papay and headed to the most northerly harbour in Britain, Baltasound in Unst.
Although winds remained between force 1 and force 3 the full moon and spring tides together with unsettled weather over the past few weeks made the sea confused, especially around the north of North Ronaldsay and Fair Isle.
We made good time tying up at around 2pm virtually a year since we last were in Unst on our return from Norway in Papay Arctic Adventure part 1.

The more eagle eyed of you might have noticed the tracker showing us leaving papay a few nights ago, we went on a shake down cruise to North Ronaldsay. We stayed on the visitors mooring for the night and explored the island before returning to Papay for the final adjustments aboard.

Weather forecasts suggest we might now be spending best part of a week before the next weather window for the main crossing, in fact force 7-9 look likely! We look forward to exploring Unst as we didn't have time last year.

Thank you to all our sponsors, friends and family who have helped make the adventure possible.

Please also help us raise money for both the RNLI and the RS by donating using the charity account as seen on the right of the blog.

Patience

Awaiting weather, boat ready and packing started...
But with force 7 promised for today were not going anywhere yet!
Come on summer!

Thanks to Shane for photo of the boat!

Ready!

A month or so after we had thought we might be ready to leave we are about ready to leave!
All land based job are about complete as are all boat based jobs.... Just about.
We are probably going to be looking around the 22nd for suitable weather for the first leg.
Stores and fuel aboard first thing next week.

Still on Papay

The rib is now ready to go. All engines are run in and good to go. we still have a few land based jobs that need dry weather... Orkneys summer doesn't seem to have arrived yet!
Over the next few days we will load all supplies aboard. We're hoping to get to Norway before the shortest day!!

Papay Arctic Adventure Hoodie -WINNING bid £58!

Auction time over at Papay Arctic Adventure HQ! To be in with your chance to receive this one of a kind Papay Arctic Adventure hoodie then either email us with your bid at papayarcticadventure@gmail.com or comment on our facebook/twitter post!
Winner will be announced on the 9th of July
All money to our charities RNLI and the RS.
Happy Bidding 

Off to Eday

A beautiful calm evening saw us leave our mooring at 19:00 last night and use the outboards to go to Eday. We averaged around 5 knots which we were very happy with. We can get to our displacement hull speed of around 6 knots with the two units





Two and a half hours later we reached the lovely sandy bay of Doomy and had a little snack at the new visitors mooring. Leaving there at 22:00 we used the Volvo cruising back around 22 knots although we did go over 34 knots at one point... The Volvo was first class and gives us confidence we can cross to Norway safely and quickly!

Insurance

Last year for our adventure to Norway we found ourselves delayed partly to insurance difficulties, this year in our attempt to avoid the same issue we started our Insurance hunt early. We were hoping to get fully comprehensive unlike last years third party cover, but after trying 30+ insurance companies we had neither fully comp or third party... Even from companies offering coverage for transatlantic voyages, northwest passage adventures and circumnavigations, which seemed unbelievable when we plan to take our RIB up the coast of a country where 1 in 3 have access to a boat.

With the company that insured us last year pulling out of the small pleasure craft market all looked quite gloomy on the insurance front, until both Alan and Thomas and Yachtline offered us a third party policy! We could not recommend these companies more, their knowledge and advice was hugely helpful. If we were wanting coverage for another out of the ordinary adventure, or indeed standard coverage we would be sure to go to them. In the end though out of the blue BayMarine came up with an all risk policy. 

Having this type of coverage gives us a great peace of mind especially since we have spent many times the purchase price on the boat! They have been most helpful again and if anyone is planning a RIB trip to Norway (Or anywhere else...) we recommend you try the above.
Bay Marine have kindly offered us sponsorship in the form of a reduced premium for which we are most grateful.

Sponsors

Insurance policies for an unusual journey can be difficult to come by, we are very thankful for the advice and coverage offered to us by Bay Marine.

They offer a personal tailored service which we found very useful for our out of the ordinary request. Thanks Bay Marine!!



The crew of the Papay Arctic Adventure is proud to hail from Papay. We are proud therefore to be sponsored by the islands coop, The Papay Community Coop. The Papay coop is a community run shop that stocks an amazing range of diverse foods as well as fuel. If you fancy a trip to Papay the coop also runs the island Hostel, in a great location and with lovely rooms, this coops got it all!

It is a vital part of island life at the very heart of Papay, a social meeting and greeting area. The shop has been successfully serving the islands needs for over 35 years.




