Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Monday, December 17, 2007
Atlantic Adventure Oct 07
I returned to Scotland in Titch and after making sure Conny was OK, planned my next adventure.
Tom and I had it in mind to spend some time together before the year end. Tom had finished his ‘A’ levels and was awaiting entrance interviews with the RAF and I wasn’t working! So what could we do together?... we could go somewhere hot….yep that sounded good, but where?
Tom wanted to do something character building that could be used to demonstrate to the RAF that he hadn’t just been ‘sitting around on his arse’. I had a plan! Bjorn had offered me the opportunity to join him for any part of his journey. He was now in the Canary Islands and was due to head off to Cape Verde (800 miles south) in a week or two. What if both Tom and I could go!
A phone call to Bjorn gave the green light. As soon as possible we should go. After a mad scurry of phone calls, Tom and I had some flight options. Unfortunately, half term was approaching and we had a flight in 2 days at £50 or one in 5 days at £700…NO WAY!
Next day there was nothing for it…we booked the flights and then Conny and I had to drive through the night to the midlands with the flight booked the following afternoon for Tom and Myself. Paul had lent us is van and the plan was for Conny to return with the rest of our gear which we’d left at Redhill earlier in the year….
One day in Scotland in rain and 10 degrees…. 24 hours later we’re in Las Palmas (Gran Canaria) in 25 degrees at 10 o’clock at night and it hasn’t rained for weeks!
The three and a half weeks spent with Bjorn were fantastic. I don’t want to spend too much time on the detail of it though because it wasn’t really a Tigertale, more of a Chilitale (www.bachili.blogspot.com)! And Conny wasn’t on the trip…
Nevertheless Tom and I had a great time with Bjorn. We spent the first few days in Gran Canaria where we met a load of Bjorn’s travel buddies (yachts also doing the Caribbean – crossing the ‘pond’ in November/December, then cruising up through the Caribbean Islands until May before crossing back over the Atlantic via the Azores before the hurricane season). Among the friends we made, the ones with the fondest memories were Siobhan, Stian and Solver from the Norwegian yacht ‘Uredd’ (http://www.uredd-oslo.com/).....
After a few days in Gran Canaria we set sail for the Tenerife, some 60 odd miles west… Tom had a slightly difficult crossing ( ) and I, having quickly downed a coke before setting sail, parted company with it over the side of Chili in no time at all! Apart from that it was a good introduction for what was to come….. a stunningly beautiful blue ocean with BIG waves! ….. It’s hard to put into words and impossible to imagine but the shade of blue seen from the 4 kilometre deep water is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen…..
Anyway…back in the box…. We spent a few days in Tenerife, did the Mount Teide bit… oh… and the Playa de Las Americas thing (ended up sleeping on sun lounges on a private beach having been in a foam party…), before heading off on an overnight sail to La Gomera alongside Uredd…
This was our ‘final port of call’ before the ‘biggy’… we had a great few days here spending time with Siobhan, Stian and Solver, exploring the islands and being taught some devastating (for Tom anyway) dribbling games…. I mean drinking games
The time to set sail for Cape Verde came round in no time. We said our farewells and set sail…
What to say! One of my lasting memories is from about three hours into the 8 day trip. We’d lost the protection from the Canaries and the boat had started to react to the full force of the Atlantic swell. The boat was pitching and rolling in such a way that to move around needed 3 points of contact at all times and even sitting still was tiring… It was at this point I remember thinking, with some trepidation, that surely it was impossible to live like this for a week!
Actually, more accurately, I thought….Fuck, what the hell I am doing here and how the bloody hell are we going to get through the next week and come out in one piece!
Well needless to say we did…. it’s amazing what you get used to, especially when given Bjorn’s vast sailing experience and his indifference at the conditions. However, some things are better in hindsight and this was one such memory, brilliant now… something else at the time! Eight days and 800 miles (nautical, that’s 15% bigger than normal miles) on a 30 foot boat! It’s a small place for three people to co-exist, especially when you’re 400 miles from land (4 days) so there’s no getting off. It was challenging at times but wow… I can’t think of a parallel in life….everyone should try it…you learn a lot about yourself!
Tom and I had it in mind to spend some time together before the year end. Tom had finished his ‘A’ levels and was awaiting entrance interviews with the RAF and I wasn’t working! So what could we do together?... we could go somewhere hot….yep that sounded good, but where?
Tom wanted to do something character building that could be used to demonstrate to the RAF that he hadn’t just been ‘sitting around on his arse’. I had a plan! Bjorn had offered me the opportunity to join him for any part of his journey. He was now in the Canary Islands and was due to head off to Cape Verde (800 miles south) in a week or two. What if both Tom and I could go!
A phone call to Bjorn gave the green light. As soon as possible we should go. After a mad scurry of phone calls, Tom and I had some flight options. Unfortunately, half term was approaching and we had a flight in 2 days at £50 or one in 5 days at £700…NO WAY!
Next day there was nothing for it…we booked the flights and then Conny and I had to drive through the night to the midlands with the flight booked the following afternoon for Tom and Myself. Paul had lent us is van and the plan was for Conny to return with the rest of our gear which we’d left at Redhill earlier in the year….
One day in Scotland in rain and 10 degrees…. 24 hours later we’re in Las Palmas (Gran Canaria) in 25 degrees at 10 o’clock at night and it hasn’t rained for weeks!
The three and a half weeks spent with Bjorn were fantastic. I don’t want to spend too much time on the detail of it though because it wasn’t really a Tigertale, more of a Chilitale (www.bachili.blogspot.com)! And Conny wasn’t on the trip…
Nevertheless Tom and I had a great time with Bjorn. We spent the first few days in Gran Canaria where we met a load of Bjorn’s travel buddies (yachts also doing the Caribbean – crossing the ‘pond’ in November/December, then cruising up through the Caribbean Islands until May before crossing back over the Atlantic via the Azores before the hurricane season). Among the friends we made, the ones with the fondest memories were Siobhan, Stian and Solver from the Norwegian yacht ‘Uredd’ (http://www.uredd-oslo.com/).....
After a few days in Gran Canaria we set sail for the Tenerife, some 60 odd miles west… Tom had a slightly difficult crossing ( ) and I, having quickly downed a coke before setting sail, parted company with it over the side of Chili in no time at all! Apart from that it was a good introduction for what was to come….. a stunningly beautiful blue ocean with BIG waves! ….. It’s hard to put into words and impossible to imagine but the shade of blue seen from the 4 kilometre deep water is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen…..
Anyway…back in the box…. We spent a few days in Tenerife, did the Mount Teide bit… oh… and the Playa de Las Americas thing (ended up sleeping on sun lounges on a private beach having been in a foam party…), before heading off on an overnight sail to La Gomera alongside Uredd…
This was our ‘final port of call’ before the ‘biggy’… we had a great few days here spending time with Siobhan, Stian and Solver, exploring the islands and being taught some devastating (for Tom anyway) dribbling games…. I mean drinking games
The time to set sail for Cape Verde came round in no time. We said our farewells and set sail…
What to say! One of my lasting memories is from about three hours into the 8 day trip. We’d lost the protection from the Canaries and the boat had started to react to the full force of the Atlantic swell. The boat was pitching and rolling in such a way that to move around needed 3 points of contact at all times and even sitting still was tiring… It was at this point I remember thinking, with some trepidation, that surely it was impossible to live like this for a week!
Actually, more accurately, I thought….Fuck, what the hell I am doing here and how the bloody hell are we going to get through the next week and come out in one piece!
Well needless to say we did…. it’s amazing what you get used to, especially when given Bjorn’s vast sailing experience and his indifference at the conditions. However, some things are better in hindsight and this was one such memory, brilliant now… something else at the time! Eight days and 800 miles (nautical, that’s 15% bigger than normal miles) on a 30 foot boat! It’s a small place for three people to co-exist, especially when you’re 400 miles from land (4 days) so there’s no getting off. It was challenging at times but wow… I can’t think of a parallel in life….everyone should try it…you learn a lot about yourself!
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Plan A B or C ?
Plan A was to winter Tiger in Scotland, for us to return to the Midlands for a few months to work and then to return to Scotland in 2008 to continue cruising. So in pursuit of ‘Plan A’ we returned to Crinan to look for opportunities for Tiger.
As we approached Crinan we pulled up on a small jetty/pontoon on the left hand side. No kidding, it could have been made for Tiger as she fitted snugly in and because of her narrow beam didn’t stick out like a yacht would. It later turned out that we were about the first boat in 12 years (since it had been made) that had been able to use the mooring. Paul (the Crinan Lock Keeper and yet to become another great friend to us), told us he’d built it as a bit of a skive from having to do some forestry work one winter!
Conny asked Paul who was it that controlled the mooring and who we could ask if it was OK to stay… “that’d be me” he replied in his Yorkshire accent!
So, smiling like a Cheshire cat, Conny asked Paul if we could stay, “yes” he said, “after all you’ve got your British Waterways licence so why not?”
FANTASTIC…..what a beautiful mooring!
It’s worth pointing our here that we represented a bit of an oddity…. Most boats transiting the Crinan Canal are sailing boats and in order for them to use the canal they purchase a 3 day licence at a cost of £10 per meter! That would be £85 for Tiger for 3 days! But here we were with our BW licence from England that entitled us to be on the canal almost without timescale….how cool!
So here we were, it was the beginning of September, we had a mooring for Tiger and suddenly the mad rush to get back south had been lifted and we had time to on our hands……J
Today is the 19th December, we’re in Switzerland with fantastic, crisp, bright weather (it was down to -9O least night). There are a million distractions here but I really want to finish the blog for this year. I would prefer not to be in 2008 trying to think back to what happened! It’s hard enough thinking back from now!
Just before I carry on though…. I’ve been keenly following the ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers). This is a group of some 240 boats that congregate in the Canary Islands in autumn and then set sail for the Caribbean to hopefully arrive sometime before Christmas. Some of the boats we’ve met on our travels are travelling across as we speak (or should I say ‘as I write’ J) including Bjorn from Denmark (although he’s not part of the ARC)
So back to Scotland…..
Now with this new found time on our hands, we had the chance to do a little more local cruising. We fancied the idea of heading south down the Sound of Jura and checking out the ‘Fairy Isles’ at the head of Lock Sween. Colin (our new friend from lock 11 on the Crinan) mentioned that his Father, Mother and two sisters were planning a trip aboard their motor launch the ‘Silver Strand’ and that we might meet up with them. So given the settled weather we set off, met up with the rest of Colin’s family for the evening and then headed into Lock Sween the following morning. Having spent the next day with Colin and having had a guided tour of Tavyalick, we said our goodbyes and Conny and I put…put…putted round to the Fairy Isles for a few days….
Back in the Crinan we started to meet all the locals and it wasn’t long before we felt really welcome and apart of scene. It’s fair to say that this was mainly down to the warm welcome received from a handful of people…
It’s a small world …
We were in the local bar called the Panther Inn one night… I should point out that this is a tiny bar that’s basically a small room attached and apart of the Crinan Hotel. I’m not saying it’s quiet but any night with more than 6 people would be called busy! Well… this particular night there must have been 8 people in, so it was packed out J. Anyway, we got chatting with a couple on their holidays. It turned out that they were from Leicester….
“Oh” we said, “near Nottingham where we set off from”
“Oh Nottingham” they said, “We’ve got a mate who’s just started at the marina there at Sawley”
“Sawley” I said, that’s where I used to work!”
Turned their friend was Keith Higginson! Only my ex-boss!
Well, what a coincidence. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I was able to scrounge a lift south, pick up ‘Titch’ our camper and more importantly see the Tom and Lil who I hadn’t seen since August….
Well I can’t leave Conny alone for a minute…no sooner had I headed south, that she very nearly ended up with a 6inch nail embedded in her head. You see, she’d started working for Paul (the Lock Keeper) on odd days building dry stone walls and on this particular day it was raining! GO away with you…raining in Scotland…really??? Yes it was raining and Conny and Paul were building a shelter using wooden planks and a tarpaulin. What they hadn’t seen was a nail in one of the planks that must’ve had Conny’s name on it cause’ quicker than you can say “that’s a lot of blood, I think that needs stitches”, the plank slipped and fell on Conny’s head. So off to Lochguilphead’s sparkling new hospital it was for Conny and a new tube of superglue! Yep that’s what they use nowadays…better than stitches apparently
As we approached Crinan we pulled up on a small jetty/pontoon on the left hand side. No kidding, it could have been made for Tiger as she fitted snugly in and because of her narrow beam didn’t stick out like a yacht would. It later turned out that we were about the first boat in 12 years (since it had been made) that had been able to use the mooring. Paul (the Crinan Lock Keeper and yet to become another great friend to us), told us he’d built it as a bit of a skive from having to do some forestry work one winter!
Conny asked Paul who was it that controlled the mooring and who we could ask if it was OK to stay… “that’d be me” he replied in his Yorkshire accent!
So, smiling like a Cheshire cat, Conny asked Paul if we could stay, “yes” he said, “after all you’ve got your British Waterways licence so why not?”
FANTASTIC…..what a beautiful mooring!
It’s worth pointing our here that we represented a bit of an oddity…. Most boats transiting the Crinan Canal are sailing boats and in order for them to use the canal they purchase a 3 day licence at a cost of £10 per meter! That would be £85 for Tiger for 3 days! But here we were with our BW licence from England that entitled us to be on the canal almost without timescale….how cool!
So here we were, it was the beginning of September, we had a mooring for Tiger and suddenly the mad rush to get back south had been lifted and we had time to on our hands……J
Today is the 19th December, we’re in Switzerland with fantastic, crisp, bright weather (it was down to -9O least night). There are a million distractions here but I really want to finish the blog for this year. I would prefer not to be in 2008 trying to think back to what happened! It’s hard enough thinking back from now!
Just before I carry on though…. I’ve been keenly following the ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers). This is a group of some 240 boats that congregate in the Canary Islands in autumn and then set sail for the Caribbean to hopefully arrive sometime before Christmas. Some of the boats we’ve met on our travels are travelling across as we speak (or should I say ‘as I write’ J) including Bjorn from Denmark (although he’s not part of the ARC)
So back to Scotland…..
Now with this new found time on our hands, we had the chance to do a little more local cruising. We fancied the idea of heading south down the Sound of Jura and checking out the ‘Fairy Isles’ at the head of Lock Sween. Colin (our new friend from lock 11 on the Crinan) mentioned that his Father, Mother and two sisters were planning a trip aboard their motor launch the ‘Silver Strand’ and that we might meet up with them. So given the settled weather we set off, met up with the rest of Colin’s family for the evening and then headed into Lock Sween the following morning. Having spent the next day with Colin and having had a guided tour of Tavyalick, we said our goodbyes and Conny and I put…put…putted round to the Fairy Isles for a few days….
Back in the Crinan we started to meet all the locals and it wasn’t long before we felt really welcome and apart of scene. It’s fair to say that this was mainly down to the warm welcome received from a handful of people…
It’s a small world …
We were in the local bar called the Panther Inn one night… I should point out that this is a tiny bar that’s basically a small room attached and apart of the Crinan Hotel. I’m not saying it’s quiet but any night with more than 6 people would be called busy! Well… this particular night there must have been 8 people in, so it was packed out J. Anyway, we got chatting with a couple on their holidays. It turned out that they were from Leicester….
“Oh” we said, “near Nottingham where we set off from”
“Oh Nottingham” they said, “We’ve got a mate who’s just started at the marina there at Sawley”
“Sawley” I said, that’s where I used to work!”
Turned their friend was Keith Higginson! Only my ex-boss!
Well, what a coincidence. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I was able to scrounge a lift south, pick up ‘Titch’ our camper and more importantly see the Tom and Lil who I hadn’t seen since August….
Well I can’t leave Conny alone for a minute…no sooner had I headed south, that she very nearly ended up with a 6inch nail embedded in her head. You see, she’d started working for Paul (the Lock Keeper) on odd days building dry stone walls and on this particular day it was raining! GO away with you…raining in Scotland…really??? Yes it was raining and Conny and Paul were building a shelter using wooden planks and a tarpaulin. What they hadn’t seen was a nail in one of the planks that must’ve had Conny’s name on it cause’ quicker than you can say “that’s a lot of blood, I think that needs stitches”, the plank slipped and fell on Conny’s head. So off to Lochguilphead’s sparkling new hospital it was for Conny and a new tube of superglue! Yep that’s what they use nowadays…better than stitches apparently
Saturday, December 15, 2007
What happened next...
