Tobermory to Kinlochbervie, just South of Cape Wrath

The Western Isles of Scotland and the Minch Sea are undoubtedly a highlight of the passage around Great Britain, but sadly spoilt a little by bad weather. We sailed to the east side of Skye because we needed the protection of the land mass of Skye against the forecast strong South Westerly winds, but this meant we missed some of the interesting places to visit such is Iona and other remote anchorages on Skye. However we have still visited some wonderful places.

Our passage has been Tobermory to Arisaig (on the mainland and I believe a training centre for Special Operations), then to Kyle Akin, then to Gairloch, then to Stornoway with a days rest, then back to mainland at Kinlochbervie, just south of the North West corner of Scotland, Cape Wrath. We will go around Cape Wrath on Monday 24th.


I will leave it to the photos to do the talking and describe one of the days. We were on the pontoon in Kyle Aikin, where the recently constructed bridge to Skye is, expecting to sail to Gairloch further up the coast, but expecting an uncomfortable passage. I was to be skipper for the day. We awoke around 7:30 and Tony our "real" skipper announced we were not leaving because there was heavy rain, strong winds and to leave would have been very uncomfortable sailing. The weather has been unsettled for a few days and wet far too often (I know, this is Scotland!) - so you can imagine we weren't too pleased to be staying put as each delay makes it more likely we will miss interesting ports of call and will have to do a long passage to get the skipper to the port where they change over (ie Tony leaves us on Tuesday 25th August in Scrabster, to be replaced by the next skipper Aubrey). Anyway, we settled down to some further learning of the Yachtmaster theory and by lunch time the rain stopped and the winds dropped slightly, so we decided to leave. The sail up to Gairloch was absolutely tremendous, no rain, some sun, and sailing "goose winged" at some speed (see early blog for explanation). Upon arrival in Gairloch, a stunning loch, the sun was setting over the mountains in spectacular fashion. Then we went to the local pub and found a tremendous two man band for some really good evening entertainment. The day was tremdous, starting off badly, but finishing on a high.



During the sail from Gairloch to Stornoway across the Minch Sea I got a phone call early in the morning from Lucy who had just returned from her working with Camp America. She got the A level grades she needed and will be going to Oxford next year to study Physics. Of course I am one very proud Dad and despite the weather, enjoyed the rainsoaked half hour watch that followed Lucy's call. Also, a school of Dolphins swam alongside the boat shortly afterwards for ten or so minutes - I went up to the front of the boat and was only a few feet away from them swimming and jumping out of the water.



So here are the photos which will do the talking for this section of the trip ...

Bangor to Tobermory on the Island of Mull

At this moment we are moored to a visitors buoy in Tobermory Bay, which is at the top of the Isle of Mull off the West Coast of Scotland. Several of you have commented that my photos always show good weather. Cameras lie! Here is a photo taken just now of the view of the village across the bay and you can see from the water on the underside of the boom that it is raining - in fact it is drizzle, but we had the heavy rain when we were sailing here and we have spend the last few hours drying ourselves and the boat out - yes the boat has a heater!












Today we sailed from Oban, which was a fairly short sail of only 26 miles (measured through the water). I was skipper and sailed the entire route only using our motor to get in to and out of the harbours. We had to "goose wing" the sails (see photo of "goose winging" taken yesterday when there was no rain) - the wind is directly behind us to make this direction of sailing possible. This is also a tricky direction to sail as you have to keep both the main sail and the genoa filled with wind all the time.


A little over half way the wind strength increased and we took the main sail down and sailed on the genoa alone (the front sail). Just before we reached our destination the wind increased to gusting Force 7 (nearly a gale, although we had a fairly flat sea because there was land all around us) and we had too much sail up so it was quite difficult to steer the boat. With this strength of wind and too much sail the boat has a mind of its own, rocking the boat from side to side as you try and keep it on a straight line (remembering you are steering 13 tons of weight through the water at what seems like quite a pace).


