Sunday - Kerrera to Corpach

A long morning of motoring in a variety of conditions, all flat calm. Heavy rain as I came out of the Lynn of Lorne, and hot sunshine as I came out of the Corran Narrows and headed up the Loch. No wind at any time until I had taken the mainsail down and was trying to safely enter the Sea Lock.

But here I am! Nearly home...

Saturday - Craighouse to Horseshoe Bay, Kerrera

Picked up a huge ball of weed on the anchor in the Bay of Small  Isles. I wonder how well it would have held in a blow:

It responded quickly to the breadknife, though. The chart shows weed in the bay, but not where I anchored.

A weedy day followed: wind appearing and disappearing, poling out the jib and taking it in, starting and stopping the engine. Without the tide I'd still be in Craighouse.

Friday Afternoon - Port Ellen to Craighouse

Quite a lot of fiddling with sails in a dying and changeable wind. Interesting boat in Craighouse:

It's a trimaran, but fairly squat, not beamy, and with limited clearance under the bridgedeck. There is a raised and protected steering position at the stern. It has bulbous bows on the amas, but not (apparently?) on the main hull.  Would love to know more ...

Friday Morning - Red Bay to Port Ellen

This was a tiring crossing with a very early start - 4am - to catch the tide. Tiring because the beam swell made the boat roll and corkscrew in a way that made moving around difficult. I spent a lot of  time sitting in the companionway looking out through the sprayhood windows.

It was fairly fast, though - down wind and down tide. I was on the Pontoon in Port Ellen by about 10am.

Two visits to a petrol station to get 45 litres of diesel, some grocery shopping, and an hour of sleep before the tide called again - 3pm departure for a very gentle northwards lift from about 4. Or so I thought - it was a bit hard to detect.

Thursday - Peel to Belfast Lough (yes, I know this is out of order ...)

Leaving Peel:

Dull variables replaced by a lively south-westerly 5, made this a fairly quick passage. Becalmed for an hour near the end, mysteriously, and I motored through Donaghadee Sound. The wind returned to make a blustery anchoring in Ballyholme Bay, where I am now, writing this.

I'm heading north to Red Bay tonight and will make the hop to Scotland - probably Port Ellen - tomorrow morning.

Friday - Ballyholme Bay to Red Bay

A shortish hop to get me in the right place to take tomorrow morning's tide (4am, ugh) to Islay, and possibly make some further progress with the afternoon tide.

I had a strong tidal lift all the way up until I started to enter the bay, and then met overfalls off Garron Head. It was still a couple of hours before low water, so I was a bit puzzled. For the last two or three miles into the bay I was fighting a strong current (3 knots plus). This may be a local eddy caused by the bay, or a feature of the contrary stream that runs along that coast near the turn of the tide.

However, I am now anchored, and things are fairly peaceful.

Tuesday - Holyhead to Peel

Another long day of light winds and motoring. That was about to come to an end, though ...

I spent Tuesday night on a visitors' mooring and went into the harbour the following morning just before midday to wait out the strongest winds.

Internet was a problem ... I spent too long in The Creek Inn for the wifi, and ended up with slight indigestion. Ahem.

Monday - Aberdaron to Holyhead

Bardsey Sound was well behaved, and give me quite a tidal lift. I left Aberdaron about 6am and was in Holyhead about lunchtime

Holyhead was about groceries and doing a washing. It would also have been about fuel, but their pump broke down ...

I managed to get 20 litres in cans from a petrol station. They had to fit in my bicycle panniers.

Sunday - Fishguard to Aberdaron

A long, hot day - I tried hard to sail in the light winds at the beginning, but as the tide turned against me I gave up and motored most of the rest of the way. I managed to get sunburned.

Aberdaron is very pretty, but I didn't go ashore.

Dale to Fishguard, Friday 21st July.

The wind had dropped a good deal by later today, but there was still a swell running from the SW when I left Dale at about 3:30 pm. I should have left a little earlier, as there was a strong north running tide in both Jack Sound and Ramsay Sound, which, combined with the swell, made both more interesting than I'd have preferred.

I also found myself fighting the tide off Strumble Head as the light failed. The worst was off the headland itself, where the adverse tide reached about 2.5 knots, but it eased a bit as I got nearer Fishguard.