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What happened then!
So we’re now in Switzerland for Christmas and over the next few weeks we’re going to do our best to catch up….honest J
Well back into the Crinan we went. Although the weather improved the mood didn’t. As already mentioned, if we were to tackle the east route round the Mull of Galloway it was essential to get round before any autumn gales set in.
Then as we approached lock 11 of the Crinan it suddenly occurred to me that we hadn’t really considered all our options, instead we (well mainly I) had just pushed on regardless. Conny as already preparing the next lock when I pulled Tiger over the side, tied her up and then ran over to Conny and proposed we pull over for the day to look at our options properly.
It was at this moment that all sorts of unbelievable opportunities started to open up….
First off we spent a day or so considering our options…during which we met a new friend Colin (the Lock keeper) Barr. Initially we came up with about 4 plans A, B, C and so on…yep that’s right and ‘D’
So we’re now in Switzerland for Christmas and over the next few weeks we’re going to do our best to catch up….honest J
Well back into the Crinan we went. Although the weather improved the mood didn’t. As already mentioned, if we were to tackle the east route round the Mull of Galloway it was essential to get round before any autumn gales set in.
Then as we approached lock 11 of the Crinan it suddenly occurred to me that we hadn’t really considered all our options, instead we (well mainly I) had just pushed on regardless. Conny as already preparing the next lock when I pulled Tiger over the side, tied her up and then ran over to Conny and proposed we pull over for the day to look at our options properly.
It was at this moment that all sorts of unbelievable opportunities started to open up….
First off we spent a day or so considering our options…during which we met a new friend Colin (the Lock keeper) Barr. Initially we came up with about 4 plans A, B, C and so on…yep that’s right and ‘D’
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
8th August onwards
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8th August 2007
Ben Nevis!!!! Climbing it may sound like a walk in the park because of it’s nicely laid out paths but the reality is something else!
Wednesday 8th - The morning was fantastic, hardly a cloud in the sky and the summit of Nevis quite visible in the distance as we headed off towards the main road to find a bus. Only 15 minutes into our expedition though and we hit our first hiccup. Conny pointed out that the sun was going to be intense (Sun what’s that I thought!) and Lil was going to need sun cream…doh. So off I went back to Tiger but on return none was to be found. A quick phone call and we decided that the others would catch the bus and that I’d find my own way and we’d all meet up in Fort William. To cut a long story short, we got the sun cream needed but whilst I’d found a bus, the others hadn’t and they’d walked three miles into town. Not such a great start when you’re about to go up Britain’s highest mountain.
We eventually reached the foot of the mountain at 11o’clock and started our slog up. In the distance we could make out people further on up the side of the mountain. All following the same path, they looked like multi-coloured ants on a massive anthill. As we joined the line, it felt more like being part of a pilgrimage rather than a mountain climb! That is until our legs started burning!
As we meandered (OK sweated) our way up the path it quickly became apparent that we’d under estimated our water needs. Or to put it more accurately Lil’s water needs :-) and after 3 hours, all of Lil’s had gone, three quarters of mine and Tom’s had gone (we were sharing) and the only one with much left was Conny and Scamp! Great….Scamp could drink from the streams added to which Conny shared some of hers with the rest of us J.
We counted off the meters on a hand held GPS and eventually reached what appeared to be the summit. This was confirmed by Tom who said there was only 30 meters or so to go! Yeh right…..as we reached what we had thought was the summit, a new stretch of path came into view that really knocked our spirits. The path carried on for hundreds of meters, snaking its way still higher. It was all too much for Scamp…she tried to curl up under a nearby rock. Well, there was nothing for it but to carry on, Scamp in rucksack we reached the summit at about three o’clock…four hours after setting off and with next to no drink left…doh.
The views were stunning…but it wasn’t long before all the layers we’d been shedding on the way up were quickly being put back on again. After eating our sandwiches (which had aided our motivation to reach the summit) and taking some photos we headed south again.
It took us about seven and a half hours to reach the summit and get down again. 1,344 meters…not bad we thought. That is until you find out that people run up and down it in less than an hour and a half!
Although a chance still remained of getting up to Loch Sunart the weather wasn’t looking too favourable (the good weather had lasted a day!) so the next afternoon we caught the tide down Loch Linnhe and anchored up beside a small group of islands next to Lismore for the night. We’d anchored on the north side of the islands given the southerly forecast and guess what? The wind backed round to the east during the night and gave us another jumpy night.
The next morning Conny went off in the dingy to give Scamp an early spin only to find the two of them surrounded by no fewer than fifteen seals all eager to investigate their new visitors. What a sight…..
A bit later and we all went off together in the dingy to explore the islands. Having tentatively decided to stay for the day, Tom and Lil set about gathering firewood as Conny and I brought Tiger to a new, closer anchorage. However, a look at the Navtex (this gives up to date weather reports) scuppered our plans. We needed to find a more sheltered anchorage so headed off into Loch Creran. This Loch turned out to be pretty nondescript but that didn’t matter too much. We had a great evening in Tiger playing cards and generally having a good laugh….
The remaining couple of days of Tom and Lil’s stay were spent nearby to Oban as we couldn’t afford to get caught by the weather resulting in them missing their train.
OK, I’m not going to moan too much about the weather ‘cause hey, this is Scotland!’ But really, so far this year, the weather has been pretty rubbish. The biggest problem for us has been the strong winds. In the relative shelter that the islands afford, Tiger has proved OK in up to force 5’s or maybe 6’s. But force 7’s have been common all summer! Where’s the high pressure???
After returning to Oban marina we had a couple of good days exploring the town again before all too quickly came the time for Tom and Lil to leave :-(
We’d also planned to leave Oban the same day but the wind was just too strong and so stayed until the following day when we took a short run for it down to Puilldobhrain. It was a day or so before spring tides (the highest and strongest) and I fancied trying to get through Seil Sound which leads under the ‘Bridge over the Atlantic’. So at low water that afternoon we went to investigate the path of the deepest channel through. It turned into a beautiful walk that took hours to explore. But after all our efforts a nasty swell in the entrance to the sound put pay to our attempts to go through. When I say attempts, I mean we nearly went for it and backed out in the last moment. There was nearly a meter of swell running which is a lot when you’ve maybe only got seven hundred millimetres of clearance and although the entrance looked calmer I decided not to risk it….Doh
Although it was now only mid August, the need to head south was already in our minds. On our way up it had taken us to seven weeks to reach this point and if the same were to happen again, it would be October before we returned. Although this time we had decided to return by the west coast, which would be shorter, this had some challenges of its own. Like the North Channel (this is the twenty odd mile wide stretch of water which separates Scotland from Ireland). This is where the nine meter high tides of the Irish Sea squeeze themselves through twice a day, their strong currents causing all sorts of chaos where they collide with land and each other at headlands. Added to which were some potentially long passages….fifty odd miles from Porpatrick to the Isle of Man and sixty five miles from the Isle of Man to Glasson Dock (Lancaster). Well you get the picture….a shorter route but one that needs settled weather for Tiger and with autumn not really known for settled weather, came the need to press on!
The next day the wind had calmed so we did a run for it. We needed to time our passage through Cuan Sound as, already mentioned, it was around spring tides which meant the flow would be exceeding 8 knots if we were to get it wrong.
One thing that’s never ceased to amaze me on this trip is the dramatic difference wind over tide can have on the sea state. We travelled south that day with a force 4 behind us but pushing a slightly foul tide. The swell was well under a meter and we chugged along quite happily. But when we reached Sound of Insh and the current increased to two or three knots the sea state changed dramatically. The swell increased as our speed over ground slowed due to the current and in no time at all we were crawling along over small hills that hadn’t existed minutes before. It was nothing too serious, just alarming how quickly things can change….
We passed through Cuan Sound without incident with two knots of flow to help us on our way and headed for Loch Melfort. Here we found a lovely area but were unable anchor due to the steep sided loch sides. So….off we went to Ardinmur which according to the pilot book is one of the most popular anchorages on the west coast. Unfortunately we failed to see why, stayed long enough to spin Scamp and headed off again. We eventually reached Loch Craigish, a stones throw from the Crinan Canal, and anchored up for the night.
When I say it rained…..I mean it really rained. ALL night and ALL of the next day. It just didn’t stop. It was the best we could do to get Scamp to leave the boat for a few minutes the following afternoon. It was a heavy day. The incessant rain added to which the thought that we were already heading south played on our mood….doh
Ben Nevis!!!! Climbing it may sound like a walk in the park because of it’s nicely laid out paths but the reality is something else!
Wednesday 8th - The morning was fantastic, hardly a cloud in the sky and the summit of Nevis quite visible in the distance as we headed off towards the main road to find a bus. Only 15 minutes into our expedition though and we hit our first hiccup. Conny pointed out that the sun was going to be intense (Sun what’s that I thought!) and Lil was going to need sun cream…doh. So off I went back to Tiger but on return none was to be found. A quick phone call and we decided that the others would catch the bus and that I’d find my own way and we’d all meet up in Fort William. To cut a long story short, we got the sun cream needed but whilst I’d found a bus, the others hadn’t and they’d walked three miles into town. Not such a great start when you’re about to go up Britain’s highest mountain.
We eventually reached the foot of the mountain at 11o’clock and started our slog up. In the distance we could make out people further on up the side of the mountain. All following the same path, they looked like multi-coloured ants on a massive anthill. As we joined the line, it felt more like being part of a pilgrimage rather than a mountain climb! That is until our legs started burning!
As we meandered (OK sweated) our way up the path it quickly became apparent that we’d under estimated our water needs. Or to put it more accurately Lil’s water needs :-) and after 3 hours, all of Lil’s had gone, three quarters of mine and Tom’s had gone (we were sharing) and the only one with much left was Conny and Scamp! Great….Scamp could drink from the streams added to which Conny shared some of hers with the rest of us J.
We counted off the meters on a hand held GPS and eventually reached what appeared to be the summit. This was confirmed by Tom who said there was only 30 meters or so to go! Yeh right…..as we reached what we had thought was the summit, a new stretch of path came into view that really knocked our spirits. The path carried on for hundreds of meters, snaking its way still higher. It was all too much for Scamp…she tried to curl up under a nearby rock. Well, there was nothing for it but to carry on, Scamp in rucksack we reached the summit at about three o’clock…four hours after setting off and with next to no drink left…doh.
The views were stunning…but it wasn’t long before all the layers we’d been shedding on the way up were quickly being put back on again. After eating our sandwiches (which had aided our motivation to reach the summit) and taking some photos we headed south again.
It took us about seven and a half hours to reach the summit and get down again. 1,344 meters…not bad we thought. That is until you find out that people run up and down it in less than an hour and a half!
Although a chance still remained of getting up to Loch Sunart the weather wasn’t looking too favourable (the good weather had lasted a day!) so the next afternoon we caught the tide down Loch Linnhe and anchored up beside a small group of islands next to Lismore for the night. We’d anchored on the north side of the islands given the southerly forecast and guess what? The wind backed round to the east during the night and gave us another jumpy night.
The next morning Conny went off in the dingy to give Scamp an early spin only to find the two of them surrounded by no fewer than fifteen seals all eager to investigate their new visitors. What a sight…..
A bit later and we all went off together in the dingy to explore the islands. Having tentatively decided to stay for the day, Tom and Lil set about gathering firewood as Conny and I brought Tiger to a new, closer anchorage. However, a look at the Navtex (this gives up to date weather reports) scuppered our plans. We needed to find a more sheltered anchorage so headed off into Loch Creran. This Loch turned out to be pretty nondescript but that didn’t matter too much. We had a great evening in Tiger playing cards and generally having a good laugh….
The remaining couple of days of Tom and Lil’s stay were spent nearby to Oban as we couldn’t afford to get caught by the weather resulting in them missing their train.
OK, I’m not going to moan too much about the weather ‘cause hey, this is Scotland!’ But really, so far this year, the weather has been pretty rubbish. The biggest problem for us has been the strong winds. In the relative shelter that the islands afford, Tiger has proved OK in up to force 5’s or maybe 6’s. But force 7’s have been common all summer! Where’s the high pressure???
After returning to Oban marina we had a couple of good days exploring the town again before all too quickly came the time for Tom and Lil to leave :-(
We’d also planned to leave Oban the same day but the wind was just too strong and so stayed until the following day when we took a short run for it down to Puilldobhrain. It was a day or so before spring tides (the highest and strongest) and I fancied trying to get through Seil Sound which leads under the ‘Bridge over the Atlantic’. So at low water that afternoon we went to investigate the path of the deepest channel through. It turned into a beautiful walk that took hours to explore. But after all our efforts a nasty swell in the entrance to the sound put pay to our attempts to go through. When I say attempts, I mean we nearly went for it and backed out in the last moment. There was nearly a meter of swell running which is a lot when you’ve maybe only got seven hundred millimetres of clearance and although the entrance looked calmer I decided not to risk it….Doh
Although it was now only mid August, the need to head south was already in our minds. On our way up it had taken us to seven weeks to reach this point and if the same were to happen again, it would be October before we returned. Although this time we had decided to return by the west coast, which would be shorter, this had some challenges of its own. Like the North Channel (this is the twenty odd mile wide stretch of water which separates Scotland from Ireland). This is where the nine meter high tides of the Irish Sea squeeze themselves through twice a day, their strong currents causing all sorts of chaos where they collide with land and each other at headlands. Added to which were some potentially long passages….fifty odd miles from Porpatrick to the Isle of Man and sixty five miles from the Isle of Man to Glasson Dock (Lancaster). Well you get the picture….a shorter route but one that needs settled weather for Tiger and with autumn not really known for settled weather, came the need to press on!
The next day the wind had calmed so we did a run for it. We needed to time our passage through Cuan Sound as, already mentioned, it was around spring tides which meant the flow would be exceeding 8 knots if we were to get it wrong.
One thing that’s never ceased to amaze me on this trip is the dramatic difference wind over tide can have on the sea state. We travelled south that day with a force 4 behind us but pushing a slightly foul tide. The swell was well under a meter and we chugged along quite happily. But when we reached Sound of Insh and the current increased to two or three knots the sea state changed dramatically. The swell increased as our speed over ground slowed due to the current and in no time at all we were crawling along over small hills that hadn’t existed minutes before. It was nothing too serious, just alarming how quickly things can change….
We passed through Cuan Sound without incident with two knots of flow to help us on our way and headed for Loch Melfort. Here we found a lovely area but were unable anchor due to the steep sided loch sides. So….off we went to Ardinmur which according to the pilot book is one of the most popular anchorages on the west coast. Unfortunately we failed to see why, stayed long enough to spin Scamp and headed off again. We eventually reached Loch Craigish, a stones throw from the Crinan Canal, and anchored up for the night.
When I say it rained…..I mean it really rained. ALL night and ALL of the next day. It just didn’t stop. It was the best we could do to get Scamp to leave the boat for a few minutes the following afternoon. It was a heavy day. The incessant rain added to which the thought that we were already heading south played on our mood….doh
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
1st August onwards
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1st August 2007
Italy may have 48 degrees, France may have a huge high pressure hovering over it and England may have 30 degrees of sunshine, but in Scotland it’s raining and we’ve got the fire lit!
Well since Jase and Tom arrived and with having Lil already with us, it’s been like having yet another a mini holiday within a holiday. OK, life’s been a little tight with five of us aboard Tiger but there’s barely been a dull moment with Jase’s sharp wit never more than a few words away and Conny’s fantastic cooking keeping spirits high.
We headed up along the length of the Caledonian Canal through last week reaching Fort Augustus on Wednesday. That night we went to a couple of local pubs and met two Guys (Moose and Mark) from a nearby construction site building a new dam for hydro electric generation. How small a world is this then….it turns out that Moose (originally from Canada hence the nickname) and his family have owned one of the prettiest riverside cottages on the river Soar for the past 60 years. Anyone who has been along the River Soar towards Loughborough will know it. Called ‘Windy Corner’, it’s the last cottage on the left having passed through Normanton on Soar and one we’ve admired every time we’ve passed it. And how odd as well, although completely unconnected….in one of the pubs there was a Swiss pipe band playing! It turned out they were over to play at a concert with a Scottish band the following weekend and were having a practice night in the pub.