On the passage since my last blog in Bangor, we also visited Rathlin Island (an island off Northern Ireland and still part of Northern Ireland); and then in Scotland, Port Ellen on the Island of Islay; Scalasaig on Colonsay Island and Oban on the West Coast of Scotland. As you might expect, the scenery in this part of the world is stunning although some times difficult to photograph as too often it is raining and covered in cloud despite it being August - nevertheless see some of the photos I did manage to take:

Not surprisingly, I have managed to find time to visit a few distilleries, so far one every other island! and there are plenty of islands, and even more distilleries here!! I first of all took a tour of Laphroaig on Isaly, and judging from the photos of Prince Charles, a favourite of his. Next I took a tour and this time had time for to sample the whisky as well in a small distillery in Oban. Small yes, but still makes a million bottles a year. Actually, or maybe fortunately, I haven't yet developed a taste for whisky, but who knows what this trip will do for me. I did purchase a souvenir bottle from both tours, although I am told Laphroaig is not a beginners whisky! Here is a photo of the beautiful location of the Lagavulin Distillery on the Island of Islay that I took whilst cycling past, just to wet the appetite of those amongst you who have already developed the taste for whisky:


Tony is our current skipper. I already mentioned his wealth of experience in a previous blog - more than 30 years as a skipper and teacher, generally on larger boats of 60 to 70 feet, and much of the time with the Ocean Youth Trust. I can see he is going to be tremendous at turning us from enthusiastic hobbyists into an effective sailing crew / skipper, able to handle the boat in more difficult circumstances and with a proper regard for all the safety aspects. Also, he is very good reacting to difficult situations and communicating to the skipper (under tuition) of the day in particular what needs to be done, rather than grabbing the controls as many would. As an example, I was motoring on to the pontoon at Port Ellen and because of the large size of our boat we had to go on the end (known as the hammerhead) of the pontoon. There was very restricted room to manoeuvre the boat and we had to do a 180 degree turn to get the boat on the pontoon, in about one and a half lengths of the boat. As I was making the final turn and putting the engine from forwards into reverse to increase the angle of the turn and slow the boat down, the gearbox failed to engage (a recurring problem with our boat). We were about to drift out of the deep water area onto the mud - embarrassing if not dangerous. Without any hesitation Tony shouted "prepare to drop emergency anchor (to stop us drifting out of the deeper water)" and started to move quickly to the front of the boat, when fortunately the gear finally engaged and I managed to motor forward slowly to the pontoon. Many a skipper or boat owner would have grabbed the helm at the moment of crisis - Tony was calm and issued instructions such that as a crew we were reacting together to deal with it even though fortunately the situation didn't develop beyond the initial scare.


Tomorrow we will probably be staying in the bay of Tobermory because there are gale warnings and the wind is from the South West, which will make the next planned anchorage next to the "remotest mainland pub" in Great Britain uncomfortable at best and possibly also unsafe. You can see we have our priorities right ... bye for now ....



Addendum Saturday 15th August..
Well we did stay in Tobermory, but we managed to find a space on the pontoon. In the morning the weather was better so I went for a cycle to the fairy tale type Castle Glengorm - see photos of Tobermory in beter weather and Castle Glengorm. In the afternoon we did some learning for our Yachtmaster / Coastal Skipper qualifications.

Addendum Sunday 16th August..
We woke early to get ready to set sail at 8:30am but the weather had deteriorated which would have made sailing today uncomfortable (rough sea for an exposed section once we moved North of the Isle of Mull), so we are staying put in Tobermory today. Also the forecast for the next few days has winds from the South, which probably means we will have to sail the inner route around Skye (ie sail to the East of the island) so we have shelter from the land. To sail to the West of Skye is exposed to Southerly winds and therefore rough seas.

Ireland and the Isle of man, up to Saturday 8th August

After recovering from the sail from the Scilly Isles to Ireland, and sampling the local brew Guinness (although I actually prefer the competition, Beamish Stout!) there has been some very enjoyable sailing up the coast of Ireland, then across to The Isle of Man, then back to Northern Ireland.

First we sailed up the coast to Arklow and it was my turn to be skipper for the passage. The Round Britain Experience as the trip is marketed is not just to have a hopefully enjoyable sail around the country, but to learn how to sail, and sail to a high level. My fellow crew members, Jacob and Graham are planning to take the commercially recognised qualification of Yachtmaster in the couple of weeks following the end of the trip. I am not planning to take Yachtmaster but hopefully will anyway gain the qualification of Coastal Skipper which is one level below. The Coast Skipper qualification is enough to charter yachts and undertake long Coastal passages - so family and friends had better start thinking of excuses now if a sailing trip doesn't appeal !

Anyway, being skipper for the day on this Round Great Britain trip involves planning the passage using charts and the Almanac. This latter document, a large book published annually has information on tides and pilotage at ports, berthing / anchoring etc. Also and importantly we listen to the weather forecast, usually from the Coastguard on VHF.

