Stromness to Home (1st-2nd August)

Angus arrived on the morning of the 1st of August for the route march home.

We had a sail in Scapa Flow, visiting Houton Bay for future reference. Then my old sprayhood split some of its stitching and we decided to head for Longhope and a visitors' mooring to rest up until 7pm when we could head across the firth.  Two or three hours of food, stiching, and sitting around seemed to put us in the right place.

We dropped the mooring about twenty to seven, and then motored into a headwind the whole way to Inverness, finally switching the engine off in the marina at 10:36 the following morning.

Scrabster to Stromness (30th-31st July)

I had another lazy start on the 30th of July, as the choices (to hit the tide in Hoy Sound) were 2am and 2pm. Not a hard choice, actually. I had a gorgeous sail into a NW 3/4, arriving in Stromness about 7pm.

I spent two nights in Stromness, catching up with some friends in Orkney, and visiting the Ring of Brognar & Scara Brae. Angus made a long bus/ferry journey up from Aberdeen to rejoin the boat. On reflection he'd have been better flying - especially as the bus was late for the ferry and he had to spend a night in Thurso.

Hoy in the evening sunlight:



Obligatory (?!) picture of the Old Man:



I met some of the 'Avalon' crew - there are 10 (!) altogether on the boat, taking two hour rowing stints:

Loch Eriboll to Scrabster (29th July)

I hung around for a good part of the morning of the 29th, watching squalls come down the loch and wondering what conditions outisde would be like. Finally decided to 'take a look', and lifted the anchor aobut 1pm.

In the end, it was lumpy but manageable. I arrived in Scrabster about 8:30pm.




I was just about on a beam reach, and the boat was rolling unpleasantly on the anticipated northerly swell. Quite a long day ...

I actually felt a bit seasick for part of it. This is fairly rare for me, but getting worse with age, I think. I'll need to experiment with some pills.

Probably better than trying to survive on apple juice. All* the cafes in Scrabster were closed or closing when I arrived.

Holborn Head:



Scrabster:



*There were slightly more than one.

Kinlochbervie to Loch Eriboll (25th-28th July)

I explained in an earlier post how this leg started with a worrying false start.

When I set out again on the afternoon of the 28th the forecast was NE 4/5 and then getting a bit worse before dropping back. I wanted to spend a day in Orkney, though, and was beginning to run up against time pressure for getting back to Inverness.

I have almost nothing written in the log for the trip round to Loch Eriboll.  I dropped anchor south of spit in Ard Neackie about 8pm.

The following morning I took a while to decide whether to go onwards. I was prompted by time pressure and the terrible phone connection, but worried a bit about the forecast and the sea conditions that steady northerly weather would have built up.

Ard Neackie:

Kyleakin to Kinlochbervie (25th-27th July)

The trip from Kyleakin to Loch Ewe was uneventful - mixed motoring and sailing. I anchored off Aultbea, from whence this view southwards:


Loch Ewe to Kinlochbervie (see earlier post) provided some impressive views.


Old man of Stoer:



Stac Pollaidh:

Fort William to Kyleakin, via Muck and Loch Scavaig (9th-24th July)

I took Raasay down Neptune's Staircase and on to Dunstaffnage on my own, having been abandoned by a crew struck down by sanity. I picked up Angus in Dunstaffnage and we went to Tobermory, Muck, Loch Scavaig (see earlier post) and Kyleakin - from whence he bussed home.

We had a good run up the Sound of Mull under the Aries - poled out genoa and prevented main. Everything very steady controlled. We couldn't have stopped easily, mind you ...:



You can see her yawing a bit here, but the vane brings her back on track easily:



Tobermory:



Gallanach Bay, Muck, with Rum in the distance:



The Muck Shop:



Eigg, from Muck:



Leaving Loch Scavaig:



Visitors' mooring, Kyleakin, among friends:



Sunset, last day in Skye, Kyleakin:

Inverness to Fort William (14-8th July, 2015)

Our trip down the canal was not so nice as last year. The weather was moderate rather than sublime, and became progressively wetter.

Some photos -

Dochgarroch:


Foyers:



Fort Augustus:



Allen Carr, with Rix and friends, "Enterprise" of Slaughden, Loch Lochy:



Raasay rafted up to Enterprise, just above the Double Lock, Corpach:

Loch Scavaig, Loch na Cuilce, Loch Coruisk (22nd-23rd July)

This is a popular and much reviewed anchorage. Angus and I spent the night of 22nd/23rd July there, getting time to have a walk by Loch Coruisk when we arrived. One or two trip boats visited while we were there, but the weather kept everyone else away.





I thought we'd be reasonably sheltered, because the forecast was for strong winds from the SW, veering W. In the event, they seemed to curl up the loch and blow straight in.

One of the trip boat skippers remarked, casually, that he didn't think the the anchorage was good holding ground.