Thursday and with binoculars at the ready we headed out of Fort Augustus. Conny and I had cast off quite early leaving all the others still ‘zedding’ in their bunks. Within a few minutes of our departure the view opened up and there in front of us, lying majestically with it’s bordering hills and mountains, was Loch Ness. It was breathtaking…….and how deep…the depth sounder went blank at 182 meters!
The trip up to Drumnadrochit took us three hours and by the time we passed Urquhart Castle the others had emerged from their bunks. After anchoring up it was off to the ‘Monster exhibition’….
Well…. after finding out that you could fit the world’s population into Loch Ness we returned to our anchorage and decided to stay overnight and have a fire on a small pebble beach on the wood lined shore….It turned into a wind still night with barely a ripple on the surface of the loch. With Tiger anchored in the background, some great food and the fire crackling away, it made a picture to cherish….
The next day and the Loch had changed character completely. Gone was it’s pond like appearance and instead were tumbling white caps. The forecast had predicted force 5 gusting to 7 which would’ve been a big ‘no go’ for us out at sea, but how bad could it possibly be on an enclosed loch? It was only a few minutes before we found out! As we lost the relative shelter of Urquhart Castle the effects of 15 odd miles of open water hit us. Waves quite unlike others we had encountered before thrashed down the loch, about four feet high but very close together. Fortunately we were heading north and running with the waves so things weren’t too bad. However, after five minutes I started to get concerned about how things would look when we reached the end of the loch and these waves hit shallower water! I decided I could live without knowing which meant plan ‘B’ and heading back to Drumnadrochit. Knowing that things were about to change for the worst, Conny went down to secure things as I turned Tiger round. Full throttle and with hard lock on the wheel Tiger went quickly around and was immediately launched off the first crest and down into the next on coming wave…. crash…..(it is said that the worst waves a boat can encounter are those that have a wave length equal to half the boats length. This is because one wave launches the boat in the air only for it to land in the trough of the next oncoming wave) and so it was….
The book reading and conversation inside the cabin stopped as the guys reached out for something to hang on to. Every time we hit a wave the cockpit windows received a deluge of water as if someone were outside throwing buckets of water at us. There was none of the rolling we’d experienced in the North Sea, just an exaggerated see-saw movement from bow to stern as we crashed through the waves…
Fortunately it wasn’t too long before we reached sheltered water again and dropped anchor. Our second attempt to head towards Inverness only three hours later was a completely different ‘kettle of fish’ and we reached our destination of Dochgarroch without fuss.
With Tom, Lil and Jase visiting...although Jase has now gone, the blog has been taking second priority. We'll try and get up to date soon. We're now back at our original start point on the Caledonian Canal at Fort William and this morning we're nursing aching muscles as we climbed Ben Nevis yesterday! All 1,344 meters of it! Yesterday we were blessed. The sun came out (according to the visitor centre, 'the best day in weeks and weeks') and the views were stunning!
Try and update more as soon as......X
With the weather often being rainy, playing cards became a popular way of passing time with the guys. Rummy was the preferred game but when we eventually tired of it at game 1,346 we decided to play Tom’s game ‘Black Jack’. At first however we really struggled with the rules with Jase accusing Tom of introducing new rules whenever it suited his cause J.
With Saturday came a trip into Inverness. This place has really changed over the years and is now much more cosmopolitan and a ‘happening’ place. After looking around the town, doing some shopping and having an M&S sandwich (yum yum) we returned to the boat (30 mins walk) only to walk back that evening for an Indian, courtesy of Jase. The meal was fab and matched equally by the view from the restaurant which overlooked the river Ness. The strong winds had returned and a pair of hanging baskets outside our window thrashed around so much during the evening they looked like they might part company with their hangers at any second. Needless to say they didn’t…We finished our meal, went for a quick drink in a local bar where Tom introduced us to a very odd tasting apple shot, and then returned to Tiger.
Sunday was an early start to get Jase on a bus back to his car. He had offered to do this rather than having all of us rush back the 60 odd miles of the Caledonian by boat. The week with Jase had flown by and it was sad to see it over so quickly L.
We headed back into Loch Ness and visited the ‘Monster Hunter’. This is a guy called Steve Feltham who gave up his life in Dorset in the early 90’s to take up residence by the Loch in a converted library van. Some may remember him as he featured on his own BBC2 video diary in the mid 90’s. Anyone interested can also follow this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5H1LZ-hwbdU
Anyway…after buying a monster from Steve we headed back to Drumnadrochit. Unfortunately we’d only been there 30 minutes when I noticed a change in wind direction. Double checking the forecast I found it had changed completely, potentially leaving our anchorage very exposed to a newly forecasted force 7.
Doh….there was nothing for it but to press on to Fort Augustus, another 3 hours away. Wind on our stern, we reached the end of Loch Ness at nightfall (11 o’clock), just as the big wind was arriving. Although in relative shelter from the loch we had a bumpy night and were very pleased we hadn’t stayed put….
We awoke from our bumpy night tied up to a hire boat and due to the volume of boats trying to occupy such a small pontoon decided it best to precede up the Fort Augustus ‘staircase lock’. The weather was pretty dire and Conny and I got a soaking whilst the kids continued to sleep blissfully unaware of what was going on. At the top we decided to get what shopping we needed from the town, shower, fill up with water etc. and head on. Having done all of this we reached Kytra Lock later that evening and after a quick wander (midge city) returned for dinner….
With a week left with the kids (soz guys….not so much kids anymore!) we faced a bit of a quandary. On the one hand the Caledonian was beautiful and begged more exploration but on the other was the chance of heading back up the Sound of Mull to show the kids Loch Sunart. With this partly in mind we set off ‘early doors’ the next morning. This ended up quite a mammoth day. We reached the end of the Caledonian 9 hours later, having covered some 23 miles, about 10 lochs and swing bridges, and Neptune’s Staircase (7 locks back to back near Fort William).
And after all that what did we do?….we decided to stay there and climb Ben Nevis (what Muppets!)
Italy may have 48 degrees, France may have a huge high pressure hovering over it and England may have 30 degrees of sunshine, but in Scotland it’s raining and we’ve got the fire lit!
Well since Jase and Tom arrived and with having Lil already with us, it’s been like having yet another a mini holiday within a holiday. OK, life’s been a little tight with five of us aboard Tiger but there’s barely been a dull moment with Jase’s sharp wit never more than a few words away and Conny’s fantastic cooking keeping spirits high.
We headed up along the length of the Caledonian Canal through last week reaching Fort Augustus on Wednesday. That night we went to a couple of local pubs and met two Guys (Moose and Mark) from a nearby construction site building a new dam for hydro electric generation. How small a world is this then….it turns out that Moose (originally from Canada hence the nickname) and his family have owned one of the prettiest riverside cottages on the river Soar for the past 60 years. Anyone who has been along the River Soar towards Loughborough will know it. Called ‘Windy Corner’, it’s the last cottage on the left having passed through Normanton on Soar and one we’ve admired every time we’ve passed it. And how odd as well, although completely unconnected….in one of the pubs there was a Swiss pipe band playing! It turned out they were over to play at a concert with a Scottish band the following weekend and were having a practice night in the pub.
Thursday and with binoculars at the ready we headed out of Fort Augustus. Conny and I had cast off quite early leaving all the others still ‘zedding’ in their bunks. Within a few minutes of our departure the view opened up and there in front of us, lying majestically with it’s bordering hills and mountains, was Loch Ness. It was breathtaking…….and how deep…the depth sounder went blank at 182 meters!
The trip up to Drumnadrochit took us three hours and by the time we passed Urquhart Castle the others had emerged from their bunks. After anchoring up it was off to the ‘Monster exhibition’….
Well…. after finding out that you could fit the world’s population into Loch Ness we returned to our anchorage and decided to stay overnight and have a fire on a small pebble beach on the wood lined shore….It turned into a wind still night with barely a ripple on the surface of the loch. With Tiger anchored in the background, some great food and the fire crackling away, it made a picture to cherish….
The next day and the Loch had changed character completely. Gone was it’s pond like appearance and instead were tumbling white caps. The forecast had predicted force 5 gusting to 7 which would’ve been a big ‘no go’ for us out at sea, but how bad could it possibly be on an enclosed loch? It was only a few minutes before we found out! As we lost the relative shelter of Urquhart Castle the effects of 15 odd miles of open water hit us. Waves quite unlike others we had encountered before thrashed down the loch, about four feet high but very close together. Fortunately we were heading north and running with the waves so things weren’t too bad. However, after five minutes I started to get concerned about how things would look when we reached the end of the loch and these waves hit shallower water! I decided I could live without knowing which meant plan ‘B’ and heading back to Drumnadrochit. Knowing that things were about to change for the worst, Conny went down to secure things as I turned Tiger round. Full throttle and with hard lock on the wheel Tiger went quickly around and was immediately launched off the first crest and down into the next on coming wave…. crash…..(it is said that the worst waves a boat can encounter are those that have a wave length equal to half the boats length. This is because one wave launches the boat in the air only for it to land in the trough of the next oncoming wave) and so it was….
The book reading and conversation inside the cabin stopped as the guys reached out for something to hang on to. Every time we hit a wave the cockpit windows received a deluge of water as if someone were outside throwing buckets of water at us. There was none of the rolling we’d experienced in the North Sea, just an exaggerated see-saw movement from bow to stern as we crashed through the waves…
Fortunately it wasn’t too long before we reached sheltered water again and dropped anchor. Our second attempt to head towards Inverness only three hours later was a completely different ‘kettle of fish’ and we reached our destination of Dochgarroch without fuss.
With Tom, Lil and Jase visiting...although Jase has now gone, the blog has been taking second priority. We'll try and get up to date soon. We're now back at our original start point on the Caledonian Canal at Fort William and this morning we're nursing aching muscles as we climbed Ben Nevis yesterday! All 1,344 meters of it! Yesterday we were blessed. The sun came out (according to the visitor centre, 'the best day in weeks and weeks') and the views were stunning!
Try and update more as soon as......X
With the weather often being rainy, playing cards became a popular way of passing time with the guys. Rummy was the preferred game but when we eventually tired of it at game 1,346 we decided to play Tom’s game ‘Black Jack’. At first however we really struggled with the rules with Jase accusing Tom of introducing new rules whenever it suited his cause J.
With Saturday came a trip into Inverness. This place has really changed over the years and is now much more cosmopolitan and a ‘happening’ place. After looking around the town, doing some shopping and having an M&S sandwich (yum yum) we returned to the boat (30 mins walk) only to walk back that evening for an Indian, courtesy of Jase. The meal was fab and matched equally by the view from the restaurant which overlooked the river Ness. The strong winds had returned and a pair of hanging baskets outside our window thrashed around so much during the evening they looked like they might part company with their hangers at any second. Needless to say they didn’t…We finished our meal, went for a quick drink in a local bar where Tom introduced us to a very odd tasting apple shot, and then returned to Tiger.
Sunday was an early start to get Jase on a bus back to his car. He had offered to do this rather than having all of us rush back the 60 odd miles of the Caledonian by boat. The week with Jase had flown by and it was sad to see it over so quickly L.
We headed back into Loch Ness and visited the ‘Monster Hunter’. This is a guy called Steve Feltham who gave up his life in Dorset in the early 90’s to take up residence by the Loch in a converted library van. Some may remember him as he featured on his own BBC2 video diary in the mid 90’s. Anyone interested can also follow this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5H1LZ-hwbdU
Anyway…after buying a monster from Steve we headed back to Drumnadrochit. Unfortunately we’d only been there 30 minutes when I noticed a change in wind direction. Double checking the forecast I found it had changed completely, potentially leaving our anchorage very exposed to a newly forecasted force 7.
Doh….there was nothing for it but to press on to Fort Augustus, another 3 hours away. Wind on our stern, we reached the end of Loch Ness at nightfall (11 o’clock), just as the big wind was arriving. Although in relative shelter from the loch we had a bumpy night and were very pleased we hadn’t stayed put….
We awoke from our bumpy night tied up to a hire boat and due to the volume of boats trying to occupy such a small pontoon decided it best to precede up the Fort Augustus ‘staircase lock’. The weather was pretty dire and Conny and I got a soaking whilst the kids continued to sleep blissfully unaware of what was going on. At the top we decided to get what shopping we needed from the town, shower, fill up with water etc. and head on. Having done all of this we reached Kytra Lock later that evening and after a quick wander (midge city) returned for dinner….
With a week left with the kids (soz guys….not so much kids anymore!) we faced a bit of a quandary. On the one hand the Caledonian was beautiful and begged more exploration but on the other was the chance of heading back up the Sound of Mull to show the kids Loch Sunart. With this partly in mind we set off ‘early doors’ the next morning. This ended up quite a mammoth day. We reached the end of the Caledonian 9 hours later, having covered some 23 miles, about 10 lochs and swing bridges, and Neptune’s Staircase (7 locks back to back near Fort William).
And after all that what did we do?….we decided to stay there and climb Ben Nevis (what Muppets!)
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
25th July onwards
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25th July 2007
On the 25th we caught the train from Oban to Glasgow to meet up with Lil. Due to the way in which the rail networks originally developed Glasgow has two stations. One that seems to serve north and one where southern trains begin and terminate (I think).
Because of this, anyone travelling through has to change station which entails a 10 or 15 minute walk through the centre of Glasgow.
What fantastic scenery on the three hour journey. From the water you only see from one perspective and it was great to see it from a completely different one for a change. Shows the speed we’ve been travelling at over the past few months though, as several times we got worried that the train’s brakes had failed! Before arriving in Glasgow we passed Bowling harbour which marks the end of the Firth and Clyde canal. It seemed like a lifetime since we’d passed through. A big hello to everyone there if you’re reading…J
Lil arrived bang on time at Glasgow Central. It was great to see her. It had now been 10 weeks since we left Nottingham but felt like it could’ve been a year. Scamp went absolutely mad on the platform, jumping and barking and running around like a…..well I suppose like a very happy Jack Russell!
Wow….nearly back up to date!
We got back to Oban late on Wednesday evening and caught the shuttle ferry back to Kerrera. Yesterday, after filling up with last minute supplies, we headed up Loch Linnhe and are now anchored up in Loch Leven. This according to the pilot ‘is one of the most spectacular of west coast lochs with hills over 800 meters crowding in on both sides’. Well one thing for sure is that it’s flipping windy. All of last night squalls came down from the ‘hills’ (I’d call them mountains! I think anything you wouldn’t want to walk up must be a mountain J) that threatened to break the anchor free. Actually at one point during the night the anchor alarm did go off. But on investigation it was only because of low water that Tiger had strayed outside of the set threshold. This anchor alarm is a reassuring feature of the GPS. You set your anchor position and a swing distance and if the boat strays beyond this threshold an alarm goes off…..very nice to have!
On the subject of anchoring…many guides will tell you to have chain and warp (rope). Chain to give the line some weight (this ensures the pull on the anchor comes from the horizontal) and rope to absorb shock. OK in theory but I tell you there is nothing worse than wondering if the warp is being cut to pieces by rocks on the seabed and wondering whether or not the connection or splice between the two is up to the job. Put it this way, nearly every boat we’ve seen uses chain only and so do we now. Bla bla bla bla!
With Tom and Jase arriving in Fort William after the weekend we’re taking it at a steady pace until then. Today we’ve travelled up to the head of Loch Leven which only took a couple of hours. The timing was semi critical as the tide runs quite strongly at a narrows half way up. The scenery was as promised, dramatic and fjord like…ish.
On arrival at the top and after doing some unusual anchoring we went on one of Conny’s now infamous walks which usually involves going for much longer than anticipated and getting soaking wet. Even Scamp could be found trying to clamber back into the dingy when she realised what was happening. In Conny’s defence though we had a good time but we mustn’t tell her…. J.
Just heard from Bjorn....he’s now in Ireland.
Sunday morning started unhurriedly as we needed to work the tide up Loch Linnhe towards Fort William and our rendezvous with Tom and Jase. I gave Tom a ring to see what progress they were making, thinking they might have reached the Peak district by now. No….11 O’clock and they were still in Tamworth but they were up! What had I been thinking!
We had timed our departure so as to pass through Corran Narrows one our after slack water. As the name suggests this is a bottleneck through which all of the water has to squeeze each turn of tide. Even though the tide had only been turned for an hour or so, we still got a 3 knot boot up the backside as we passed through.
