Troon to Crinan canal

Cervisia, Royston and I have now reached the east end of the Crinan canal. We are moored up in the canal basin at ardrishaig and have the canal to look forward to tomorrow.  We have three little helpers for the canal as my nieces are up here too. It's actually good to have people to help with the locks. My nieces parents Chris and Al are here too.

We set off at about 7am from troon. As we were motoring out of the harbour we saw a seal that had just caught its breakfast:  a nice big cod that it was just starting to devour, holding it with its flippers and taking chunks out of it while trying to avoid the attentions of the seagulls.

Once out in the open sea we had a great sail past Arran and then up Loch Fyne to the east end of the Crinan canal. Arran looks like a fantastic island with these amazing craggy granite mountains. I have only been there once. It was during the Scottish islands peaks race. We climbed and descended Goat Fell in the dark that time so am none the wiser as to what the scenery was like.

We had a great sail up Loch Fyne towards Ardrishaig. The wind was reasonably strong and from exactly the right direction so we had a beam reach all the way. At one stage the wind died a bit and we had the cruising chute up. This came down pretty quickly when the wind got back up to 20 knots apparent. We were going pretty quickly at that stage and cervisia was sailing along with her transom in the water: she had that much power. Sailing on these smooth seas in these winds is really fantastic.

One thing I enjoyed while sailing was listening to the royal wedding. This sounded really good on the radio. I have since seen the pictures and it looked really amazing. It's so great that it was such a fantastic occasion.

The lock keepers at ardrishraig were really nice and friendly. They we watching out for us and had the sea lock ready for us when we arrived. The lock is a bit different to the ones we are used to at portishead. There are no pontoons in the lock. You have to throw your lines ashore (luckily Royston is good at this as I am useless at this sort of thing). There are loads of mussels on the sea lock walls so you watch nervously as the lock rises and wonder whether the fenders are going to get lacerated to pieces by them.

We had a great barbecue on the beach once everyone had met up. We had a little fire made from the drift wood at the mid tide line that kept us warm. As the sun was going down the tide came in and we watched the tide put the fire out, returning the beach to it's former state. We then rearranged cervisia so that we've got 5 people sleeping aboard. Chris and al have got a little tent next to us. We are planning on getting the first lock on saturday and making a swift transit of the canal.

Lady Bay / Loch Ryan to Troon

There are days when sailing isn't really going to happen and today was one of those days. I woke to pretty glassy seas and clear blue skies. I seem to have the morning routine well sorted out and was on the move within half an hour of getting up. Hence we were moving just after 7am. Loch Ryan had provided a pretty good anchorage. I think we were anchored in sand and weed, but it all seemed to hold. The only problem with the anchorage is that you get the wash from a ferry every hour or two. If you're tired enough, this isn't too much hardship.

From Loch Ryan we basically motored all the way to Ayr. We then had a really nice little sail for an hour and a half before entering Troon Marina where my friend Royston met me. We've since done the shopping for the next week and had a nice meal at the marina restaurant. Scottsdale restaurant in the Marina building has a great atmosphere and the food was really good. I think we were a bit out of place as we were just talking about sailing and rock climbing. I for one looked like I had just stepped off a boat.

We have been talking about plans. We are both keen to get up to Skye and attempt the Cuillin ridge. We are also really keen to climb on the Etive slabs. Both these objectives would be a dream come true. If we do both of these things it looks like I will be dropping Stone off in Oban and then sailing Cervisia back to Belfast where I'll leave her for three weeks. There's still a long time to go until then.

Photos between Holyhead and Loch Ryan

These are a couple of photos taken between Holyhead and Loch Ryan. The first shot is of the south end of the Isle of Man. Calf Sound is a little sea passage to the right of the steep rightwards pointing cliff at the left side of he shot. It was quite narrow!

Holyhead, Peel, Stranraer

I made the right decision to stay in Holyhead on Monday as it was a pretty windy and cold day. The killer was that it was a strong northerly wind. This would have meant that I would have had an uncomfortable 12 hour passage tacking to the Isle of Man. When I was at the Marina on Monday night I heard from some people who had just arrived from the Isle of Man and they confirmed that it had been pretty wavy.

