REPORTAGE. In Orkney: among currents, whalers and… a glass of whiskey/5

Giovanni Porzio is one of Italy’s greatest reporters and a passionate sailor. In his book “The Sea is Never the Same” he has recreated the essence of reportage, that is, “reporting” from a voyage news, but also stories, feelings and images. Here is the first installment of his trip to the Ocardi Islands! (HERE YOU CAN FIND THE FIRST PART, HERE THE SECOND, THE THIRD, THE FOURTH)

Kirkwall’s few stores come alive when a cruise ship docks: tourists swarm through the town’s narrow streets, buy a few souvenirs and climb back on board. Young people are looking for work on ferries, fishing boats or oil rigs in the North Sea. The era when the islands prospered from seasonal herring fishing is long gone. And even shipwrecks in the Pentland Firth, now that ships have sophisticated electronic and satellite instrumentation, have thinned out. The piratical sorties of the Orcadians in the stormy sea were once famous.

When they spotted a merchant ship in trouble they armed their spears and rushed from all the islands: from Mainland, from Papa Westray, from North Ronaldsay, from Stronsay, to beat John o’Groats’ rivals across the Straits to the punch: first they would get the crews to safety and then they would get busy lightening the cargo holds. Today the only commercial enterprise of any significance is the distillery of the excellent Highland Park single malt whiskey.

The workmanship has not changed much since the founding year 1798: barley is rolled out, soaked and turned by hand in stone lofts; malt heated on dryers from peat-fired ovens is distilled in copper stills; then the liquor goes to the cellars, to mature in European oak and American oak barrels aged for two years in a Spanish oloroso sherry. We sample several vintages and fill our backpacks: the Orkney viaticum for tackling with Ecland the 120 miles that separate us from the port of Inverness, our last port of call.