The Island of Westray just a mile away from Papay is home to WESTRAY PROCESSORS. They have been part of the community for over 40 years buying fresh sustainably caught crab from the local fishing fleet. They produce fresh and frozen crabmeat for sale locally in Orkney and elsewhere.

They have kindly sponsored us in the form of two waterproof smocks. These are often used in commercial fishing so will stand up well to regular use aboard.



Neighbouring island Shapinsay is known for its Castle and archaeological points of interest, but for us (and many others) when Shapinsay is mentioned our mouths water with the thought of ORKNEY ISLANDS PRESERVES! Kindly we have been sponsored by OIP some very warming Chilli Jam... our favourite! 

It will make a great warming treat in winter, on a Stockans oatcake, or indeed on anything!! 



Another local sponsor we are proud to be supported by is ORKNEY FACTORS serving the Orkney islands for all things vehicle related! We were in need of a suitable battery charger for keeping our batteries "ship shape" especially throughout the winter when we wont have engines charging them. 

Kindly Orkney Factors have sponsored us a Sealey charger. Ideal for our needs. Thank you! 



Being supported by local folk is a great boost. J C TULLOCH from neighbouring island Westray have supported us in the form of some long life goods for our adventure. 

43 years in the business serving Westray with food and essential supplies, an impressive feat! Thank you Aaks!  



At the end of last years adventure our VHF antenna snapped, leaving us without our main VHF, this year SALTY JOHN have kindly sponsored us a Metz Manta VHF
antenna and accessories.  

Salty John is the European agent for Metz Communication which has been manufacturing antennas since 1977. Metz antennas carry a lifetime warranty on the coil and are used by US and British search and rescue organisations as well as thousands of other professional and recreational boaters the world over. Another great safety addition, thank you Salty John! 



We are very proud to be sponsored by local Orkney oatcake manufacturers STOCKANS who have sponsored us a selection of their Oatcakes. 

Stockans Oatcakes are ideal for eating with, well just about anything! In fact they are pretty tasty on their own too! Personal favourites are cheese triangles on their own, and mini oatcakes with slice of cheddar and chilli jam! They will be great aboard as they last well and can be a substitute for bulkier items like bread.

Even in today's world of GPS and Chartplotters there is no substitute for paper charts. MARINE CHART SERVICES have kindly sponsored us the Admiralty charts north of the Arctic Circle, which we will need as we explore further along the coastline. 

We have now got charts all the way to the Russian border, we have so many lovely places to explore and the charts to help safely get us there. 

Living aboard with no refrigerator can be challenging,  last year we found the perfect answer to our lack of meat dilemma was Wild West Beef Jerky and Bundu Biltong. This year THE JERKY GROUP have generously sponsored us a variety of their meaty snacks,

long shelf life and their ability to be stored at room temperature mean we will have these super tasty snacks throughout the adventure... Having picked them up tonight the hardest part will be resisting the temptation of eating them before we go! Yum! 



One of the most important factors in our journey is making it as safe as possible. Because the adventure will involve both a major ocean crossing and coastal sailing we need a wide mix of flares. With the help of Drew Marine Signal and Safety Ltd we have been sponsored a fully comprehensive variety of PAINS WESSEX flares. 

Pains Wessex are a leading manufacturer of flares and we are comforted in their long history of supplying reliable and superior pyrotechnic marine distress signals. Although we hope the occasion to use them never arises, knowing we are carrying the best puts our minds at ease. 



We are extremely proud to have the backing of VOLVO and MITCHELL POWERSYSTEMS for the second year running, this year they are providing us with new Propellers and other service items.  

Our 26 year old Volvo sterndrive and 11 year old Volvo engine has been infallible. Truly made to to the finest quality and without a doubt made to last. The advice and support offered gives us an extra boost. 



BOAT FENDERS DIRECT are suppliers of top quality fenders and buoys and have kindly sponsored us six of there F - series fenders, as used by Coast guards and Navies we are reassured by their superior quality! 

They are tested for strength and flexibility in temperatures ranging -30 to +60 Celsius, great! 



In a year we will get through a lot of food, and having some essentials aboard is a necessity, so with TODAYS sponsoring us a variety of groceries (including 56 bars of chocolate!) we have a great start to provisioning the boat.

We are well accustomed to Todays goods as our island shop stocks many of Todays great products. 



A big thank you to TUNNOCK who have kindly donated to our Arctic Adventure. Tunnock's is a Scottish family owned baker, who are still a family business after 125 years of trading. They are well known for their delicious chocolate biscuits!

We will be sure to enjoy some Snowballs in Norway!