I did the shopping in Tesco. I haven't spent that much money in a supermarket for years. I needed to get enough food for a couple of weeks as I may not be close to shops for the next couple of weeks. After shopping I went for a nice walk round the spectacular cliffs of Holy Island in the brisk wind. It was nice to find a sheltered spot for a little nap in the sun. I could see the large waves off the south stack lighthouse when I got up. The day before I had motored through a mirror calm sea over that same stretch of water. I got an early night's sleep ready for a long day on Tuesday.

Tuesday morning dawned grey and slightly less windy. The wind had also turned to the east which was a great direction for getting to the Isle of Man. We were motoring out of Holyhead harbour before 7am.

The morning of the crossing was pretty grey and it started to rain. The wind was good though and we made good progress until we could see the Isle of Man. The wind then seemed to decrease as the weather ameliorated. It was nice to see the Isle of Man appear out of the gloom. It is a really spectacular island. You can see why the Vikings liked it so much. There are some really steep banks and cliffs going into the sea and a range of shapely hills along the spine of the island. An interesting feature is the Calf of Man which is a little island off the southern tip. I had imagined it as just being a large rock, but it is quite a substantial place with a farm and several old lighthouses on it. It is separated from the main island by a channel 100m wide called Calf Sound. This is meant to be difficult to navigate due to it's narrowness and the rocks on either side. It does save quite a bit of time to go through it though and it is tidally efficient to take it (you get the tide with you earlier if you go through the sound). We went throughout the sound a bit nervously. It is pretty unnerving seeing the rocks so close on either side when you are in a vulnerable little boat. On the far side of the sound there was a good view of the steep hills going into the sea. A hill called Cronk ny Arrey Laa is particularly impressive. You don't want to play rolly Pollyanna down that one!

The wind on the west side was really weird. It kept gusting, changing direction and then dying. I didn't know whether we should motor or sail. Is kept the faith and sailed and was rewarded with a really good sail up the coast to Peel. Peel harbour has a splendid setting as it is tucked into this gorse clad valley parallel to the coast. There were loads of fishing boats moored up on the harbour wall as we went into the inner harbour to find a berth for the night. The first thing I set about doing was servicing one of the winches which had seized solid. I was quite lucky to get it working again I think. Once I had finished that, I was invited out to the pub from the boat next door, so I enjoyed a couple of pints before turning in. It was going to be another early morning.

Wednesday dawned grey and reasonably windless. This was not an ideal combination. I had visions of motoring under leaden skies up to Scotland. This is how the first hour of the passage started off, but then a really good easterly kicked in and we sped off towards the Mull of Galloway. Things got even better when the sun came out and we just had the most fantastic 5 hours of sailing. When the wind died I could feel the full force of the sun. I think I am getting quite brown. We then had about 4 hours sailing up the Galloway coast with the spinnaker up. This was all pretty serene, the only poor bit being a failed gybe. The failed spinnaker gybe led to the spinnaker begin taken down onto deck and being put up on the other side. This was not graceful but it was the safe thing to do as I am on my own. The Galloway coast brings back tense memories of the Three Peaks Yacht Race. It is often a windless little spot in that race too.

We motored the last two hours into the head of Loch Ryan. I am anchored about 5 miles north of Stranraer. It is at a place called Lady Bay and was recommended by my friend Damo who is the lock keeper at Portishead. It is in a convenient location and we seem to be pretty firmly anchored. There is a pretty amazing view out west to this conical island called Aisla Craig. It looks really out of place in the Firth of Clyde. You get islands like that in the Tristan da Cunha group, now round here. Arran is behind Aisla Craig. It would be nice to get a climb done on there at some stage. The only problem with the anchorage is that it gets pretty bumpy whenever one of the Irish ferries goes by. I guess I am just going to have to come to terms with that.

I am just on GPRS coverage here so can't upload any pictures, but will try to when I get into better coverage. The plan is to go up the coast to Troon tomorrow to pick up my friend Royston. We should meet my nieces on Friday at the east end of the Crinan canal and then go through the canal on saturday. This should be fine and I am really looking forward to introducing them to the boat. After that we need to check the weather and see where we can get. The dream is to get out to Skye, but we need to take things as they come.

Abersoch to Holyhead. Motoring in the sunshine

The alarm went off at 7am. I was quite tired after a mere 4 hours of sleep. I weighed anchor and quickly set off, having breakfast while we were underway in order to save time. When I woke up I found out that Cervisia was the only boat anchored for about a mile around us. All the rest were a lot closer inshore. We had a really good spot though and I knew that we were really well anchored there. It did seem to be a bit weird being anchored in what seemed like the middle of the sea rather than in a bay.