We arrived at Corpach Sea Lock at about 5 O’clock and only had to wait an hour or so for Tom and Jase’s arrival. How mad…. It had taken us ten weeks to get here by boat, and them just five and a half hours by car. It was great to see them both but in another sense it only felt like yesterday we’d seen each other…. quite strange!
The next morning we had an 8.30 start at the request of the lock keeper. This, we were told, was to enable all the boats to get through ‘Neptune’s Staircase’, a series of seven ‘back to back’ locks a couple of miles away. After an hour underway, this turned out to be quite a comical hour and a half as a couple of ill prepared yachts clearly struggled with the concept of lock operation and the surge of water each time a lock was filled. Then it was on to the beginning of Lock Lochy and our stop over for the night.
This morning we’re heading for Fort Augustus and the beginning of Lock Ness. Yesterday we covered twelve miles which included seven crossing Lock Lochy. I’m pleased we weren’t out at sea yesterday. The wind, according to the forecast, was gusting to force 7 and even Loch Lochy had 3 feet waves travelling down its length. We’re all looking forward to a bit of Nessy spotting now. We’ve been told this time of year is one of the most favourable time to see the monsterJ.
Loch Ness is a monster!
On the 25th we caught the train from Oban to Glasgow to meet up with Lil. Due to the way in which the rail networks originally developed Glasgow has two stations. One that seems to serve north and one where southern trains begin and terminate (I think).
Because of this, anyone travelling through has to change station which entails a 10 or 15 minute walk through the centre of Glasgow.
What fantastic scenery on the three hour journey. From the water you only see from one perspective and it was great to see it from a completely different one for a change. Shows the speed we’ve been travelling at over the past few months though, as several times we got worried that the train’s brakes had failed! Before arriving in Glasgow we passed Bowling harbour which marks the end of the Firth and Clyde canal. It seemed like a lifetime since we’d passed through. A big hello to everyone there if you’re reading…J
Lil arrived bang on time at Glasgow Central. It was great to see her. It had now been 10 weeks since we left Nottingham but felt like it could’ve been a year. Scamp went absolutely mad on the platform, jumping and barking and running around like a…..well I suppose like a very happy Jack Russell!
Wow….nearly back up to date!
We got back to Oban late on Wednesday evening and caught the shuttle ferry back to Kerrera. Yesterday, after filling up with last minute supplies, we headed up Loch Linnhe and are now anchored up in Loch Leven. This according to the pilot ‘is one of the most spectacular of west coast lochs with hills over 800 meters crowding in on both sides’. Well one thing for sure is that it’s flipping windy. All of last night squalls came down from the ‘hills’ (I’d call them mountains! I think anything you wouldn’t want to walk up must be a mountain J) that threatened to break the anchor free. Actually at one point during the night the anchor alarm did go off. But on investigation it was only because of low water that Tiger had strayed outside of the set threshold. This anchor alarm is a reassuring feature of the GPS. You set your anchor position and a swing distance and if the boat strays beyond this threshold an alarm goes off…..very nice to have!
On the subject of anchoring…many guides will tell you to have chain and warp (rope). Chain to give the line some weight (this ensures the pull on the anchor comes from the horizontal) and rope to absorb shock. OK in theory but I tell you there is nothing worse than wondering if the warp is being cut to pieces by rocks on the seabed and wondering whether or not the connection or splice between the two is up to the job. Put it this way, nearly every boat we’ve seen uses chain only and so do we now. Bla bla bla bla!
With Tom and Jase arriving in Fort William after the weekend we’re taking it at a steady pace until then. Today we’ve travelled up to the head of Loch Leven which only took a couple of hours. The timing was semi critical as the tide runs quite strongly at a narrows half way up. The scenery was as promised, dramatic and fjord like…ish.
On arrival at the top and after doing some unusual anchoring we went on one of Conny’s now infamous walks which usually involves going for much longer than anticipated and getting soaking wet. Even Scamp could be found trying to clamber back into the dingy when she realised what was happening. In Conny’s defence though we had a good time but we mustn’t tell her…. J.
Just heard from Bjorn....he’s now in Ireland.
Sunday morning started unhurriedly as we needed to work the tide up Loch Linnhe towards Fort William and our rendezvous with Tom and Jase. I gave Tom a ring to see what progress they were making, thinking they might have reached the Peak district by now. No….11 O’clock and they were still in Tamworth but they were up! What had I been thinking!
We had timed our departure so as to pass through Corran Narrows one our after slack water. As the name suggests this is a bottleneck through which all of the water has to squeeze each turn of tide. Even though the tide had only been turned for an hour or so, we still got a 3 knot boot up the backside as we passed through.
We arrived at Corpach Sea Lock at about 5 O’clock and only had to wait an hour or so for Tom and Jase’s arrival. How mad…. It had taken us ten weeks to get here by boat, and them just five and a half hours by car. It was great to see them both but in another sense it only felt like yesterday we’d seen each other…. quite strange!
The next morning we had an 8.30 start at the request of the lock keeper. This, we were told, was to enable all the boats to get through ‘Neptune’s Staircase’, a series of seven ‘back to back’ locks a couple of miles away. After an hour underway, this turned out to be quite a comical hour and a half as a couple of ill prepared yachts clearly struggled with the concept of lock operation and the surge of water each time a lock was filled. Then it was on to the beginning of Lock Lochy and our stop over for the night.
This morning we’re heading for Fort Augustus and the beginning of Lock Ness. Yesterday we covered twelve miles which included seven crossing Lock Lochy. I’m pleased we weren’t out at sea yesterday. The wind, according to the forecast, was gusting to force 7 and even Loch Lochy had 3 feet waves travelling down its length. We’re all looking forward to a bit of Nessy spotting now. We’ve been told this time of year is one of the most favourable time to see the monsterJ.
Loch Ness is a monster!
Friday, July 20, 2007
20th August onwards
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Friday 20th July –
Today is a sad day...finally we must say our farewell to Bjorn. He and his visiting Sister and family are heading off south and then over to Ireland. Conny and I are really going to miss him. If someone had said we would meet a Danish chap on this trip and spend over 4 weeks travelling together 24/7 (well ok 16/7) I would've never believed it. We've grown to love this guy. In a world often full of dis-trust, suspicion, greed and pre-occupation, Bjorn is a real one in a million. We'll miss his limitless generosity, his company out on long trips, his company in between trips, his humour, his compassion, his optimism, his 'glass half full' approach to life and his constant smiling and laughing...
Anyway, where to start catching up..... After meeting up with Bjorn we stayed in Puilldobhrain for a couple of days exploring the area. I had it in mind that I'd like to navigate under the 'Bridge over the Atlantic' later in the trip. This is a famous bridge linking the island of Seil to the mainland. Water depths here are low and if the boat has a shallow enough draft it can make it through on 'high water springs' when the tides are at there greatest. Upon investigation though we found the waterway to be thick with weed making it not such a good idea.
From Puilldobhrain we headed for Oban where we topped up supplies and had a mini-tour of the town on foot before spending a very rocky night in the harbour on a mooring buoy.
The next morning we headed for Tobermory. The crossing of the Lismore peninsula went without incident but as we headed up the Sound of Mull a north westerly wind picked up and started to make life a bit uncomfortable. On the threat of increasing winds for the afternoon we 'changed tack' and headed into Loch Aline. This understated Loch (in the pilot book) turned into a nice surprise. Surrounded by wood lined shores we spent a nice afternoon and night there.
The following day or two we spent in and around Tobermory before heading over to Loch Drumbuie. Sort of part of Loch Sunart (if it wasn't for Oronsay), this area was beautiful (I'll let the photos speak for themselves).
Just 3 or 4 miles further into Loch Sunart lies the Island of Carna. The previous night we'd seen people on the summit and commented on how great the views must be and agreed we should walk up the next day. So off we went in Tiger the following morning. The passage was tricky with rocks, both above and below the waterline, scattered along our route. The pilot book described the area as containing 'some of the most spectacular bits of rock dodging in the Western Isles'. The routes laid out in these pilot books are something else and go something along the lines of 'line this tree up with a hut on the right, then once past a big rock on the left head at 240 degrees to the other shore until 2 thirds of the way across' etc etc....all this with a 2.5 knot tide, a depth reading that had gone from reading 110 meters deep down to 2 meters in a matter of seconds and the responsibility of leading Chili through who was following! Anyway we got there only to find (because we'd been concentrating on the pilotage) that you couldn't see the summit of Carna for fog and it had just started raining....doh
Bjorn had offered to take us out to the Atlantic side of the Isle of Mull on Chili at some point, something we couldn't do unless very settled weather was about. So with this plan in the offing we set off back to Tobermory to find Tiger a place to stay and get some supplies. On the way over Fiona confirmed she was coming to visit for 3 days. So we buzzed Bjorn on the vhf radio to check if it would be ok for her to come along on the trip.
The next morning Bjorn and I went shopping on the back of the joke that we'd be back by ten past nine. In the event it was 10 o'clock and Fiona was already on Tiger. Get this! She left Redhill the evening before. Got to Glasgow at 12 o'clock. Then back on the road at 4am reaching Oban at 6.45. Then a ferry and a bus ride to reach Tobermory! We were chuffed to bits to see her.
By 11ish we'd set off in Chili and were motoring (no wind) our way out to the island of Coll. We'd been told that the plankton blumes were at their strongest this time of year and with this area being the best feeding ground in Europe, that we stood a reasonable chance of seeing minke whales, killer whales, dolphins, porpoises and basking sharks. Anyway it wasn't to be. After 3 hours of motoring we hadn't seen alot and so changed course for Staffa (what a magnificent lump of rock!) and then onto Bunessan on the south side of Mull close to Iona.
The next morning there wasn't a breath of air and mist hung low all around so we decided to make the most of the settled conditions and visit Iona. Iona was beautiful. Turquoise water 5 meters deep (and you could still see the bottom) and white sandy beaches....
We had a walk round the island whilst pulling Bjorn's leg once more about Viking invasions (the Vikings invaded no fewer than 7 times). But as he pointed out how mad would you be if you'd sailed and rowed an open boat all the way from Scandinavia only to find a load of monks and no women! Anyway, by late morning the mist had burnt off leaving blue skies and sunshine and the wind was on the increase. By the time we were ready to set sail we had a force 4 or 5 and from a favourable direction. Wow.......what an afternoon! We were flying along at up to 8 knots and surfing down 2 or 3 meter waves! OK not Vendee Globe stuff but exhilarating never the less.
Our first sighting was of a basking shark not 5 meters from the boat. No kidding, if we'd arrived at that point 30 seconds earlier we'd have hit it!. Bjorn quickly turned into the wind to slow down as the sleepy giant went about it's plankton eating business. Next was the best though.....a Killer Whale and an infant...I can't explain it but there was something really magical about seeing them. We were all like excited kids. They surfaced perhaps 4 or 5 times as they disappeared off into the distance. Wow......
Not long after and having covered some big distance in 3 hours, we entered into Loch Cuan, our anchorage for the night. As we stopped to drop anchor we realised we had an audience of seals not 20 or 30 meters off.
That night wasn't the most comfortable as the wind made Chili lie side on to the resident swell. The rolling of the boat meant I had to pin myself into the 'dog bunk' to stop myself from falling out. Ok in itself, except I was sharing with Scamp who growled at me every time the boat moved!
The next morning was an earlyish start to get Fiona back to catch her bus at Tobermory. Motoring again due to light winds we passed a school of porpoises....what a great few days!
After bidding Fiona farewell we decided to head back to Loch Sunart. On the threat of strengthening winds (for a change…..NOT!) there was no time to loose. This time we headed for an anchorage we’d seen from the previous occasion, a fantastic spot surrounded by mini islands and completely deserted.
The wind picked up as promised that afternoon so we were careful to make sure our anchors were well bedded in. Then it was over to Bjorn’s and ‘chilli rice’ for dinnerJ. Afterwards out came the Tobermory scotch Fiona had bought Bjorn as a thank you. I have to say neither Conny nor I are whisky fans but this was something else.
The nest morning (14th July) we trekked up a nearby (hill/small mountain) and were greeted at the top by some fantastic views of Lock Sunart and beyond.
On our return it was time to go wood collecting. We’d already identified a spot on one of the islands and planned to have barbecue. I became fire manager whilst Conny and Bjorn went back to the boats to organise the snap. What a great evening. After finally managing to get a fire going with damp wood, we settled down with plenty of Skin So Soft midge repellent and some great food. At 11 o’clock (Danish midnight) we celebrated the start of Bjorn’s 50th birthday (still can’t believe he’s that old).
Bjorn must be a righteous guy because the next day (his birthday proper) saw clear blue skies, hot sunshine and calm weather. It was glorious. It was as if summer had arrived overnight. The previous day we’d been dressed in fleeces and jackets, now it was shorts and tee-shirts.
Bjorn’s sister and family were arriving in Oban in a couple of day’s time and we needed to use the facilities of the town so we headed off in that direction with Chili. We used Loch Aline as a stop off point for the afternoon and night and then headed to Oban the following day (which incidentally had returned to fleece and jacket weather! Summer had lasted a day L).
Bjorn’s Sister (Ditte), her Husband (Frank) and kids Ziggy and Bugge arrived in Oban on the 17th quite late on. Not knowing when the next ferry would be, we went over from Oban Marina (which is situated on the island of Kerrera) to the town in Tiger to pick them up (many bodies and lots of weight).
Bjorn had decided that he would like to head up to Loch Sunart to show everyone the anchorage we had found previously and to see if they could see any ocean wildlife on the western side of Mull. So off we went again up the Sound of Mull. We had a great barbecue and camp fire again at what had become our favourite spot. My party trick for the evening was to demonstrate how NOT to break firewood and ended up with a black eye framed by two cuts on my face…..doh.
Sadly this was to be our farewell evening and possibly our last tipple of Tobermory whisky together. Unfortunately, I finished the evening slightly the worse for ware and gave Conny quite a hard time with the dingy when leaving (something along the lines of my superior dingy handling skills). Just for the record, I think it was due to the bang on the head and absolutely nothing to do with the scotch!!! J
The row back to Tiger was amazing. It was now dark and as the paddles of the dingy disturbed the water it lit up with a thousand tiny glowing stars. This phenomenon is known as bioluminescence which is usually, but not always, the result of plankton giving off light. The same happens when it rains and it’s something that has to be seen to be believed. Just as an aside, we’d been talking with Bjorn about this and he recalled that he’d first seen it when peeing into yacht’s see toilet in the Atlantic… can you imagine getting up in the night to find the toilet glowing green when you pee’d into it! I think I’d worry that I’d become radioactive….
The next morning Bjorn rowed over quite early on. It was a sad affair and quite emotional. It’s strange to have made such a strong tie in such short time….
Following Chili’s departure we hung around in Sunart that day but it did seem a bit quiet. Until that is, we met up with Alan and Rhoda. We paddled over to meet up with them in Loch Drumbuie and had a lovely meal with them.
Over the next couple of days we meandered our way back to Oban whilst awaiting the arrival of Lil (my Daughter).
Sunday, July 15, 2007
15th July onwards
15th Jul 2007
Loch Aline, United Kingdom - Where to start!
Wowwwwwww....
Jellyfish, Seals, Puffins, Porpoises, Basking Sharks.. KILLER WHALES (Yeh really!), crystal clear turquoise seas, white sandy beaches, idyllic anchorages, island campfires, bioluminescence (thousands of glowing specs of light in the sea at night when it rains or when you disturb the water), great company and Tobermory Scotch!
We've just arrived in Loch Aline (off the Sound of Mull) and will be in Oban tomorrow for a couple of days. So we'll be doing our utmost to catch up with the blog. We're still with Bjorn but only for a couple more days. It's his 50th birthday today so I guess the Scotch will be out again! It's a hard life
P.S.- Soz to everyone that have posted messages. One of us accidentally pressed a tab on the website that meant our authority was needed before the massages were posted. Back to normal now.
Loch Aline, United Kingdom - Where to start!
Wowwwwwww....
Jellyfish, Seals, Puffins, Porpoises, Basking Sharks.. KILLER WHALES (Yeh really!), crystal clear turquoise seas, white sandy beaches, idyllic anchorages, island campfires, bioluminescence (thousands of glowing specs of light in the sea at night when it rains or when you disturb the water), great company and Tobermory Scotch!