The sail up to Arklow was in sunny weather with a 15 to 20 knot wind from the South West which was ideal for our passage, so we made quick progress on flat seas. It is quite incredible how the conditions at sea change depending on whether the wind is blowing from the coast, or from out at sea, together with tides, currents, swell from the ocean if there is no land in the way. On this occasion the sea was flat and in such circumstances the boat goes quickly, making 8 to 9 knots for much of the time. When we arrived in Arklow unfortunately there was no space on the town quay so we had to go into the commercial port and moored alongside a disused trawler that had seen better days, see photo:

We decided there was nothing to hang around in Arklow for so made an early start the next day, see photo of us motoring out of the harbour at sunrise:

Our destination was Howth, a port on the outskirts of Dublin where there is a nice marina and an easy train journey into Dublin itself (Dublin itself is primarily a commecial port, not suitable for yachts). We managed to sail for half of the passage, but had to motor the rest as there was not enough wind. We arrived early and in the afternoon I went for a bike ride along the coast to a cliff path which is really only designed for walking - certainly not for a folding bike with small wheels, particularly given the cliff dropped hundreds of feet at the edge of the path no wider than a few feet. The next day we went up to Dublin itself by train and did the tourist open top bus tour of the City - most attractive Georgian squares in parts of the city, and off course we got off the bus for a tour of the Guinness brewery, including free pint!

After Dublin the next destination was Warren Point (with sad memories from troubled times in Ireland) at the end of Carlingford Lough. There are very strong tides, up to 5 knots, at the entrance to Carlingford Lough so we had to time our arrival for when the tide is rising so we can go in with the tide. A most beautiful sail up the Lough and our first sight of mountains, or maybe tall hills! The actual sailing was different from anything previous as we had the wind directly behind us - so we only put the genoa up (the sail at the front of the yacht). This makes the sailing comfortable and it is anyway almost as quick as as with both sails because the mainsail would just pinch the wind that would drive the genoa.

From here we had a fantastic sail at great speed and in moderate sea conditions (ie fairly comfortable) across the Irish sea, some 65 miles on the yacht log (but note this is distance through the water which is affected by tides and will therefore be greater than as the crow flies!). At one point the boat reached 11.1 knots on the broad reach - quite a speed for a 13 ton yacht. Apart from the fantastic sailing, we were also very lucky to see several basking sharks as we were nearing the Isle of Man. We were heading for the port of Peel on the east coast. We arrived in the bay and had to wait until 10pm for the lock gates to open (they only open for 2 hours either side of high water to keep the water at a sufficient height in the marina / river). Whilst we waited we cooked supper and enjoyed the sun setting.

The next day was a rest day to explore the Isle of Man and we were fortunate enough to have nice sunny weather. I was up early to journey around the island on the various forms of land based transportation, much of it from the Victorian era, on a tourist one day pass. The journey included normal buses, a steam train, a horse drawn tram, an early electric tram and a mountain railway. The final bus journey back also went along some of the motorbike TT circuit. The Isle of Man seems to have much to offer - rolling hills, cliff tops, quaint harbours, must come back one day.

The final sail for this section was back to Ireland, but this time Northern Ireland and an attractive harbour town called Bangor (which is in Belfast Lough along the coast from Belfast) We were having problems with the engine so we decided to get back to Bangor early to give maximum time for the engineers to take a look, and therefore we sailed overnight, which also meant we had favourable tides. Also, we had to wait until 10:30pm for the lock gates at Peel to open to begin our journey. The sail turned out to be one of my favourite passages even though we had to motor almost all the way due to lack of wind. The water was flat, the sky was partly cloudy with a near full moon. I was on the 2:30pm to 6:30pm watch and I got my IPod out and just enjoyed the experience - tremendous.

A couple of days in Bangor the next day, including 2 hours in the launderette washing three weeks of clothes (I am using every old t shirt I have, purchased extra underwear and loads of cheap white socks - so if you are wondering, don't!). I even ironed all my t-shirts!

At this moment I am trying to finish this blog having just eaten our evening meal. Our new skipper for the West Coast of Scotland has just arrived - Tony. He started as a paid skipper in the 1970's and I believe has been full time since 1986 - so you can imagine his experience is extensive. We have four skippers in total taking us around Great Britain - it is great to have the chance to learn from the different styles and techniques. Tony has just briefed us about the planned destinations for the next few weeks sailing the West Coast of Scotland, sounds tremendous, and includes many remote anchorages.

Until next time ..

ps : many of you have commented on my suffereing from sea sickness - thank you for your kind thoughts but don't worry, altough it is horrible it only lasts for a short while ..... and anyway my presciption for patches which I believe you stick on your neck has just arrived in the post so maybe I have a solution - although they are sleep inducing so I may fall asleep on my watch and crash the boat into something ...