The coastline on the Lleyn peninsula was pretty spectacular. One of the best bits was Cilan Head. This is the location of an amazing rock climb called Path to Rome tha I have always wanted to do. It looked really stunning, traversing a big cliff on horizontal breaks above the sea. It looked pretty wild.

I had a bit of wind in Bardey Sound so we were able to traverse the Sound quite quickly and in glorious silence. It was interesting to sail this bit of coast as I have been there many times on the Three Peaks yacht race. I known the spots where we try to edge through the Sound against the tide and the spots where I often see my nieces supporting us from the cliff tops. It was much more leisurely today.

The wind died about an hour after we went through the Sound. I then had to get the engine on and we motored in a straight line across a glassy sea towards Holyhead. The Gogarth cliffs looked spectacular on Holy Island. I could see some climbers on them. We got round North Stack just in time. There is an amazing tide race there. I could see the waters swirling around and about to change in a contrary direction. The tide was then against us properly into Holyhead harbour and it took about an hour to cover the 3 miles into the marina.

It was quite weird stepping onto solid ground after 3 days at sea. There wasn't really much to look at in Holyhead. I walked a couple of miles to the out of town Tesco to fill the fuels cans and then found somewhere to eat in town. This was not as easy as it sounds and I didn't eat particularly well at an Indian restaurant. What am craving at the moment is fruit and salad so I will sort that out at Tesco on Monday. I do not have many stored on board at the moment and I need to also sort that out. One thing I really need is some good spring water that I feel confident about drinking when I am at sea.

On Monday I am going to go for a walk on Anglesey. There are some quite strong northerly winds forecast. As I am going to be sailing north, this would be a real pain to deal with. I am going to set sail again on Tuesday when I am promised winds from a sensible direction. I think the next stop will be the Isle of Man, but that does depend a lot on the wind direction.

Whitesands Bay to Abersoch: the dolphinarium

Saturday was a really long day, but I had the most amazing sighting of dolphins in Cardigan Bay. These Cardigan Bay dolphins are much bigger than the Bristol Channel ones. They are either a different species or the BC ones are actually some other form of cetacean. There were maybe 20 dolphins in each of the schools that I came across. The amazing thing was that there were some really athletic ones there jumping clean out of the water. One jumped right across the bows of Cervisia, just a few metres in front of us. He obviously timed that one really well. It is quite difficult to understand why they do this. It is also quite difficult to understand why they choose to swim with boats. They clearly know that a boat is something that they want to engage with. Maybe it relieves the boredom of swimming around catching fish all day. The other strange thing about the dolphins is how they come up for air or jump out of the water together. They must be swimming together down there. There must also be some sort of decision process going on where they decide to jump out of the water together rather than to just come up for air.
I weighed anchor at 7am in order to be able to catch the tide going round St. David's Head. It was pretty grey and murky when we rounded the headland, but there was a good little wind. Unfortunately the wind was from the north north east: exactly the direction I wanted to go in. This meant that I was going to have to tack. I sailed offshore for an hour or so and then tacked to follow the welsh coast all the way up. I had the wind vane self steering on and Cervisia then just followed the best course to windward: this course was parallel to the coast.
It turned into a long sail. I thought about going into Aberystwyth but this would have meant going into a port in an onshore wind (which can be nasty as the waves can break on entry into the port). I would also have not been able to leave that early the next day. I thus carried on northwards into the night.
I had a nice sunset accompanied by the dolphins and then sailed under a starry night with the odd shooting star. The wind died a bit and I was tacking slowly towards Abersoch on the Lleyn peninsula. I motored the last 10 miles as it was getting time for bed! At 0230 I dropped the anchor, set the anchor watch on the iPad, set the alarm clock for 7am and slept.
I covered 92 miles today in a 20 hour day. It was quite a long day!

Neyland to Whitesands Bay

I caught the train after work and got to the marina just before midnight. The trains were surprisingly punctual and the journey went well. The most stressful part was a drak jog down the cycle track from Johnston to neyland. It was pretty dark without a torch. Luckily it was only 4 miles to jog.