We've just arrived in Loch Aline (off the Sound of Mull) and will be in Oban tomorrow for a couple of days. So we'll be doing our utmost to catch up with the blog. We're still with Bjorn but only for a couple more days. It's his 50th birthday today so I guess the Scotch will be out again! It's a hard life
P.S.- Soz to everyone that have posted messages. One of us accidentally pressed a tab on the website that meant our authority was needed before the massages were posted. Back to normal now.
Saturday, July 7, 2007
8th July onwards
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8th Jul 2007
Loch Aline, United Kingdom - Onward and Upward...
Well, we had a lovely night at our anchorage in Shuna. We walked Scamp and then played around in the bay (in the dingy) with two resident seals. Great fun! Each time we moved towards them they would dive, only to re-surface where we'd just come from. Very inquisitive and cheeky chaps! We returned to Tiger where Conny continued to watch them on and off through the night. After our return to the boat they later came out on to some rocks in the bay to spend the night.
The next morning we prepared for another tense passage. This one by the name of 'Cuan Sound', a short cut avoiding the 'Sound of Luing' but one with it's own list of casualties (as we later learnt from a nearby resident). Again the close proximity to spring tides amplified the dangers and get it wrong, and we'd be heading against an 8 knot flow and literally 'uphill' water (in full flow a form of rapids develop which have a 2 or 3 foot drop off) . I double checked the times and off we went. It soon became a fuss about nothing and apart from some turbulence at the beginning, we chugged through admiring the scenery.
On we went to our next anchorage at a Puilldobhrain, a very popular place 10 or so miles south of Oban. Bjorn (the Danish guy we met on east coast in 'Chili') had phoned us a couple of days earlier and at that time had only been 30 odd miles north of us. We'd made some outline plans to meet up here with Bjorn at this anchorage but with quite loose timescales. Imagine our surprise then on seeing Chili already at anchor in the bay. Out came the foghorn and we gave 3 long blasts to announce our arrival. How embarrassing! As our view of the bay opened up, we found ourselves being looked at by the occupants of practically every boat! Apart from Bjorn that is, who was asleep in his bunk....doh.
We tied up beside 'Chili' as a very weary looking Bjorn emerged from below. It turned out that he had said farewell to 2 visiting friends the same day and had only managed to catch 1 or 2 hours sleep the night before.
It was great to meet up with him again....
P.S. As mentioned previously, the trouble now we're having with the blog is signal versus time. When we've got signal we're too busy stocking up the boat, re-fuelling and filling up with water etc. And when we've time. We've no signal! Added to which is the PC uses a lot of power from the batteries, so we have to be careful there.
Loch Aline, United Kingdom - Onward and Upward...
Well, we had a lovely night at our anchorage in Shuna. We walked Scamp and then played around in the bay (in the dingy) with two resident seals. Great fun! Each time we moved towards them they would dive, only to re-surface where we'd just come from. Very inquisitive and cheeky chaps! We returned to Tiger where Conny continued to watch them on and off through the night. After our return to the boat they later came out on to some rocks in the bay to spend the night.
The next morning we prepared for another tense passage. This one by the name of 'Cuan Sound', a short cut avoiding the 'Sound of Luing' but one with it's own list of casualties (as we later learnt from a nearby resident). Again the close proximity to spring tides amplified the dangers and get it wrong, and we'd be heading against an 8 knot flow and literally 'uphill' water (in full flow a form of rapids develop which have a 2 or 3 foot drop off) . I double checked the times and off we went. It soon became a fuss about nothing and apart from some turbulence at the beginning, we chugged through admiring the scenery.
On we went to our next anchorage at a Puilldobhrain, a very popular place 10 or so miles south of Oban. Bjorn (the Danish guy we met on east coast in 'Chili') had phoned us a couple of days earlier and at that time had only been 30 odd miles north of us. We'd made some outline plans to meet up here with Bjorn at this anchorage but with quite loose timescales. Imagine our surprise then on seeing Chili already at anchor in the bay. Out came the foghorn and we gave 3 long blasts to announce our arrival. How embarrassing! As our view of the bay opened up, we found ourselves being looked at by the occupants of practically every boat! Apart from Bjorn that is, who was asleep in his bunk....doh.
We tied up beside 'Chili' as a very weary looking Bjorn emerged from below. It turned out that he had said farewell to 2 visiting friends the same day and had only managed to catch 1 or 2 hours sleep the night before.
It was great to meet up with him again....
P.S. As mentioned previously, the trouble now we're having with the blog is signal versus time. When we've got signal we're too busy stocking up the boat, re-fuelling and filling up with water etc. And when we've time. We've no signal! Added to which is the PC uses a lot of power from the batteries, so we have to be careful there.
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
4th July onwards
4th Jul 2007
Shuna, United Kingdom - Will someone tell me what that big black fin's attached to!
Hey, some signal at last!
Well we're out of the Crinan canal and in the Western Isles. We spent 3 days in the Crinan and it was absolutely average! They say it's the most scenic 10 miles of canal in the UK but it was spoilt by BW employees. Within 10 minutes of entering the canal Conny had a BW guy telling her to watch his lips before repeating a sentence that was utterly incomprehensible (but much louder than the first time). And not an hour later I had an altercation with the next lock guy over the description of a British Waterways 'watermate key' and it's uses! I'll spare the detail of him showing me several times, and in extreme slow motion, how a BW toilet opens and closes, when all I wanted was to open a swingbridge. (same old, same old! It a shame but idiots like these only serve to undermine all the work of all the good guys!)
Travelling the canal, we spent 3 days alongside Dan and Christan. Dan a 24 year old that does something with radar on submarines, and Christan, a Canadian graduate from Vancouver. We had a nice time with them in the evenings whilst being eaten by midges!
This morning we left the calm waters of the canal and headed north into Lock Craignish while waiting for a tidal window. We were chugging up to the head of the lock when we saw some huge fins, not 25 meters of the port bow (bloody hell)! We soon identified them as belonging to a basking shark but anyway these guys can grow up to 15 meters in length and weigh more than 6 tonnes. It seemed utterly un-interested in us probably because we didn't look like plankton!
At 1 pm it was time to tackle Dorus Mor. This is a narrow straight a few miles east of the notorious 'Gulf of Corryvrekan'. Although nowhere near as bad as the gulf, you can expect 8 knot tides and big overfalls here. With spring tides peaking today (they're the biggest) and the prospect of strengthening southwesterlies this was not a place we wanted to be at when flows reached their strongest! So, whilst constantly surveying the picture in front of us through the binoculars, we edged towards the narrows. I could see some overfalls some way off and lined Tiger up to meet them head on. If there's one thing I've learnt on this trip however, it's how hard it is to judge the size of seas at a distance and the overfalls I'd been looking at turned into little more than flood water on the River Trent. So, round the corner and up to Shuna, our anchorage for the night!
Shuna, United Kingdom - Will someone tell me what that big black fin's attached to!
Hey, some signal at last!
Well we're out of the Crinan canal and in the Western Isles. We spent 3 days in the Crinan and it was absolutely average! They say it's the most scenic 10 miles of canal in the UK but it was spoilt by BW employees. Within 10 minutes of entering the canal Conny had a BW guy telling her to watch his lips before repeating a sentence that was utterly incomprehensible (but much louder than the first time). And not an hour later I had an altercation with the next lock guy over the description of a British Waterways 'watermate key' and it's uses! I'll spare the detail of him showing me several times, and in extreme slow motion, how a BW toilet opens and closes, when all I wanted was to open a swingbridge. (same old, same old! It a shame but idiots like these only serve to undermine all the work of all the good guys!)
Travelling the canal, we spent 3 days alongside Dan and Christan. Dan a 24 year old that does something with radar on submarines, and Christan, a Canadian graduate from Vancouver. We had a nice time with them in the evenings whilst being eaten by midges!
This morning we left the calm waters of the canal and headed north into Lock Craignish while waiting for a tidal window. We were chugging up to the head of the lock when we saw some huge fins, not 25 meters of the port bow (bloody hell)! We soon identified them as belonging to a basking shark but anyway these guys can grow up to 15 meters in length and weigh more than 6 tonnes. It seemed utterly un-interested in us probably because we didn't look like plankton!
At 1 pm it was time to tackle Dorus Mor. This is a narrow straight a few miles east of the notorious 'Gulf of Corryvrekan'. Although nowhere near as bad as the gulf, you can expect 8 knot tides and big overfalls here. With spring tides peaking today (they're the biggest) and the prospect of strengthening southwesterlies this was not a place we wanted to be at when flows reached their strongest! So, whilst constantly surveying the picture in front of us through the binoculars, we edged towards the narrows. I could see some overfalls some way off and lined Tiger up to meet them head on. If there's one thing I've learnt on this trip however, it's how hard it is to judge the size of seas at a distance and the overfalls I'd been looking at turned into little more than flood water on the River Trent. So, round the corner and up to Shuna, our anchorage for the night!
Friday, June 29, 2007
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Thursday, June 28, 2007
28th June onwards
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28th Jun 2007
The Kyles of Bute, United Kingdom - Hello Mr. midge, your not a very pleasant fellow are you?
On arriving at our anchorage for the night our first priority was to spin Scamp. So into the dingy and off we went. It was now 8ish, it had just stopped raining and the wind had dropped....oh dear! Mr. Midge and his pals were out aplenty. Within minutes we were being eaten alive! The day before we'd seen these slightly silly looking nets that go over your head, how we wished we had them now! We returned to Tiger with a swarm of the little chaps following us, quickly boarded and shut all the doors and windows....phew!
Now then...the Royal Marines have found that Avon's 'skin so soft' has a certain ingredient that repels midges. Fiona first showed us an article about the stuff and it's got legendary status up here, referred to as SSS (I wonder why!). Anyway, isn't it great to know we've got one of the best fighting forces in the world and with such nice complexions! Hands up the marine that discovered that then! :-)
Unfortunately we haven't got any.....
30th Jun 2007
On route to Crinan, United Kingdom - A few days Later...
'The Crinan Canal for me
It's neither too big nor too wee
Wild foamin' breakers fair give me the shakers
The Crinan Canal for me'
Yep, we've reached the Crinan Canal. This 11 mile stretch of canal short cuts a 130 mile trip around the hazardous Mull of Kintyre (that's it! I'm going to be singing that song for weeks now!) and brings us out into the Atlantic Ocean and the Western Isles (Hurray)
We spent 2 nights in the Kyles Of Bute (because one was just not enough) before heading round to Tarbert. The name Tarbert came from Viking days when they used to drag their boats across land to save sea miles but actually this Tarbert had a cheekier history behind it. Apparently in around 1098 the Treaty of Tarbert was agreed between Scottish King Edgar and Magnus Barfod King of Norway. This declared that any Western Isle that could be sailed around would become the property of Norway. Liking Kintyre so much and seeing a great opportunity, King Magnus had men drag his ship along the narrows at Tarbert and thus claimed the massive peninsula of land to the south. Cheeky or what?
We spent just one night in Tarbert (mainly for shopping) before heading off. The forecast had given a north-westerly forecast backing southwesterly. So we spent some time at a place called Benmore Island before crossing the lock to Ardmarnock Bay. Whilst returning to Tiger from a walk at Benmore we saw the smallest seals playing in the bay (how cute). Anyway, the wind dropped as forecast (hurray they got it right) and we made our way 3 miles over to the other side of the lock to Ardmarnock which would give shelter from the forecasted south westerlies. We arrived at the anchorage, the wind turned to the south west and we had a really calm nights sleep (isn't it boring when everything goes to plan!).
Today we headed up Lock Fyne with a force 4 or 5 winds behind us on 3 feet of swell (which was great because it was following us) and entered into the Crinan
The Kyles of Bute, United Kingdom - Hello Mr. midge, your not a very pleasant fellow are you?
On arriving at our anchorage for the night our first priority was to spin Scamp. So into the dingy and off we went. It was now 8ish, it had just stopped raining and the wind had dropped....oh dear! Mr. Midge and his pals were out aplenty. Within minutes we were being eaten alive! The day before we'd seen these slightly silly looking nets that go over your head, how we wished we had them now! We returned to Tiger with a swarm of the little chaps following us, quickly boarded and shut all the doors and windows....phew!
Now then...the Royal Marines have found that Avon's 'skin so soft' has a certain ingredient that repels midges. Fiona first showed us an article about the stuff and it's got legendary status up here, referred to as SSS (I wonder why!). Anyway, isn't it great to know we've got one of the best fighting forces in the world and with such nice complexions! Hands up the marine that discovered that then! :-)
Unfortunately we haven't got any.....
30th Jun 2007
On route to Crinan, United Kingdom - A few days Later...
'The Crinan Canal for me
It's neither too big nor too wee
Wild foamin' breakers fair give me the shakers
The Crinan Canal for me'
Yep, we've reached the Crinan Canal. This 11 mile stretch of canal short cuts a 130 mile trip around the hazardous Mull of Kintyre (that's it! I'm going to be singing that song for weeks now!) and brings us out into the Atlantic Ocean and the Western Isles (Hurray)
We spent 2 nights in the Kyles Of Bute (because one was just not enough) before heading round to Tarbert. The name Tarbert came from Viking days when they used to drag their boats across land to save sea miles but actually this Tarbert had a cheekier history behind it. Apparently in around 1098 the Treaty of Tarbert was agreed between Scottish King Edgar and Magnus Barfod King of Norway. This declared that any Western Isle that could be sailed around would become the property of Norway. Liking Kintyre so much and seeing a great opportunity, King Magnus had men drag his ship along the narrows at Tarbert and thus claimed the massive peninsula of land to the south. Cheeky or what?
We spent just one night in Tarbert (mainly for shopping) before heading off. The forecast had given a north-westerly forecast backing southwesterly. So we spent some time at a place called Benmore Island before crossing the lock to Ardmarnock Bay. Whilst returning to Tiger from a walk at Benmore we saw the smallest seals playing in the bay (how cute). Anyway, the wind dropped as forecast (hurray they got it right) and we made our way 3 miles over to the other side of the lock to Ardmarnock which would give shelter from the forecasted south westerlies. We arrived at the anchorage, the wind turned to the south west and we had a really calm nights sleep (isn't it boring when everything goes to plan!).
Today we headed up Lock Fyne with a force 4 or 5 winds behind us on 3 feet of swell (which was great because it was following us) and entered into the Crinan
Sunday, June 24, 2007
24th June onwards
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24th Jun 2007
Holy Loch, United Kingdom - The calm Clyde
Going to have to be quick. We've met up again with Claus and Myraca from Holland (we met them first time in Whitby). We trundled down from Bowling this morning to Holy Lock to meet them. Had a walk from hell yesterday, the details of which will have to wait but it was all down to my bad navigation! Doh X
25th Jun 2007
Holy Loch, United Kingdom - Blow your heart out!
Forecast northerly 6 or 7, occasional 8. Thankfully we have all the surrounding mountains to shelter us now and only the odd squall to worry about - Horray....
After saying our goodbyes we left Bowling and made our way to Holy Lock as already mentioned. We were a little sad to leave Bowling. A great bunch of people and a lovely area. Special thanks must go to Alec the lock-keeper for recommending a walk up to the Humphrey lock. We set off on Saturday at around midday and a couple of hours later arrived at the top of the hill by the lock- beautiful.... Now I recalled that Alec had said to make our way round the lock and soon after we would get to a second lock from which we could return having made a circular route - great....
Conny asked if we should go round to the left of the lock where pine trees were growing and it looked really nice. But oh no! I could see a man walking his dog around the other, really bleak and barren, side of the lock and suggested that must be the way. Doh...
To cut a long, peat boggy, wet story short, we eventually reached another lock and were told by some fishermen that a main road was a 20 minute walk down a nearby track! Nearly an hour later we reached the road and then a pub, from which we ordered a taxi. It was now nearly 7pm and we'd been walking since midday! Anyway a 10 mile ride and we were back at Bowling Harbour.....
We never did set eyes on the man and his dog again!
28th Jun 2007
The Kyles of Bute, United Kingdom - Holy Loch to the Kyles Of Bute
Doh... no signal for 2 days soz to those that keep logging on and finding no updates but we just couldn't get online. Looks like this will become more common from now on as the mountains block our signal. Anyway, we're cruising around now so there's probably not going to be as much to talk about. We're in Tarbert now but more about that later.
Looking back..... we spent a couple of great nights in Holy Loch in the company of Klaas and Maryke. On the first night Conny cooked our favourite 'calorie bomb' meal for everyone, consisting of tortellini with a blue cheese and cream sauce (yum yum better loosen that belt off!).