The wind increased later on the first day, and by bed time the boat was snatching hard at the anchor and swinging to strong gusts. Some of these were 35 knots, straight up the loch. Others were 50 knot katabatic demons that seemed to come from any direction. We'd seen some of them hitting Loch Coruisk during our walk, lifting dense spray straight off the surface of the water like ectoplasm in a Victorian nightmare.




Anyhow, between the wild wind and the trip skipper's bon mot I spent most of the night sitting up in foul weather gear while Angus slept in the fo'c'sle ...

The GPS showed no movement apart from swinging to the rode, but the blackness beyond the cockpit seemed full of looming rocky shoreline. Watching the tethered dinghy being repeaedly flipped upside down and back up again didn't help my state of mind.

I thought later that I might have felt more secure with the engine running and the radar on - both to give me some comfort about nearby hazards and because I could quickly put the boat in gear if we dragged.

Anyhow, we were fine. I think the anchor must have dug at least a metre into the thick mud, much of which came up onto the foredeck in the morning and got all over Angus' foul weather gear.

Catching up ...

I've let so much time go by that the catching up problem has reached intimidating proportions ... which doesn't help me to address it.

I've decided to do bits, and not aim for completeness. I've got some nice photos I'd like to post, and some stories (technical and aesthetic) which may be interesting, so I'll just stick them up as they occur to me.

I'll start with a photo of where I was when I last posted:




I had an interesting passage round Cape Wrath. The weather last summer was a bit lumpy (some of you may remember ...) so sailing was a bit more taxing than blissful.

I sailed from Kinlochbervie early (before 4am), to pick up a favourable tide. I was plodding northwards in varying visibility, motoring much of the time. The wind was from the NE.

About nine miles from CW, the charging light and warning buzzer came on.

I hove to and switched off the engine to check the wiring. There didn't seem to be any loose contacts, or other simple explanations. There was some water in the starter battery box, but nowhere near the wiring - I sponged all of this out just in case.

After spraying everything with WD 40 I restarted the engine. For a while, things seemed fine. I kept the revs a bit lower, to reduce boat motion. I wasn't sure how this might be relevant, but it felt a bit more comfortable, even though I was worrying about whether the tide would stay with me.

After a while, the alarm came on again. Again, I shut down the engine and had another good look around, more hopelessly ...

After another restart, and another alarm, I realised I had a more serious, and apparently unrelated, problem - there was more water in the bilges than their should have been. In fact, it was not far under the floorboards, and was slopping over them as the boat rolled.

Hove to again, with the engine off, I checked the boat from end to end looking for the leak.

The ususal suspect - the heads sink outlet - was innocent. The seacock was safely closed. No explanation presented itself, and the water level didn't seem to be rising. I pumped it all out and had a think. I realised that the only safe course of action was to head back to Kinlochbervie and find the leak.

I then tried one more thing, more on a hunch than because I had any real theory: I started the engine again and lifted the companionway steps out of the way while it was running.

This time I could see that hose from the water pump to the cylinder head had punctured. With the pump pressurising it, it was spraying water onto the alternator belt, leading it to slip; and also filling the boat up with water.

Either heat or wear had caused the puncture - not from current circumstances, but possibly because of a previous poor fitting that led to it rubbing on something.  I stopped the engine again and taped the hose up well enough to get back to Kinlochbervie and replace it.

Another tale of confusing symptoms, trying to think in lumpy conditions, and instinctive explorations ... it's funny how obvious the source of the problem seemed in retrospect. I've almost forgotten the despair and confusion ...

Later that day, I picked up the afternoon tide and made a fairly uneventful (though choppy) passage to Loch Eriboll.

Kinlochbervie, 27th July

Between poor internet connections and other distractions (like sailing), I've managed not to blog anything since the start of this year's 'big' cruise on Monday the 13th of July.

And now I've been on board for two weeks ...

I keep thinking I'll have pictures to post. Although I have, I haven't been able to upload them.

Basically, the outline has been:


13th, Monday: Inverness Marina - went on board with Carrie and Edan.

14th, Tuesday: Clachnaharry Sea Lock and Seaport Marina

15th, Wednesday: Foyers, on Loch Ness

16th, Thursday: Foyers to Cullochy

17th, Friday: Cullochy to Corpach (at the top of ‘Neptunes Staircase’)

18th, Saturday: Carrie and Edan went home, and I went down the staircase, and spent a night on a pontoon between the bottom of the staircase and the Corpach double lock.

19th, Sunday: Went through the double lock and the sea lock, and headed for Dunstaffnage.

20th, Monday: Angus joined me and we went from Dunstaffnage to Tobermory, where we picked up a visitors mooring for the night.

21st, Tuesday: Tobermory to Gallanach Bay, Muck.

22nd, Wednesday: Muck to Loch Scavaig – ‘Loch na Cuilce’ – where we spent an unpleasant windy night being knocked about.

23rd, Thursday: Loch Scavaig to Kyleakin, and a visitors mooring, where Angus went home and I spent a day visiting, and a further night on the mooring.

25th, Saturday: Kyleakin to Loch Ewe, and anchoring off Aultbea.