I got up this morning pretty early and went out to the local petrol station to stock up on diesel. There is the chance that I will have to motor some of the way and I really need a stock of fuel to be able to do this. I guess this isn't rocket science. I was out of the marina by 930 and chugging out into the Cleddau estuary. A lovely wind picked up here and we had a great sail out of the estuary past the massive oil and gas tankers and into the open sea. The open sea is a real contrast to Milford Haven. Just 5 miles out from Milford Haven lie Skokholm and Skomer islands. These islands are a real paradise for birds. As you sail between the islands, there are puffins and Manx shearwater flying by. It is a wonderful sight. I landed on Skomer a couple of years ago and I found it to be the most amazing place. You feel like an alien there. The island so obviously belongs to the birds. It is one of the most amazing places I have been to.

The nice wind continued past Skokholm and Skomer islands but died just short of Ramsey Island. This island is also a bird sanctuary thought there were fewer interesting looking birds in the sea around it. There were some fine looking guano covered cliffs. They looked like they would be good climbing objectives if it weren't for the birds. I think it is one of the few places where climbing is banned.

With little wind and a big tide about to start against me, I had to motor. We motored close to the shore to try to escape most of the tide. We made excellent progress in a sheltered bay at the north end, but when we came back into the tidal stream, it looked like a massive river. We made very, very slow progress against this. Deciding that this sort of thing was futile, I headed for Whtesand Bay which is sheltered from the tide. This bay is just below St. David's Head. It is a well known surfing beach. There is little wind at the moment and none from the west, hence there is no swell and it is ok to anchor here. On the way over to Whitesands bay I had to ensure we didn't get swept into the infamous tide race between Ramsey Island and the mainland. I had been warned about this race: at times it is a place where white water kayakers fear to tread and is clearly no place for a contessa 26.

The original plan had been to just wait a couple of hours for the tide to change and then to carry out. However once we were anchored it was was evident that there was no wind and if we carried on it would be a dull motor over to Fishguard. I am hence going to anchor here overnight and to carry on tomorrow morning. It seems like this will be a better place to set off from if the wind is a northerly as predicted. I have never slept at anchor overnight before, so this will be a bit of a learning exercise. I have been here for 5 hours now and we seem to be pretty well attached to one place so I am quite confident. I have an iPad app that should warn me if we move too far from where we originally anchored. It seems to work.

One thing that is weird here is that most of the radio stations you can pick up are Irish. It is all fairly depressing. All the adverts are about sales, companies offering to buy your old clothes for 1 euro a kilogram, festivals that you only have to pay a deposit for (I guess the other bit is on credit) etc. The presenters seem quite cheery at least. I'm hoping to avoid the republic as it is known as being very expensive. It would be nice to go to Northern Ireland. It all depends on what happens with the wind and the weather.

At the moment it is raining!

North Devon Coast, Lundy, Neyland

I had a mad rush getting Cervisia ready on the Friday night. There were things to pack on board, sails to change (the forecast was for light winds, so I needed to change to the largest genoa), diesel to stock up on etc. The original plan had been to lock out of Portishead at 1930, but we only just made it into the lock at 2000. I was still bending on the large genoa as the lock was dropping. We motored out into a pretty calm sea.

Cervisia motored for a couple of miles past Portishead Point as I finished sorting things out on board and getting myself properly ready for sea (like changing out of my work clothes). Soon enough the sails were up and we were tacking towards Cardiff. The sun went down, ships passed in the night and Cervisia serenely glided westwards. We made good progress tacking into a light wind, then motoring the final couple of miles into the barrage. We got to Cardiff about 40 minutes below low water. We might have had 10cm under the keel as I nervously navigated the channel into the barrage: if we had arrived later, the tide would have been lower and I think we would have grounded. We got to Cardiff just in time.

I got to bed as soon as possible and set the alarm for 5am, docked up in Penarth marina. By 5:30am we were back in Cardiff lock, this time at high water, but still in the dark. We motored out past Lavernock Point. Once out into the Bristol Channel proper, dawn happened and a little westerly breeze kicked in, allowing me to get the sails up and for us to sail nicely into the light westerly. The plan had been to tack along the South Wales coast, but we were going so nicely on starboard tack that I just connected the self steering and let her get on with it. I watched the North Devon coast get closer and fiddled with bits of gear on board, trying to get her in tip-top shape for the big voyage to come.