The following day we took a bus ride out to Loch Eck (by eck) and took a walk down past the Botanical gardens and down the lock's edge. We returned at 6.30 to find we had missed our bus by a few minutes which meant a 2 hour wait for the next one. Conny suggested using the time to go on another walk. What a good idea I thought! Anyway, off we went on yet another walk through the 'tall tree walk'. Consisting of pine trees up to 140 years old, this turned out to be the highlight of the day. We returned at 8.45, by this time starving hungry, only to find Maryke had cooked for all of us.....fantastic!
Where did that big concrete thing come from ?
Tuesday we said our goodbyes and set off down the Firth of Clyde in convoy. We'd been underway for perhaps 45 minutes when, looking out of the back of Tiger, I noticed a concrete structure some way off. This puzzled me as I hadn't seen anything noted on the chart. Moments later and I realised it wasn't a concrete structure at all, it was a submarine! Tracking towards our starboard side at about 15 knots and with it's own pilot boat as a sentry, it looked quite ominous. In the event it passed us some way off but there could have only been 50 meters between it and Klass and Maryke's boat!
Having accused every marina, harbour and port we've visited of not listening to there vhf (marine radios) the truth finally dawned on me the other day.... in that we had a problem with out aerial....doh. So we dropped into Kip marina to buy a new one before continuing our trip up the western Kyle of Bute....beautiful or what!
Holy Loch, United Kingdom - The calm Clyde
Going to have to be quick. We've met up again with Claus and Myraca from Holland (we met them first time in Whitby). We trundled down from Bowling this morning to Holy Lock to meet them. Had a walk from hell yesterday, the details of which will have to wait but it was all down to my bad navigation! Doh X
25th Jun 2007
Holy Loch, United Kingdom - Blow your heart out!
Forecast northerly 6 or 7, occasional 8. Thankfully we have all the surrounding mountains to shelter us now and only the odd squall to worry about - Horray....
After saying our goodbyes we left Bowling and made our way to Holy Lock as already mentioned. We were a little sad to leave Bowling. A great bunch of people and a lovely area. Special thanks must go to Alec the lock-keeper for recommending a walk up to the Humphrey lock. We set off on Saturday at around midday and a couple of hours later arrived at the top of the hill by the lock- beautiful.... Now I recalled that Alec had said to make our way round the lock and soon after we would get to a second lock from which we could return having made a circular route - great....
Conny asked if we should go round to the left of the lock where pine trees were growing and it looked really nice. But oh no! I could see a man walking his dog around the other, really bleak and barren, side of the lock and suggested that must be the way. Doh...
To cut a long, peat boggy, wet story short, we eventually reached another lock and were told by some fishermen that a main road was a 20 minute walk down a nearby track! Nearly an hour later we reached the road and then a pub, from which we ordered a taxi. It was now nearly 7pm and we'd been walking since midday! Anyway a 10 mile ride and we were back at Bowling Harbour.....
We never did set eyes on the man and his dog again!
28th Jun 2007
The Kyles of Bute, United Kingdom - Holy Loch to the Kyles Of Bute
Doh... no signal for 2 days soz to those that keep logging on and finding no updates but we just couldn't get online. Looks like this will become more common from now on as the mountains block our signal. Anyway, we're cruising around now so there's probably not going to be as much to talk about. We're in Tarbert now but more about that later.
Looking back..... we spent a couple of great nights in Holy Loch in the company of Klaas and Maryke. On the first night Conny cooked our favourite 'calorie bomb' meal for everyone, consisting of tortellini with a blue cheese and cream sauce (yum yum better loosen that belt off!).
The following day we took a bus ride out to Loch Eck (by eck) and took a walk down past the Botanical gardens and down the lock's edge. We returned at 6.30 to find we had missed our bus by a few minutes which meant a 2 hour wait for the next one. Conny suggested using the time to go on another walk. What a good idea I thought! Anyway, off we went on yet another walk through the 'tall tree walk'. Consisting of pine trees up to 140 years old, this turned out to be the highlight of the day. We returned at 8.45, by this time starving hungry, only to find Maryke had cooked for all of us.....fantastic!
Where did that big concrete thing come from ?
Tuesday we said our goodbyes and set off down the Firth of Clyde in convoy. We'd been underway for perhaps 45 minutes when, looking out of the back of Tiger, I noticed a concrete structure some way off. This puzzled me as I hadn't seen anything noted on the chart. Moments later and I realised it wasn't a concrete structure at all, it was a submarine! Tracking towards our starboard side at about 15 knots and with it's own pilot boat as a sentry, it looked quite ominous. In the event it passed us some way off but there could have only been 50 meters between it and Klass and Maryke's boat!
Having accused every marina, harbour and port we've visited of not listening to there vhf (marine radios) the truth finally dawned on me the other day.... in that we had a problem with out aerial....doh. So we dropped into Kip marina to buy a new one before continuing our trip up the western Kyle of Bute....beautiful or what!
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
20th June onwards
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20th Jun 2007
Kirkintillock east of Glasgow, United Kingdom - How wet! - 506 eng. hrs.
We woke up this morning to pouring rain....
After a little confusion over when we should leave (a second boat bottled out because of the rain) we set off at 8.30. How cool (and expensive for BW) we had our own crew of 4 guys and a van to go ahead and prepare all the locks and swing bridges for us (apparently on this section they do it on health and safety grounds).
The sun came out mid morning and after passing through Falkirk the scenery become fantastic (watch this space for Conny's photos). Altogether we covered about 17 miles and climbed up 18 locks.
We're now at the halfway point and start our decent at 8am tomorrow. We were warned not to go any further today as we're nearing the Maryhill area of Glasgow which has a fearsome reputation. Apparently, when they first re-opened the canal, they had so much trouble with youths climbing onto boats (in broad day light and with people on board) that they had to introduce police escorts and even that didn't entirely stop the problems. Having said all this, they now try to get boats through in the mornings when the trouble makers are still in bed....touch wood and everything crossed for tomorrow!
22nd Jun 2007
Bowling Harbour, United Kingdom - Arrival on the 'other side'!
Well that was painless enough!
After a first hour of wooded canal we entered the suburbs of Glasgow. The sun was shining and the concrete rendered blocks of flats didn't look bad at all (though we did comment to each other on how things would probably look a lot different under a dull and raining grey sky).
Today we were travelling with another boat skippered by Robert. We'd spent a couple of hours with Robert the night before and helped him get through half a bottle of scotch. Robert was out on his ex-fishing boat for a few days and had chosen the canal as a poor weather alternative to going out into the Clyde. He was now returning to his mooring at our destination point for the day.
Soon we reached our first of 20 locks for the day and met up with another 4 man team that would be aiding our decent back to sea level. We were now in Maryhill and although scars of decay and neglect were evident, a lot of re-generation has gone on and the place didn't look so bad (probably the sun again).
Our descent through the locks was effortless. It's always easier going down locks as there's less turbulence and less strain on the ropes and we were soon stopping at lunchtime slap bang in the middle of the Clydebank shopping centre. Conny went off to the shops to refuel Tiger with essentials and because we had been advised not to leave the boat unattended, I had to stay behind.....doh and I like shopping so much! :-)
After an hours break we set off through a few lift bridges and a few more locks and we arrived at a very strange lock. Known as a 'drop lock', this was effectively a chamber built below one of Glasgow's busiest roads under which we passed (see photo). By 4 o'clockish and having covered 13 miles we reached Bowling Harbour....what a beautiful view opened up in front of us! Having been closed in by wood lined canal for the past hour suddenly, beyond the pretty Bowling basin, miles of the Clyde estuary opened up in front of us....fantastic.....we'd reached the other side!
Kirkintillock east of Glasgow, United Kingdom - How wet! - 506 eng. hrs.
We woke up this morning to pouring rain....
After a little confusion over when we should leave (a second boat bottled out because of the rain) we set off at 8.30. How cool (and expensive for BW) we had our own crew of 4 guys and a van to go ahead and prepare all the locks and swing bridges for us (apparently on this section they do it on health and safety grounds).
The sun came out mid morning and after passing through Falkirk the scenery become fantastic (watch this space for Conny's photos). Altogether we covered about 17 miles and climbed up 18 locks.
We're now at the halfway point and start our decent at 8am tomorrow. We were warned not to go any further today as we're nearing the Maryhill area of Glasgow which has a fearsome reputation. Apparently, when they first re-opened the canal, they had so much trouble with youths climbing onto boats (in broad day light and with people on board) that they had to introduce police escorts and even that didn't entirely stop the problems. Having said all this, they now try to get boats through in the mornings when the trouble makers are still in bed....touch wood and everything crossed for tomorrow!
22nd Jun 2007
Bowling Harbour, United Kingdom - Arrival on the 'other side'!
Well that was painless enough!
After a first hour of wooded canal we entered the suburbs of Glasgow. The sun was shining and the concrete rendered blocks of flats didn't look bad at all (though we did comment to each other on how things would probably look a lot different under a dull and raining grey sky).
Today we were travelling with another boat skippered by Robert. We'd spent a couple of hours with Robert the night before and helped him get through half a bottle of scotch. Robert was out on his ex-fishing boat for a few days and had chosen the canal as a poor weather alternative to going out into the Clyde. He was now returning to his mooring at our destination point for the day.
Soon we reached our first of 20 locks for the day and met up with another 4 man team that would be aiding our decent back to sea level. We were now in Maryhill and although scars of decay and neglect were evident, a lot of re-generation has gone on and the place didn't look so bad (probably the sun again).
Our descent through the locks was effortless. It's always easier going down locks as there's less turbulence and less strain on the ropes and we were soon stopping at lunchtime slap bang in the middle of the Clydebank shopping centre. Conny went off to the shops to refuel Tiger with essentials and because we had been advised not to leave the boat unattended, I had to stay behind.....doh and I like shopping so much! :-)
After an hours break we set off through a few lift bridges and a few more locks and we arrived at a very strange lock. Known as a 'drop lock', this was effectively a chamber built below one of Glasgow's busiest roads under which we passed (see photo). By 4 o'clockish and having covered 13 miles we reached Bowling Harbour....what a beautiful view opened up in front of us! Having been closed in by wood lined canal for the past hour suddenly, beyond the pretty Bowling basin, miles of the Clyde estuary opened up in front of us....fantastic.....we'd reached the other side!
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
19th June onwards
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19th Jun 2007Carron Sea Lock - Grangemouth, United Kingdom - That was easy....499 eng. Hrs.
What to say....12.5 miles down the Firth of Forth and we're in the Forth and Clyde canal. Horray....
The swell is about 1 centimetre and we're no longer rocking or straining against the flow or ebb of any tide..a bit odd actually.
8.30 start tomorrow as we're escorted by British Waterways staff through the first half of the canal to Glasgow (OK, it must be rough then!).....
Conny is already missing the jellyfish and seals. And I'm missing the challenges of the sea a bit...but not that much!
Sunday, June 10, 2007
10th june onwards
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10th Jun 2007Holy Island, United Kingdom - Holy smoke! Where did the time go!
Went to walk Scamp this morning at 10am and we've only just got back 10pm!
We rowed to the Lindisfarne shore this morning and met with Bjorn and later on, Co from Holland. After doing the priory bit, the castle bit and the dog walking bit, we ended up in one of Holy Island's two pubs for a quick drink! Yeh right with Bjorn?
After three drinks we tore ourselves away from the pub only to end up on Alan and Rhoda's boat drinking again! (they were the couple in the 80's we mentioned before). They'd arrived in the bay from the Farne Islands this morning.
Just got back to our boat having eaten only Rocky bars, dried apples from Conny's Mum and Wolf'P' and hot chocolate from Bjorn's flask all day.
7am start so we're going to hit the sack shortly.
Bye for now.... X
P.S. We'll try and get some photos on soon...
11th Jun 2007
Somewhere in the North Sea again, United Kingdom - Och eye....guess where we are?
9.15 and we're in Scottish waters!
12th Jun 2007
Eyemouth, United Kingdom - Bonnie Scotland - 486 eng. hrs
We've managed to steal an hour to update the blog at last. Since leaving Blyth we've been in convoy with Chilli (Bjorn) and Birdie (Co). These guys have been great company and we've had a really good time together. It's also been nice to have some silent companions out at sea, especially when we've been a few miles offshore in fog. Sounds like some sort of joke when you describe us....an Englishman, a Swiss girl, a Danishman and a Dutchman. Although we haven't travelled with them, we've also been with Alan and Rhoda (New Chance) quite a bit.
We're now in Eyemouth and it looks like we might be here for a day or two as some cold fronts pass over the UK. Most of the yachts we've met are heading for the Western Isles but have to travel north to Inverness before heading southwest through the Caledonian Canal (Lock Ness). We are unique in this company as we are heading into the Firth of Forth to pick up the Firth and Clyde Canal (which has height restrictions for yachts).
This morning Birdie and New Chance headed off and it looks like Chilli (Bjorn) will be leaving first light tomorrow. It's really sad to say goodbye but hope to meet them again 'on the other side' so to speak.
Well the fog and mist have gone. Yesterday the sun came out and now..... it's raining...doh.
We met a guy called Ridley yesterday who is in charge of the compiling and restoring of a number of boats for a new maritime museum being built here. He has invited us to some old farm buildings on the edge of town to look at the collection which we're going to do in bit.
Looking out of the window now there are seals patrolling up and down the harbour waiting for any tit bits they can get from the fishing boats.
Conny is busy shrinking photos so we should have loads of new photos to look at.
Catch you soon.......x
13th Jun 2007
Eyemouth, United Kingdom - Just for the record...
One thing we forgot to mention was our arrival at Eyemouth. We'd been surrounded by fog for most of our journey, added to which we were some miles offshore. As we slowly made our way to the coast the sky started to open up to blue and the sun streamed through. We rounded the headland towards Eyemouth threading our way through rocks on both sides with waves braking over them. The scene was quite dramatic. Then as we entered harbour and all the madness of the approach subsided, five seals came to greet us. It was amazing and Conny was REALLY excited.
After mooring up we celebrated our arrival in Scotland by cracking open a bottle of champagne with the others.....
14th Jun 2007
Eyemouth, United Kingdom - Guess we'll be staying here then!
Met Office Forecast - Rattray Head to Berwick on Tweed - Thursday 14th June - 1200 UTC....
Northeast force 4 or 5 increasing to force 6 later....
Sea state - moderate or rough.....(when this index was created it was with ships in mind. 'Moderate' means waves up to 2.5 meters and 'rough' up to 4 meters!
OK we're not going anywhere then! And nor did Bjorn. If we'd carried on, as did 'Birdie' and 'New Chance', we'd now be in the calmer waters of the Firth of Forth....but we didn't...so now it looks like a few more days in Eyemouth.
But that's OK...it gives us time to catch up with things including the shaving off of my 'Whitby Santa' beard at last.
Conny's back on the photos again, so more to come....
17th Jun 2007
Eyemouth, United Kingdom - On your marks....
Strong winds in the week kicked up a right swell. It's strange but when you're looking out to sea with no reference points it can look quite smooth. It's only when a ship passes and you see it's 6 meter bow ploughing through the waves you think...OK maybe not then! Yesterday the winds died away leaving behind them such a swell. The forecast is predicting calmer weather until Wednesday so we're going to give it another day and go for it tomorrow.....only 25 miles and we'll be in the sheltered waters of the Firth of Forth so fingers crossed.....unfortunately there are two headlands to get around first, both of which can have nasty overfalls.
A chap named Johny Johnston (imagine Sean Connery speaking the name) introduced himself to us the other day. Another really interesting guy, spent 30 odd years as a fisherman on his own 57 foot boat, 14 years as lifeboat man including 6 years as Coxswain of a big Trent class lifeboat and 13 years as Harbourmaster. Johny spent alot of time telling us about the history of the area and then offered to take Conny, Bjorn and myself to a nearby headland at St. Abbs in his car to look at the outstanding scenery. The car ride was scary as hell....it's the first time in weeks we'd gone faster than 7 miles an hour and it felt bloody quick! :-)
Having enjoyed the place so much we decided to walk there the next day on Conny's birthday. When we set off all was well but as we put more and more distance between ourselves and shelter it started to rain! And it rained and it rained. It wasn't until we were soaked to the skin it stopped. As we were 5 miles away we thought it best to get a taxi or bus back. Easier said then done! We saw one taxi which we tried to flag down but he just gave us the thumbs up, smiled and carried on. We waited at a bus stop for a bus that didn't arrive. And then, just as we were preparing ourselves to walk back, a young guy pulled up and asked if we knew where a petrol station was. Yep we said, in Eyemouth, we'll show you....thank you to Jack for the lift!