Living on a small RIB for a year means we have to make use of every space, for this reason we are removing one of the underdeck fuel tanks, in its place we gain storage space. OVERBOARD have sponsored us four of their 30 ltr dry tube bags, absolutely ideal for the void left by the fuel tank.

The Dry Tube bags are 100% waterproof, float on water and protects our stuff from dust, sand, dirt and water.... Perfect! With the added bonus of different colours we will be able to store stuff easily, without loosing smaller items in to corners etc, and safely away from water and dirt. The bags come with a top carry handle which will make getting them out of the space easy, and they will also be handy for taking stuff ashore by dingy.



Last year we were kindly sponsored by CREWSAVER three ErgoFit 290N OC lifejackets, which we wore throughout the 29 day adventure. Without a shadow of doubt all three crew found them to be the most comfortable lifejackets we have ever worn, we barely noticed we were wearing them. 

The lifejackets themselves not only look good and feel good they offer the standard safety aspects but with extras, 290N of buoyancy perfect for the ocean, built in chin support and sprayhood, easy adjustment and many more... Needless to say we were exceptionally happy with them, so the offer of continued support from Crewsaver was brilliant news. This year they are sponsoring in the form of servicing our life jackets for us, adding that extra bit of reassurance. We again will wear them daily, although being so comfortable its not daunting at all. 



This year we are fortunate to be sponsored by the German sports optics manufacturer MINOX with a fantastic pair of MINOX BN 7x50 DCM Binoculars to take with us. 

The truly revolutionary set of digital binoculars comes with a fully integrated digital display in the centre of the field of vision. Digital Compass, digital barometer, automatic tilt compensation, air pressure reading to name but a few of the specs that make these innovative binoculars something of a must have aboard. With water tight and antifogging qualities along with non slip rubber armouring they really are ideally suited to our adventure. We can't wait to receive them and try them out, and are sure they will be used daily once we are aboard. 



We are also very proud to have been sponsored by BOYE KNIVES. The Arizonian family business produces what can only be described as the ultimate in marine knives. When it comes to safety aboard, a knife that can be relied on is a necessity. 

Boye Knives are not only known for their cutting abilities but the dendritic cobolt blades are completely resistant to salt water corrosion and compass safe. The Boye Knife company are in the process of rebuilding after a fire in their knifemaking shop and we wish them all the best for their future. 



Spending the year aboard in a small space can lead to things getting damaged and wet, but we wont have to worry this year thanks to VANGUARD who have sponsored us their (aptly named) Supreme 53D the best there is in extreme protection cases.

 Not only is the rugged case virtually indestructible it is waterproof, air tight and can withstand even Arctic conditions! We will find this very useful to protect and contain our valuable and fragile equipment during our stay aboard. 



Last year Daniel Elves brought his LOTUS GRILL along with him on our adventure. The smokeless charcoal grill was extremely helpful for a variety of cooking, and having our own caught fresh fish grilled was a huge treat. This year while Daniel E continues to use his Lotus Grill we were sad not to be able to take it. 

So when Lotus Grill kindly sponsored us there Stainless Steel grill we now be taking with us the perfect cooking companion. Being stainless steel it is ideally suited for the marine atmosphere and it will be used regularly as a very handing cooking appliance aboard.  

We've launched!

With the Orkney summer forecast to last three days(!) we put in a few long days and got the boat to a stage we were happy to launch her at. The low water was at 10pm and we reversed the car to the bottom of the slip, waiting in the completely still evening, watching dolphins playing in the bay before floating off around midnight in the moonlight. We were extremely happy and reassured by the main engine (Volvo) jumping in to life with the turn of a key having not been started in 8months. Also thanks to Shane for his assistance with the launch!

Thanks Michael for use of photo!

Today eager to leave the mooring we tried out the new outboard installation as well as breaking in one of the outboards, we headed across the water to neighbouring island Westray. The entire journey was completed with the outboards and we are confident they will be useful auxiliary.

Keep an eye for more updates soon.

In the barn

Our countdown timer that has been counting since the new year has now run its course. Although we are now working full time aboard, there is still plenty to do before Quickstep emerges from the barn ready for launch day. The summer hasn't reached Orkney yet and so we are not overly upset that our departure date is still a while away.
With the distance involved and the length of the trip, we have decided to replace the Tohatsu with two high thrust Yamahas. Fingers crossed the set up works! If all works as we plan, we will have three engines each capable of moving the rib.

We also have a week of non boat related work before we leave for Norway that has to be completed. Our new departure aim is before the 9th of July... See how things go!