Sailing west towards Hurlstone Point and Porlock Bay

By lunchtime we were passing Hurlstone Point. The tide carried us west and we got all the way across Porlock Bay before we needed to tack. The North Devon cliffs looked really spectacular with mist on their tops and the sun peeking out from between the clouds. This tack saw us clear Foreland Point. Once round Foreland Point, I could see all the way towards Ilfracombe and what is essentially the end of the Exmoor Coast. I guess Foreland Point is a real transition into the far west. At this point I decided that we wouldn't make it back across the Bristol Channel to the South Wales coast before the tide turned so the next objective turned into one of the little anchorages along the North Devon coast. The point we got to was Combe Martin: a nice little bay surrounded by big cliffs (really just very steep banks) plunging into the sea.

I anchored in Combe Martin. I am by no stretch of the imagination an anchoring expert and it was hence with some trepidation that I sat around on deck waiting to tell whether my recently placed anchor was actually doing the business. I must have been confident enough as I managed a little nap and when I got up, Cervisia still seemed to be pretty much where I had left her. I am going to have to get happy with anchoring for the voyage to come.

The spectacular North Devon coast near Combe Martin

We left Combe Martin as the tide changed back to the west. The wind had died by now and we had to motor west: destination Lundy. I watched the sun dip into the sea in the west and the full moon rise in the east. Once the stars had come out, we were joined by dolphins and we had a dolphin escort into Lundy. We arrived at Lundy in the dark. There were some boats in the anchorage, but there were no evident free mooring buoys. It looked like we would have to anchor and I set to preparing the anchor and chain on deck while Cervisia gently motored ahead. It was while I was doing this that I looked up and noticed that we were just about to hit a massive mooring buoy (thankfully it looked nice and plastic, but it would still have been a huge surprise to hit it). This was a real gift from the gods. Once I'd got the mooring line on board, I knew I was going to have a sound night's sleep.

It was only really a sound half a night's sleep. I set the alarm for before 5am. We had to make the most of the tide in order to get to Neyland in time for me to catch the last train home. There were still stars out overhead at the anchorage, but to the east there was an ominously foggy looking bank of fog. I was hoping that this fog bank was localised. It wasn't. I got into the fog (not a real pea-souper) at the northern end of Lundy and motored through it for 25 miles (there was no wind). I figured that there was actually enough visibility and that there was unlikely to be shipping out there at the current state of the tide. I seem to have been right. In any case, I had a dolphin escort of maybe 15 dolphins on the way out from Lundy. Maybe they were keeping an eye on us.

Seeing the sun again was a nice sight. I could tell that it was a beautiful day above the fog as I could see the blue sky above through the haze. Once the fog cleared, a nice breeze picked in from the starboard beam. I got the cruising chute up and we tanked along at 7 knots over a pretty flat sea towards Milford Haven. I dropped the cruising chute at the harbour entrance and then sailed and motored up the Cleddau. It was all a bit frustrating in the Cleddau as there wasn't really enough wind to truly sail, but there also seemed to be too much wind to motor. We changed from one mode to the next many times. It was a bit of a pain having a schedule to keep to - bit that's the way it was.

We had a great sail to the Pembrokeshire coast once the fog disappeared and the wind kicked in

I moored up in a very convenient berth in Neyland Yacht Haven. This marina seems to be a really nice place. There was a real holiday atmosphere down there with people lounging around on their boats, polishing their boats, eating ice creams: all the usual summer holiday boaty things. I probably looked pretty out of place, looking tired and dishevelled after the crossing from Lundy.

After booking into the marina, I walked 4 miles up an old railway path (now a cycle track) to Johnston railway station where I got the train back to Bristol. Maybe I should have slept on the train, but the scenery was really interesting (especially the really high tide in the Carmarthen estuary: the train goes very close to the sea here) and I studied my Japanese book (as I had been doing on the voyage itself).

Temporarily moored up at Neyland (Milford Haven)

It feels good, if somewhat weird, that I've got Cervisia 100 miles west of Portishead. This should be a really good place to set off from for our voyage north to Scotland (but that all depends on the wind and the weather). It was a pretty tiring weekend, with not that much sleep. I did 125 miles single-handed on Cervisia and feel that I've learnt a lot and had a great time.