Going to take it easy today I think, tomorrow could be a 50 miler.......
18th Jun 2007
Port Edgar near Edinburgh, United Kingdom - Day no. ??? eng. hrs 496
Alarms set for 5am with a 7am start...After more than 2 weeks with Bjorn we said our farewells this morning. Bjorn setting off north, ourselves setting off northwest-ish.
Having covered 50 miles today in 10 hours, we're now in Port Edgar which is just past, what has to be the 'Arnie' of all bridges, the Forth Rail bridge. I love this bridge! It came into being because another bridge, the Tay Rail Bridge at Dundee, collapsed whilst a train was on it leading to the tragic deaths of many on board. So shocked was everyone at the time that when the Forth Rail Bridge was conceived a design was chosen that couldn't possibly fail. (thanks for anonymous message putting the story straight) Over-engineering at its best and fantastic looking!
Getting here represents a big milestone for us. We celebrated passing under the bridge with more Champaign and a long blast of the fog horn. It's was great, some workers on the bridge (probably painting it!) heard the noise and started waving and cheering. They probably thought we'd circumnavigated the globe or something but it was great anyway!
359 nautical miles since leaving Redhill and having faced weeks of onshore winds and uncertain weather forecasts that changed all the time, it means we're now on much more friendly waters. Albeit that we now leave the challenges of the north sea and head for the notorious canals of Glasgow with the threat of dumped shopping trolleys and flying bricks!
Anyway, not long now until we'll be in the Western Isles!
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Sunday, June 3, 2007
3rd June onwards
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3rd Jun 2007
Sunderland, United Kingdom - Why Eye! - 468.5 eng. hrs.
Y I man, we're in Sunderland!
5th Jun 2007
Blyth, United Kingdom - Blyth - 473 eng. Hrs
A bit further north today....It must be my birthday! Oh...it is!
Thanks for the birthday messages.
Will catch up with the diary as soon as possible.
X
6th Jun 2007
Blyth, United Kingdom - Winter timewarp!
It's absolutely freezing. It only reached 10 degrees yesterday and we're having to wear winter clothes. I'm beginning to wonder if we've actually warped ourselves to Iceland or something. But hey, we're not feeling sorry for ourselves and it's SO nice to get so many messages from everyone telling us how lovely and warm it is where they are! Hmm! :-)
I'm feeling a bit worse for wear this morning. I'm not sure if the pizza I ate was a bit off but I think it more likely that the combination of rum, Guinness and larger I drank yesterday has something to do with it. You see, it went like this - we've met a guy called Bjorn (cool as you like) from Denmark. He's got a great trip planned! He left Denmark last week, sailed 2.5 days over to Sunderland where we met him. Now he's going around Scotland, down the Irish coast, across the Bay of Biscay, along the coasts of Spain and Portugal, across to the Canaries and then! Across the Atlantic to spend 6 months in the Caribbean! It's a hard life but someone has to do it!
Anyway, Bjorn had taken on so many supplies that he no longer had room for this bottle of Rum. So yesterday he asked us if we would help drink it (with it being my birthday and that). Well you know us -always there to help....now Bjorn has more room on his boat 'Chilli' and I have a thick head! Conny doesn't seem any different so maybe it was the pizza. :-)
Making progress up the North Sea coast has been painfully slow and at times very uncomfortable. Since the end of our first week we've been plagued by this easterly or north easterly airflow. Even though recently the winds haven't been strong, we still face a 2 mtrs swell on the nose (that apparently is still a handover from the storms 10 days ago), winds that only make this swell more confused and fog!
Hartlepool to Sunderland the other day was a bumpy ride but we had a visit from Fiona to look forward to. Our friend Fiona from Redhill was on her way back from Scotland and dropped in for a few hours. It was great to see her, a familiar face and our first visitor. Apart from meeting Bjorn and having some great conversation (and strong bitter spirits), the rest of our time at Sunderland was spent trying to leave. This meant walking to the beach every few hours to survey the conditions and led to Scamp getting completely knackered.
Back to yesterday - another bumpy ride against the head on swell to Blyth. Blyth harbour is an interesting place, apparently a submarine base in days gone by. After a 3 hour walk along the beach with Bjorn, we spent last night in the Blyth Yacht Club which is based in a fantastic old boat originally built as a light vessel. The members of the club were really friendly and welcoming and made us feel like we had arrived at home. Conny got talking to a very interesting guy called Peter Nicholson who has spent many years as a ski instructor in Switzerland. When working there he often stays with the famous skier Zurbriggen (Stray Cat Tim, we wonder if you know him?) Peter seemed to be a fountain of knowledge on almost every subject and was very interesting and funny to spend time with.
We're going nowhere today and we're staying in our sleeping bags until the weather improves!
Hope you're all well. Bye for now....
8th Jun 2007
Blyth, United Kingdom - Sunny Blyth!
The suns come out...... HORRAY!
Still in Blyth waiting for a period of settled weather before we set off for the Farne Islands.
We're enjoying being in Blyth. One of the great things about the trip is the people we're meeting on the way. We're spending about our fifth day now with Bjorn and having a real laugh with him and the other Blyth yacht club members we've met (up until 3.30 this morning on different boats)
Changing the subject completely.....In 2004 I had an accident and hurt my back. The injury eventually led to me changing job and it still troubles me now. I've been told by doctors not to expect a full recovery and sometimes I feel really sorry for myself and fall into the 'cup half empty' trap.
The reason for mentioning this is that it's strange how life teaches us some very powerful lessons at times. A couple of things have happened in the past 24 hours along those lines..
The first instance was a boat pulling into harbour the day before yesterday. It was a 34 foot yacht with three sails that would be a handful for any 2 man crew. Well this boat was crewed by a guy called Alan Cawthorne (86 years) and his wife Rhoda (83).Since retiring 20 years ago they've sailed over 40,000 miles visiting just about everywhere. Even though Alan has a de-generative eye disease (which led to him running around with his shoes on the wrong feet when they arrived) they still sail everywhere together. On talking to him later he told me about a very important lesson he had been given at the age of 19 years old whilst fighting in world war two. He said quite bluntly "I got shot in the arm whilst at the same time my comrade next to me got shot between the eyes!" He went on to say that after that he always made the most of every minute and refused to be restrained by his age or ailments. He did ask us not to mention their age to the coastguard because, he said jokingly, if they new, they'd probably have all the lifeboats on the east coast on standby.
Within hours of being told this story by Alan I heard the terrible news that a school friend of my Son's since they were 4 years old had been killed outright in a car accident. He was only 18 years old!...............
9th Jun 2007
Holy Island, United Kingdom - Pressing North! - 481 eng. Hrs.
Hey! 37 miles further north....
We're at Holy Island next to the Farne Islands and surrounded by seals....Wow!
We travelled north with 2 other boats today. Having an end of trip drink at the moment (seems to be compulsory!) Hello from Co (from Holland), Bjorn and ourselves. X
Sunderland, United Kingdom - Why Eye! - 468.5 eng. hrs.
Y I man, we're in Sunderland!
5th Jun 2007
Blyth, United Kingdom - Blyth - 473 eng. Hrs
A bit further north today....It must be my birthday! Oh...it is!
Thanks for the birthday messages.
Will catch up with the diary as soon as possible.
X
6th Jun 2007
Blyth, United Kingdom - Winter timewarp!
It's absolutely freezing. It only reached 10 degrees yesterday and we're having to wear winter clothes. I'm beginning to wonder if we've actually warped ourselves to Iceland or something. But hey, we're not feeling sorry for ourselves and it's SO nice to get so many messages from everyone telling us how lovely and warm it is where they are! Hmm! :-)
I'm feeling a bit worse for wear this morning. I'm not sure if the pizza I ate was a bit off but I think it more likely that the combination of rum, Guinness and larger I drank yesterday has something to do with it. You see, it went like this - we've met a guy called Bjorn (cool as you like) from Denmark. He's got a great trip planned! He left Denmark last week, sailed 2.5 days over to Sunderland where we met him. Now he's going around Scotland, down the Irish coast, across the Bay of Biscay, along the coasts of Spain and Portugal, across to the Canaries and then! Across the Atlantic to spend 6 months in the Caribbean! It's a hard life but someone has to do it!
Anyway, Bjorn had taken on so many supplies that he no longer had room for this bottle of Rum. So yesterday he asked us if we would help drink it (with it being my birthday and that). Well you know us -always there to help....now Bjorn has more room on his boat 'Chilli' and I have a thick head! Conny doesn't seem any different so maybe it was the pizza. :-)
Making progress up the North Sea coast has been painfully slow and at times very uncomfortable. Since the end of our first week we've been plagued by this easterly or north easterly airflow. Even though recently the winds haven't been strong, we still face a 2 mtrs swell on the nose (that apparently is still a handover from the storms 10 days ago), winds that only make this swell more confused and fog!
Hartlepool to Sunderland the other day was a bumpy ride but we had a visit from Fiona to look forward to. Our friend Fiona from Redhill was on her way back from Scotland and dropped in for a few hours. It was great to see her, a familiar face and our first visitor. Apart from meeting Bjorn and having some great conversation (and strong bitter spirits), the rest of our time at Sunderland was spent trying to leave. This meant walking to the beach every few hours to survey the conditions and led to Scamp getting completely knackered.
Back to yesterday - another bumpy ride against the head on swell to Blyth. Blyth harbour is an interesting place, apparently a submarine base in days gone by. After a 3 hour walk along the beach with Bjorn, we spent last night in the Blyth Yacht Club which is based in a fantastic old boat originally built as a light vessel. The members of the club were really friendly and welcoming and made us feel like we had arrived at home. Conny got talking to a very interesting guy called Peter Nicholson who has spent many years as a ski instructor in Switzerland. When working there he often stays with the famous skier Zurbriggen (Stray Cat Tim, we wonder if you know him?) Peter seemed to be a fountain of knowledge on almost every subject and was very interesting and funny to spend time with.
We're going nowhere today and we're staying in our sleeping bags until the weather improves!
Hope you're all well. Bye for now....
8th Jun 2007
Blyth, United Kingdom - Sunny Blyth!
The suns come out...... HORRAY!
Still in Blyth waiting for a period of settled weather before we set off for the Farne Islands.
We're enjoying being in Blyth. One of the great things about the trip is the people we're meeting on the way. We're spending about our fifth day now with Bjorn and having a real laugh with him and the other Blyth yacht club members we've met (up until 3.30 this morning on different boats)
Changing the subject completely.....In 2004 I had an accident and hurt my back. The injury eventually led to me changing job and it still troubles me now. I've been told by doctors not to expect a full recovery and sometimes I feel really sorry for myself and fall into the 'cup half empty' trap.
The reason for mentioning this is that it's strange how life teaches us some very powerful lessons at times. A couple of things have happened in the past 24 hours along those lines..
The first instance was a boat pulling into harbour the day before yesterday. It was a 34 foot yacht with three sails that would be a handful for any 2 man crew. Well this boat was crewed by a guy called Alan Cawthorne (86 years) and his wife Rhoda (83).Since retiring 20 years ago they've sailed over 40,000 miles visiting just about everywhere. Even though Alan has a de-generative eye disease (which led to him running around with his shoes on the wrong feet when they arrived) they still sail everywhere together. On talking to him later he told me about a very important lesson he had been given at the age of 19 years old whilst fighting in world war two. He said quite bluntly "I got shot in the arm whilst at the same time my comrade next to me got shot between the eyes!" He went on to say that after that he always made the most of every minute and refused to be restrained by his age or ailments. He did ask us not to mention their age to the coastguard because, he said jokingly, if they new, they'd probably have all the lifeboats on the east coast on standby.
Within hours of being told this story by Alan I heard the terrible news that a school friend of my Son's since they were 4 years old had been killed outright in a car accident. He was only 18 years old!...............
9th Jun 2007
Holy Island, United Kingdom - Pressing North! - 481 eng. Hrs.
Hey! 37 miles further north....
We're at Holy Island next to the Farne Islands and surrounded by seals....Wow!
We travelled north with 2 other boats today. Having an end of trip drink at the moment (seems to be compulsory!) Hello from Co (from Holland), Bjorn and ourselves. X
Saturday, June 2, 2007
2nd June
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2nd Jun 2007
Hartlepool, United Kingdom - Foggy....
The wind's sort of dropped and NOW we've got continuous fog...Doh
Maybe we could have continued today but reports from others gave very bumpy conditions and the weather forecast gave threats of force 5 south easterlies which in the end didn't materialise. There are now 2 swell patterns coming off the sea from the recent storms/high winds and this is creating a right mess. With this sea state and the lack of visibility we decided to give it a miss today.
Just for the record! The weather the UK has been experiencing recently has been very unseasonable. The time between mid May and the end of June is usually the most settled period of the year with predominantly south westerly airstreams.......That's why we went when we did! So much for weather prediction....
We'll try again tomorrow...Meanwhile Conny is still trying to take pictures of jellyfish!
Hartlepool, United Kingdom - Foggy....
The wind's sort of dropped and NOW we've got continuous fog...Doh
Maybe we could have continued today but reports from others gave very bumpy conditions and the weather forecast gave threats of force 5 south easterlies which in the end didn't materialise. There are now 2 swell patterns coming off the sea from the recent storms/high winds and this is creating a right mess. With this sea state and the lack of visibility we decided to give it a miss today.
Just for the record! The weather the UK has been experiencing recently has been very unseasonable. The time between mid May and the end of June is usually the most settled period of the year with predominantly south westerly airstreams.......That's why we went when we did! So much for weather prediction....
We'll try again tomorrow...Meanwhile Conny is still trying to take pictures of jellyfish!
Friday, May 25, 2007
24th May onwards
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24th May 2007
Somewhere in the north sea, United Kingdom - Day 6 - 450 engine hours
I say day 6, but it was really a very long and drawn out extension to day 5. We only managed to get a couple of hours sleep each.
We weren't due to depart until 10:30 that morning. So at 8 am, with a walk for Scamp in mind, I moved the boat closer to the shore. Upon starting the engine the warning buzzer wouldn't go off, along with the charging light. 5 mins. of circuit checking and I confirmed that the alternator wasn't giving any output. GREAT!!! Half empty batteries and a 48 mile offshore trip in front of us.
There was no going back (well I suppose there could have been). Off went the Fridge and I set about removing the alternator whilst Conny walked Scamp. This was easier said than done. It's one thing taking an alternator out in Sawley-Marina, quite another on the choppy sea. Anyway to cut a frustrating story short, fortune was smiling on us and it turned out to be a loose connection inside the alternator.
Hurray... :-) we're on our way........
Rounding Spurnhead at 10:30 am across the notorious Binks Shoals we were greeted with a long 4ft swell. Nice one, just what our stomachs needed!
Well.... full steam ahead north up the Holderness coast (described in the pilot book as 30 miles of the most featureless coastline in Britain). Today was always going to be the one to get behind us. 48 miles between safe havens with no plan 'B' added to which, the need to go up to 10 miles offshore to avoid becoming a Ministry of Defence target in a practice bombing area.
What to say?
10.5 hours of cruising, of which 7 were spent being thrown around. Tiger was up, down, left, right, up, left, down, right, up, left, down.............. well, you get the drift. It was during this time on the way to put the kettle on, that I got caught out and was head-butted by a kitchen fitting. Leaving me with a great big bump on my head.
So much for the weather forecast! I know from my windsurfing days this was not a force 3 or 4. These would have been great conditions for sailing a 5 meter sail and that meant they were more like force 4 or 5.
Land was now way off on the horizon and a couple of times small black fins appeared out of the water as we passed Porpoises. You don't see those on the River Soar!
Having rounded Flamborough Head things calmed down and we reached our anchorage at Filey Brigg at 7ish.
We dropped anchor and set off in the inflatable to walk Scamp when, maybe 50 mtrs away, an inquisitive head popped up out of the water to have a look at us. It was the first sighting of a seal for Conny. It looked like he was looking for a free dinner as he was just outside a netted off fishing area.
