Voyage plan plot thickeners

Passage planning and recalling real sailing experiences add depth to detective fiction

- Marsali Taylor

Sailing heroine Cass - from my Shetland murder mystery series - was needing somewhere new to solve crimes. I thought it was time to pick on Clousta, the village just over the hill from Aith: four miles by road, but a good sail up to the end of Aith Voe, turn left into the Røna, then go half way round Vementry Isle and into Clousta Voe.

There are hazards either way: going past Vementry and in from the far side means threading past the Black Stane, through a set of little islands then going dead-centre of the channel to miss invisible deadly rocks called the Icelanders, but coming this side of Vementry means Cribba Sound, a narrow, shallow channel with strong tides.

I've sailed that way twice, and neither time went well. The first time was in my Graduate dinghy, Lady Blue. It was a bonny day, perfect for a longer sail. I went the long way round, with the confidence of ignorance, missed the underwater rocks by sheer good luck, and ended up having to gybe bang in the middle of Cribba Sound, with a Force 5 blowing me on. It was a text-book gybe; the capsize came later, as I fought my way home upwind.