26th, Sunday: Aultbea to Kinlochbervie, where I’ve been since yesterday. It’s now Monday evening and I’m contemplating a very early start (first light) to take some advantage of the tides along the north coast. The ‘right’ time to go would probably be 2am, but I’d prefer to wait for daylight.

Lot more details, and photos, to follow!

Engine Cooling - New Pump Cam

Well, there has been a significant improvement.  It's a pity I dont' have a 'before', but here is the engine at about 1000 rpm:

and at about 2000 rpm:

We'll see next trip out in a chop whether there is still anything to worry about.

Engine cooling - pump cam problem ...

The cooling water flow from Raasay's exhaust has always looked a bit insipid.  Then I had the unexpected overheating event mentioned in a previous post ("Raasay in Inverness"). This was repeated on a short sail I took a few weeks ago, prompting further investigation.

I couldn't find anything wrong with the water supply, seacock, strainer etc., and the exhaust system seemed to be fine.

Then my partner found this post:

Solved! Overheating Yanmar 3GM30 due to Johnson raw water pump not priming.

Now, Raasay's pump is below the waterline, so priming was not really likely to be the problem (it's full of water all the time). However, the post also explains that the pump cam can wear over time (especially in silty conditions).

On many 3GM30s sold in Europe, it seems that the cam cannot be replaced - it's part of hte pump casting. However, Raasay's pump (like many sold in the US, for some reason) has a replaceable cam and I was able to source one (after some meandering) from ASAP for around £20. (I could have imported one from the US for a little more than twice that ...)

Here are some photos showing the old cam and the new one - they are a bit dramatic. I wonder, as well, whether the larger water channel openings in the new cam are an indication that the old one may also have been a replacement - and maybe not quite the right part.

 Old cam in position

 The new cam is on the left.

 New cam in position.

I have reassembled the pump, and will be testing it the next time I visit the boat.  Watch this space.

Raasay in Inverness

Raasay is safely in Inverness Marina.

Everything went almost according to plan.  We had one small worry and a larger one going out over the Findhorn bar.  The small one was that the engine overheated briefly, making us turn around.  We picked up a mooring to check it - filter, impeller etc. - and couldn't find anything wrong.  The warning alarm had actually switched itself off before we stopped, so it looked like something transient.

The large one was that the bar conditions were very bad - there had been a day or two (I think) of northeasterlies, so there was a heavy swell and large breakers.  I was following a GPS track out (no channel bouys this early in the season), and it was very hard work - a lot of motion and confusion.  It's easy to become disoriented:  at one point I drifted north of my track, finding it hard to believe that the deep water was really among all those whitecaps.  It was, of course, and the echo sounder quickly informed me of my error - I was sure we were going to bump the sand.

Unfortunatley, the trip over the bar made one crewmember seasick - he didn't recover until some hours after arriving in Inverness.  There weren't many other places we could have dropped him off, and we weren't going back into Findhorn ...

Getting ready to go ...

I'm planning to move to Inverness this weekend, if all goes well.  We'll be motoring in very light winds against a strongish spring.  High water is near mid day, so we should be tied up by teatime if all goes well.

Or we may decide to do some sailing and take a bit longer ... it seems a shame to waste a shakedown opportunity.

We'll miss Findhorn.

Back in the water ...

Raasay is back in the water, as of Thursday.  A bit early, but everything was ready and I'd rather do the final tidying on the mooring.  (Most of it is washing down the decks and cabin sole, and putting things away ...)  I'll spend a day in Findhorn this week sorting out loose ends.

I'm planning to move to Inverness Marina in early April.  I have a slight concern that the Findhorn channel bouys won't have been laid by then, so a preliminary task will be navigating the channel at low tide to get a definite safe track on the GPS.

The move is a bit of an experiment - marina life will be more expensive, but I can walk aboard and also keep the boat in the water all year round.  It will be easier for grandchildren to visit, and short sails will be possible (at present I can really only take her out for multiples of twelve hours ...).

The launch went well - a breezy day, and the tangled mooring was a pest.  I don't think it could have been untangled from a dinghy, so there probably weren't any options here.  Angus and I picked it up, and then had to rig a temporary strop to lift the bouy clear of the water and untangle the main strops, which had become wrapped around the chain riser.

Raasay is just about ready to launch.  I'd like to give the topsides a clean and fix a few scratches, but that's all that really needs done in the yard.  I've put on two good coats of anti-fouling, hoping that I might get two seasons out of it (with a bit of a scrub and retouch?) since I can lie afloat in Inverness.

We should be in the water by early March ...

Raasay's History

Thanks to Jane Ashe, of the ROA, I now have an ownership history for Raasay - and also the hull number!

6 is pretty early in the series ...

April 1972	Arden Yachts, Yacht Charter	Kilmelford
1977	Brian Coad, Vet	Cork
May 2003	Peter O’Gorman, Oncologist, Dublin	Cork/Youghall
May 2013	Alex. Arthur	Findhorn/Inverness