The adventurer Nick Hancock has returned to port after heavy seas thwarted his first attempt to land on Rockall early on Fridaymorning, delaying his solo occupation attempt.
His attempts to scale the barren islet 230 miles west of the Outer Hebrides, and set up a homemade survival pod were defeated in the early hours of Friday after the Atlantic swell made it impossible to safely climb on to the rock.
Asked how he felt after landing back at Leverburgh on south Harris nearly 32 hours after setting off, Hancock said: "Not great. I'm disappointed, but not wholly surprised: we thought it was going to be all about the weather and swell, and we knew the weather window was really tight."
Hancock is aiming for two new records by living on the island alone for 60 days, beating the solo occupation of 40 days set by the SAS veteran Tom McClean in 1985, and the 42-day record set by three Greenpeace anti-oil-exploration protesters in 1997.
Hancock and the Orca III, a twin-hulled leisure vessel chartered for the voyage, had left Leverburgh at 11am on Thursday. By the time they arrived at Rockall early on Friday morning, the swell had gathered height and was crashing directly on to the only safe landing point – its west face.
It was very bad luck, Hancock said. In his blog for the Guardian, Hancock said they had circled Rockall, arriving at 1am and waiting for the waves to subside. They could see the waves sharply climbing 5 metres up the 18-metre-high rock, then suddenly dipping down by 5 metres, creating a deep gulf of 10 metres between crest and trough.
"The swell hit at exactly the wrong point on the rock – due west – which was exactly where we needed to get onto the rock. The skipper – it's his call at the end of the day – wasn't happy about me getting off the boat and attempting a landing. The dip in the swell was so deep, and the speed the water came back up the rock so fast, I don't think I could've climbed up [out of the way] fast enough."
He now plans to investigate options for making a second attempt in the next few weeks. The biggest factors were time, to avoid the latter stages of his 60-day occupation attempt hitting rougher weather in late summer (which would complicate his attempts to get off Rockall), and finding the right weather window to successfully mount the rock.
It was possible, he admitted, he may need to wait until next year before trying again. "I need to look at the options, and it's not just funding: it's timing, the length of time I can have to reach the record."
Earlier on Friday, a Maritime and Coastguard Agency official in the Stornoway operations centre had said they believed the Orca III would base itself at St Kilda, the remote archipelago and world heritage site which is owned by the National Trust for Scotland, before Hancock attempted a second landing on Rockall on Saturday.
Hancock said this was never the plan, and was puzzled about how that theory had emerged. The skipper Angus Smith had decided early on to return home to Leverburgh. Members of the crew who support Scottish independence were able to raise a large white Yes campaign logo for photographs in front of Rockall, and at various points around St Kilda.
On Friday afternoon, the Orca III was seen by National Trust for Scotland staff doing a tour of its steep sea cliffs, sea stacks and Village Bay, home to the ruined St Kildan village evacuated in 1930, before heading back to Leverburgh.
Hancock has already landed on Rockall, for a reconnaissance trip on 2 June last year with the Orca III: he stood victoriously on its summit, his fists aloft, and sent the first tweet and Facebook update from the rock to mark his arrival.
He celebrated the Queen's 60th jubilee by unfurling a union flag and tweeted "Happy jubilee your majesty". This time, crew members on the Orca III who support Scottish independence have taken a large white Yes campaign logo to raise from the boat at Rockall as a publicity stunt.