Something to eat and then a quick check to see what time we needed to leave in the morning for Whitby. NO WAY! High tide at 9.50 and access only between 2 hours before and 2 hours after. What's more Whitby was 6 hours away and we'd have to push a foul tide. It was now 1045pm and I calculated we needed to leave at sunrise. So alarms set for 0315 am!
25th May 2007
Whitby, United Kingdom - In Action!
Horray! Photos OK -
The memory card was OK and we've recovered the photos. Unfortunately our sony camera, that's taken 5,850 pics over the past 4 years is undergoing surgery and it looks unlikely that it will pull through!
We'll get the diary up to date as soon as possible and get some new photos on.
In the meantime you can see a short video of Tiger bouncing around north of Flamborough Head on the link below. This was when things had calmed down significantly!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lX5vF4riN0
NO laughing Keith!
All the Best from P&C&S X
26th May 2007
Whitby, United Kingdom - Day 7 - Eng. Hrs. 456.5
We left our comfortable anchorage at 0345am and headed north for Whitby. It was a great run with calm conditions, a fantastic sunrise and beautiful cliffs. The last few hours we pushed a foul tide and went right into Robin Hoods Bay in an attempt to avoid the stronger currents. We reached Whitby at 10ish and headed for the harbour moorings.
After having settled in, we were getting ready to explore the town when, through a freak accident, we lost the camera off the pontoon into 4+mtrs of water. DoooooH........
Plan A - We decided to go in after it. Conny first! Well, it was just tooooo cold. And hey, if Conny wouldn't go in (who's used to swimming in alpine spring water) then there was diddly squat chance of me going.
Plan B - So came our first neoprene clad hero. A local guy called John went home on hearing about our dilemma and came back with wetsuit and diving mask. Unfortunately, it was too deep and muddy and he eventually had to give up looking. (BIG thanks to John)
Plan C - we went to the local tourist information to find out about any diving schools in the area. After a few telephone calls we found diver Neil who arrived on the scene within 30 mins (Big thanks to Neil) On went wetsuit, bottles, mask, weights, gloves and a bloody great knife. 10 minutes later and up he came proudly brandishing our camera in his hand. HORRAY!
That night we slept for England...And Switzerland!
27th May 2007
Whitby, United Kingdom - Day 11 - Sun 27th May - Storm bound!
We wanted to stay at Whitby for a day or two but now we're stuck here. Forecast for tomorrow and the day after are up to force 7 winds with moderate to rough seas. Even today winds are onshore (easterly) force 6 and there are 2.5mtr waves rolling in through the harbour entrance.
Whitby is a lovely old town so there are many worse places to get stuck! Trouble is it's 20 quid a night. Ouch....
29th May 2007
Whitby, United Kingdom - Don't know what day - lost count! - Tues. 29th May
Still storm bound in Whitby!!!
The outlook doesn't show any improvement for the coming days either.
Whitby is really nice but.....I WANT TO LEAVE NOW!
We've put some more photos taken over the last few days on to the site. There are some nice walks we've done in this area. bla bla bla
30th May 2007
Whitby, United Kingdom - Poked our nose out...and had it hit with a baseball bat!
1st - BIG thanks again for all the messages.....
The forecast for today gave out moderate southerly winds, which, because of the coastline here, looked like it would be offshore (meaning flat water! hmn)
That was enough for me - lets go and have a look and if possible make Hartlepool I suggested to Conny.
So we paid our bill and informed the harbourmaster of our departure.
Well, no joking, we'd only been our 10 or 15 minutes when a nasty squall hit. This exaggerated the 'hangover swell' from the past few days of high wind and before you could say 'bloody hell, that's a big wave!' we were in the midst of a right bubbling soup. Wind over tide (which means the waves were steep sided and not nice undulating ones) and we were bouncing down Whitby bay with 2 mtrs waves chasing us.
The further we went the greater the fetch (open water) and the worse the waves became. Being in Tiger was like being in an aquatic bucking bronco!
So guess what??
Yep! We're back in Whitby.
It feels like the line from Hotel California by the Eagles....You can check out anytime you like but you can never leave!
All our friendly neighbours have gone.
Speaking of which, we met a really nice guy called Tim Gray. Tim and his alternating crew are doing a round the UK trip in his catamaran 'Stray Cat' raising money for charity. His boat was something else! 43 feet long, 21 feet wide! and with twin 300 horse engines. It cruises at 21 knots and carries 2,000 litres of fuel!
You can have a look at:
www.passageofhope.blogspot.com
I'm sure any donations would be gratefully received.
1st Jun 2007
Whitby, United Kingdom - Guess what?
WE'VE ESCAPED!
It's true....
This morning, under a blanket of fog, we slipped away un-noticed and managed to brake the curse that was holding us in Whitby. (sounds like the words of a mad man, doesn’t it? Hmn!)
Anyway, the good news is I can now have a shave. I didn't mention it before but our fallback plan, (if we never left) was for me to get a job as Whitby's Santa Clause! Not any more.....
1st Jun 2007
Hartlepool, United Kingdom - Hartlepool......464 Eng. Hrs.
It's not that we've had a great change in the weather but a small window opened up for us and here we are 24 miles further on in wonderful Hartlepool.
Why Wonderful????
Because it's not Whitby - HURRAY!!!!
No really, it's not that Whitby was all that bad. In fact, with it's stone cobbled streets and various legends it was quite an interesting place to be, especially if you're a Goth. But when your using it as a stop over 10 days at 20 quid a night is more than enough.
Having already given it 2 attempts to leave we were a little apprehensive this morning. However, the forecast gave a foggy start with a freshening south-easterly force 3 to 4 maybe 5.
As we departed Fritz the Harbour Master (see how long we'd been there, we were now on first name terms!) waved us off with the advice to head offshore where it would be clear and added that the coastal fog would burn off in no time.
Out we headed with only the direction arrows of the GPS to guide us! We were soon belting along at a shade under 7 knots (well not exactly belting but you know!) in a right pee-souper. The reports had promised a swell of 3.5ft...yer right. Within half an hour we were being chased by 7 foot (2 meter) waves. Thankfully, the period between the waves was quite large and although uncomfortable, not dangerous.
After 2 hours we were approaching a shipping lane which serves Middlesbrough on the river Tees and we still couldn't see a thing.....scary. We'd left our destination open with a choice of either Hartlepool or Sunderland and now a decision had to be made. We tried a heading that would take us on to Sunderland but the direction of the swell made this VERY uncomfortable...especially for Conny (who still had Whitby shopping legs instead of sea legs) and Scamp didn't look too happy either.
So..we made contact with Hartlepool to ask how entry conditions would be. I was worried that there might be a larger swell at the harbour entrance but were advised that all was OK and so we set our heading accordingly. Thankfully the fog lifted ever-so-slightly as we crossed the shipping area which made things much safer and then closed in again as we approached land. No-kidding....we didn't see the harbour entrance until we were 80 to 100 meters away (glad the co-ordinates I put into the GPS were accurate).
Here we are...foggy Hartlepool.
Locking up into the marina Conny spotted loads of tiny jelly fish and I've lost her now as she's gone off to try and take pictures of them.
Catch U later......X
Somewhere in the north sea, United Kingdom - Day 6 - 450 engine hours
I say day 6, but it was really a very long and drawn out extension to day 5. We only managed to get a couple of hours sleep each.
We weren't due to depart until 10:30 that morning. So at 8 am, with a walk for Scamp in mind, I moved the boat closer to the shore. Upon starting the engine the warning buzzer wouldn't go off, along with the charging light. 5 mins. of circuit checking and I confirmed that the alternator wasn't giving any output. GREAT!!! Half empty batteries and a 48 mile offshore trip in front of us.
There was no going back (well I suppose there could have been). Off went the Fridge and I set about removing the alternator whilst Conny walked Scamp. This was easier said than done. It's one thing taking an alternator out in Sawley-Marina, quite another on the choppy sea. Anyway to cut a frustrating story short, fortune was smiling on us and it turned out to be a loose connection inside the alternator.
Hurray... :-) we're on our way........
Rounding Spurnhead at 10:30 am across the notorious Binks Shoals we were greeted with a long 4ft swell. Nice one, just what our stomachs needed!
Well.... full steam ahead north up the Holderness coast (described in the pilot book as 30 miles of the most featureless coastline in Britain). Today was always going to be the one to get behind us. 48 miles between safe havens with no plan 'B' added to which, the need to go up to 10 miles offshore to avoid becoming a Ministry of Defence target in a practice bombing area.
What to say?
10.5 hours of cruising, of which 7 were spent being thrown around. Tiger was up, down, left, right, up, left, down, right, up, left, down.............. well, you get the drift. It was during this time on the way to put the kettle on, that I got caught out and was head-butted by a kitchen fitting. Leaving me with a great big bump on my head.
So much for the weather forecast! I know from my windsurfing days this was not a force 3 or 4. These would have been great conditions for sailing a 5 meter sail and that meant they were more like force 4 or 5.
Land was now way off on the horizon and a couple of times small black fins appeared out of the water as we passed Porpoises. You don't see those on the River Soar!
Having rounded Flamborough Head things calmed down and we reached our anchorage at Filey Brigg at 7ish.
We dropped anchor and set off in the inflatable to walk Scamp when, maybe 50 mtrs away, an inquisitive head popped up out of the water to have a look at us. It was the first sighting of a seal for Conny. It looked like he was looking for a free dinner as he was just outside a netted off fishing area.
Something to eat and then a quick check to see what time we needed to leave in the morning for Whitby. NO WAY! High tide at 9.50 and access only between 2 hours before and 2 hours after. What's more Whitby was 6 hours away and we'd have to push a foul tide. It was now 1045pm and I calculated we needed to leave at sunrise. So alarms set for 0315 am!
25th May 2007
Whitby, United Kingdom - In Action!
Horray! Photos OK -
The memory card was OK and we've recovered the photos. Unfortunately our sony camera, that's taken 5,850 pics over the past 4 years is undergoing surgery and it looks unlikely that it will pull through!
We'll get the diary up to date as soon as possible and get some new photos on.
In the meantime you can see a short video of Tiger bouncing around north of Flamborough Head on the link below. This was when things had calmed down significantly!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lX5vF4riN0
NO laughing Keith!
All the Best from P&C&S X
26th May 2007
Whitby, United Kingdom - Day 7 - Eng. Hrs. 456.5
We left our comfortable anchorage at 0345am and headed north for Whitby. It was a great run with calm conditions, a fantastic sunrise and beautiful cliffs. The last few hours we pushed a foul tide and went right into Robin Hoods Bay in an attempt to avoid the stronger currents. We reached Whitby at 10ish and headed for the harbour moorings.
After having settled in, we were getting ready to explore the town when, through a freak accident, we lost the camera off the pontoon into 4+mtrs of water. DoooooH........
Plan A - We decided to go in after it. Conny first! Well, it was just tooooo cold. And hey, if Conny wouldn't go in (who's used to swimming in alpine spring water) then there was diddly squat chance of me going.
Plan B - So came our first neoprene clad hero. A local guy called John went home on hearing about our dilemma and came back with wetsuit and diving mask. Unfortunately, it was too deep and muddy and he eventually had to give up looking. (BIG thanks to John)
Plan C - we went to the local tourist information to find out about any diving schools in the area. After a few telephone calls we found diver Neil who arrived on the scene within 30 mins (Big thanks to Neil) On went wetsuit, bottles, mask, weights, gloves and a bloody great knife. 10 minutes later and up he came proudly brandishing our camera in his hand. HORRAY!
That night we slept for England...And Switzerland!
27th May 2007
Whitby, United Kingdom - Day 11 - Sun 27th May - Storm bound!
We wanted to stay at Whitby for a day or two but now we're stuck here. Forecast for tomorrow and the day after are up to force 7 winds with moderate to rough seas. Even today winds are onshore (easterly) force 6 and there are 2.5mtr waves rolling in through the harbour entrance.
Whitby is a lovely old town so there are many worse places to get stuck! Trouble is it's 20 quid a night. Ouch....
29th May 2007
Whitby, United Kingdom - Don't know what day - lost count! - Tues. 29th May
Still storm bound in Whitby!!!
The outlook doesn't show any improvement for the coming days either.
Whitby is really nice but.....I WANT TO LEAVE NOW!
We've put some more photos taken over the last few days on to the site. There are some nice walks we've done in this area. bla bla bla
30th May 2007
Whitby, United Kingdom - Poked our nose out...and had it hit with a baseball bat!
1st - BIG thanks again for all the messages.....
The forecast for today gave out moderate southerly winds, which, because of the coastline here, looked like it would be offshore (meaning flat water! hmn)
That was enough for me - lets go and have a look and if possible make Hartlepool I suggested to Conny.
So we paid our bill and informed the harbourmaster of our departure.
Well, no joking, we'd only been our 10 or 15 minutes when a nasty squall hit. This exaggerated the 'hangover swell' from the past few days of high wind and before you could say 'bloody hell, that's a big wave!' we were in the midst of a right bubbling soup. Wind over tide (which means the waves were steep sided and not nice undulating ones) and we were bouncing down Whitby bay with 2 mtrs waves chasing us.
The further we went the greater the fetch (open water) and the worse the waves became. Being in Tiger was like being in an aquatic bucking bronco!
So guess what??
Yep! We're back in Whitby.
It feels like the line from Hotel California by the Eagles....You can check out anytime you like but you can never leave!
All our friendly neighbours have gone.
Speaking of which, we met a really nice guy called Tim Gray. Tim and his alternating crew are doing a round the UK trip in his catamaran 'Stray Cat' raising money for charity. His boat was something else! 43 feet long, 21 feet wide! and with twin 300 horse engines. It cruises at 21 knots and carries 2,000 litres of fuel!
You can have a look at:
www.passageofhope.blogspot.com
I'm sure any donations would be gratefully received.
1st Jun 2007
Whitby, United Kingdom - Guess what?
WE'VE ESCAPED!
It's true....
This morning, under a blanket of fog, we slipped away un-noticed and managed to brake the curse that was holding us in Whitby. (sounds like the words of a mad man, doesn’t it? Hmn!)
Anyway, the good news is I can now have a shave. I didn't mention it before but our fallback plan, (if we never left) was for me to get a job as Whitby's Santa Clause! Not any more.....
1st Jun 2007
Hartlepool, United Kingdom - Hartlepool......464 Eng. Hrs.
It's not that we've had a great change in the weather but a small window opened up for us and here we are 24 miles further on in wonderful Hartlepool.
Why Wonderful????
Because it's not Whitby - HURRAY!!!!
No really, it's not that Whitby was all that bad. In fact, with it's stone cobbled streets and various legends it was quite an interesting place to be, especially if you're a Goth. But when your using it as a stop over 10 days at 20 quid a night is more than enough.
Having already given it 2 attempts to leave we were a little apprehensive this morning. However, the forecast gave a foggy start with a freshening south-easterly force 3 to 4 maybe 5.
As we departed Fritz the Harbour Master (see how long we'd been there, we were now on first name terms!) waved us off with the advice to head offshore where it would be clear and added that the coastal fog would burn off in no time.
Out we headed with only the direction arrows of the GPS to guide us! We were soon belting along at a shade under 7 knots (well not exactly belting but you know!) in a right pee-souper. The reports had promised a swell of 3.5ft...yer right. Within half an hour we were being chased by 7 foot (2 meter) waves. Thankfully, the period between the waves was quite large and although uncomfortable, not dangerous.
After 2 hours we were approaching a shipping lane which serves Middlesbrough on the river Tees and we still couldn't see a thing.....scary. We'd left our destination open with a choice of either Hartlepool or Sunderland and now a decision had to be made. We tried a heading that would take us on to Sunderland but the direction of the swell made this VERY uncomfortable...especially for Conny (who still had Whitby shopping legs instead of sea legs) and Scamp didn't look too happy either.
So..we made contact with Hartlepool to ask how entry conditions would be. I was worried that there might be a larger swell at the harbour entrance but were advised that all was OK and so we set our heading accordingly. Thankfully the fog lifted ever-so-slightly as we crossed the shipping area which made things much safer and then closed in again as we approached land. No-kidding....we didn't see the harbour entrance until we were 80 to 100 meters away (glad the co-ordinates I put into the GPS were accurate).
Here we are...foggy Hartlepool.
Locking up into the marina Conny spotted loads of tiny jelly fish and I've lost her now as she's gone off to try and take pictures of them.
Catch U later......X
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