I'm now anchored off the Old Town, in a little over four metres. I should have at least two at the bottom of the tide (1:30 am).

I won't be making an early start tomorrow.

Starting Homewards ...

After a very pleasant holiday harbour-caravanning in Watchet, I'm on my way north again.

I fought the last hour of the flood tide on Tuesday afternoon before the ebb helped me across to Rhossili Bay in Wales, which gave shelter from the easterly breeze. I crossed the Hellwick sands without any problem - one chart warns that these move around, and that soundings may not be reliable, but there was little sea running and I thought between the echo sounder and keeping my eyes open I should be OK.

In the morning, the wind had shifted (as expected) and I took the last of the early tide across to Tenby. I took a bit of a detour to get out of the Pendine Range area, after hearing an incomprehensible exchange between Range Control and Milford Haven Coastguard. I tried calling Range Control without success, and then MHCG called me to say that the range was in use and that they would get Range Control to call me, which they did. MHCG also suggested calling Triton, the range patrol vessel, but I got no reply from them. This was all a bit puzzling - I would have thought Range Control would have made a point of having good VHF communications with anyone in their vicinity.

There are a few firing ranges along this coast, and the chart says you can cross them at any time but to watch out for signals - such as red flags (!) - that they are in use. Maybe the risks are small ...

The visitors mooring at Tenby was fairly bouncy, from the earlier east wind, but I waited out the flood and had a run ashore before taking the afternoon ebb further West to Dale. The wind was a solid four or so from the West (maybe five on occasion), so I was motoring. There were some uncomfortable wind-over-tide conditions off headlands, but only for half an hour or so at a time.

And now I'm in Dale, where I will stay until Friday afternoon when the weather will be less breezy and the tide will take me round St. David's head - possibly to Fishguard.

Track from Findhorn to Watchet

Here is my/our track south:

605 miles through the water and 562 over the ground, although I suspect my log of over-reading about 10%, so that should probably be something like 540 through the water.

Strangford Lough to Dublin, F6 downwind

Not in any order...

On Thursday I had a 13 hour run from Strangford Lough down to Dublin, at an average speed of 7.3 knots over the ground. With a bit of tidal help...

Porlock Post

I'm anchored off Porlock, and will pootle along to Watchet in three or four hours to go into the Marina.

Almost exactly two weeks ago - 21st June - Angus and I left Findhorn on a late tide (nearly midnight), to get into the Caledonian Canal the following morning. We did a quick transit (always a waste, but ...) and were in the Corpach Basin on Saturday, where we got ready for sea, bunkered, and thought about the weather.

The weather was moderately vile - West or North West 6, and it looked as though it was funneling up the loch. I spoke to a yacht that had just come in who they reckoned they didn't want to go out again. And they were going down wind...

But the forecast said it would ease a bit, and the prospect of getting down the loch on Saturday night was too tempting. We anchored in Shuna Sound.

On Sunday we took the best of the tide and had a bracing reach down the Sound of Jura to Lowlandman's Bay, where we anchored for a few hours to rest and wait out the flood. That evening we made Kilnaughton Bay (Port Ellen) on Islay.

We spent Monday and Tuesday night on Rathlan Island, visiting the East Light on our bikes, and the North Light on the bus (!). Fog made the North Light visit very atmospheric, but we'd have seen more on a clearer day.

On Wednesday we motored (upwind) to PortPatrick, where Angus got the bus home. I carried on to Strangford Lough, anchoring in the early hours. (Flying by wire: Two devices running chart plotters, plus radar).

Thursday was a long downwind run to Dublin. Force 6, Aries, rain, and motion. Not an advertisement for the delights of sailing.

I spent a lot of time with the washboards in, poking my head out of the hatch. Raasay did most of it without human intervention ...

I spent two nights in Dublin (Poolbeg Marina, right in the docks) so that I could visit friends on the Friday, and so that they could visit me on Saturday morning. I left at lunchtime after they left, and sailed overnight towards St. David's head, anchoring in Skomer South Haven for a few hours to rest on Sunday before carrying on to a more secure anchorage behind Caldey Island.

Yesterday took me from Caldey Island to here, where I'm hanging on a huge length of anchor chain (tidal range in the Severn), waiting for the tide again...

I have a manual windlass.

I have loads of photos to follow. Once I get a faster internet access ...