No updates lack of mobile reception and time.
Corpach goodbye "Flying Scotsman"
Oban anchored overnight rain.
Trip to Crinan via nice little anchorage for lunch, fog crazy narrow channel riding 5kn current with submerged rock in the middle - piece of cake, and another cuppa.
Dreaded Dorus Mor was doing impression of local model boat pond.
Welcomed into Crinan Canal Sea lock basin.
Helped through Canal over 2 days (strong winds at sea) in company of nice French extended Family boat. Met up with Brian & Jimmy of "Escape".
Nice sail along Loch Fyne to Carry Point in West Kyle of Bute nice peaceful little anchorage.
Sailed along Firth of Clyde under the shadow of Isle of Arran. Very strong wind. "Escape" a couple of miles behind me measured gusts of 35kn too much for my little craft so put in Clyde Marina Ardrossan. Beautiful Shearwater difficult to capture on camera.
Was eaten and chewed up by the monster permanent Force 5 with strong gusts maybe F7 on the nose made 3 short stops for refreshment and topping up the top tank. Spat out at Fort Augustus very nice thank you.
Poor reception GSM no WCDMA so no pics.
Nessie here i come ready or not. No tides no nowhere to anchor permanent gale fresh water and monster to deal with.
If you thought i had gone far from the other side of the uk, check out the ensign on the yacht behind me!
Clachnaharry welcomed by a very nice man in to the canal sea lock very efficient and polite.
Wind blowing straight into lock and had to go reverse just to check speed!
Welcomed into Firth of Inverness by some lively dolphin acton after a pleasant run downwinging.
Disappointing sail sloppy sea no wind Lossiemouth not practical. Macduff rundown fishing harbour main business shipbuilding.
Early start 0500 15 hours and 70 nautical miles of sailing ecstacy later tried Macduff not good so went across bay to Banff beautiful llittle marina brilliant HM Jim Henderson. Did shower shave lauundry fuel.
Seems like a good marina but stayed over rafted in outer harbour with really nice bloke from Durham called Preston on his way to hebrides to party with his Macwester 26 "Lamu" good on you. He kindly shared his beer and a good old chinwag.
Would like to have been in Stonehaven but still windy. Early start tomorrow 0500 for Peterhead.
Yesterday watched a huge gull swallow a flounder whole i thought it was going to die. It just stood there for a couple of hours looking like a bloated Dodo on the mud.
Loads of Eider ducklings theyre cute they rest their heads taking a nap while swimming. They gather in large floating flocks all sizes and ages.
A reminder to all that i am doing this thing for charity. I havent the time to fanny about with arsebook on this android struggling to keep charged. My justgiving account closes in a week and cant figure how to extend it with the android.
http://www.justgiving.com/miccamuk/
Yesterday very hot.
Lilo deflated twice in the night. Problem with air plug when red side up turned it round blue side up problem solved.
More weed control. Shopping nobody sell coffee whitener here will just have to use a snowball insted.
Just reminding myself of where i have stopped of...
Beaumaris
Abermenai
Porth Dinllaen
Abersoch
Porth Madog
New Quay
Fishguard
Dale
Lundy
Padstow
St Ives
Hayle
Newlyn
Mullion Cove
Salcombe
Dartmouth
Topsham
Starcross
Poole
Yarmouth
Hayling Island
Brighton
Eastbourne
Ramsgate
Walton-on-the-Naze
Orford
Lowestoft
Wells-next-the-Sea
Grimsby
Whitby
Blyth
Holy Island
Eyemouth
Arbroath
Montrose
Weather bound with Gales. May free up tomorrow afternoon for the leg to stonehaven.
If anyone is reading this who i know please make sure that my friends know about this blog on facebook (arsebook social tedia)
Really pleasant easy motor sail.
Berthed in RNSYC Marina very pleasant and posh club over 150 years old.
Apart from the local youth chucking crab apples over the fence in my general direction. Moved to a posher berth.
F4-5 wind over tide and not makimg much progress.
Got to the River Ore at LW thinking I would follow the tide in, WRONG!!! a very strong current flows downstream so had to flog the motor for a couple of hours tuntil finally the current relented nothing to anchor with as the bottom is loose shingle for about 2 miles.
Mon 7 Jul 2013
Slept well at anchor but woke to find that the boat had dragged anchor to the other side of the river. Started motor which cut out when attempting to lower revs to engage gear. Could not restart. Flaghged down passing Motor Boat "Magister" with John Bartholomew for advice. Tow was offered to Orford, which was accepted.
Boiled down events... My attempted to fix engine by with redex failed. Art of Deben Marine acted as fixer Great bloke Art.
Did tourist thing on Orfordness. Bleak even in midsummer.
Interesting route accross the Thames had more dog legs than the only tree in Canine City, oweine to the many sandbanks and one of the Channels (Foulgers Gat) being closed off due to some windfarm operations. Walton looked nice but did not stay. Engine not easily starting when warm.
Gap due to charging izsues on smartphone. Heres a cut down version of where i have been since Eastbourne...
Leg to Ramsgate very pleasant beautiful land views of the Seven Sisters and the White Cliffs of Dover, whi h was planned landfall but with good progress decided to press on to Ramsgate.
Ramsgate Royal Harbour with its apparent Raw sewage scum and later as it transpired probably contaminated petrol sold from the fuel barge, £32 for a night which is 50% more than Eastbourne (the best marina). How do they do that? Well the man taking my hard-earned suggested I knew where Eastbourne was (very professional)
We'll find out in an hour its all down to the met office 0000 UTC bulletin for inshore waters for North Foreland to Selsey Bill. The forecasts have been marginal with the likelyhood of strong winds later on Tuesday.
Setting the following parameters to sail from Eastbourne to Dover proves challenging to do, despite the lack of geographic hazards it has the busiest shipping lanes in the world.
» Wind forecast < Force 6.
» Mean speed over ground 4.5 knots (10 hours).
» No fog in forecast.
» Arrive in Dover in daylight.
Other hazards include getting shot at (2 firing ranges)
Brilliant sail in front of the seven sisters white cliffs in strengthening wind getting up to 8knots boatspeed :-)
Trinity house vessel "Patricia" skippered by an incompetent ass decide to write their own version of colregs and force me to gybe in front of Beachy Head.
Eastbourne Sovereign Harbour Marina very swish posh and professional and much cheaper for visitors than Liverpool Marina!
I like it here too much.
Wind from behind boat and me dont like it rain to boot. Brighton pricey and pretentious.
The Solent was a test of patience wind all over the place and the constant din of a hovercraft. I dont know how the locals put up with it and stay sane.
So many yachts doest anyone have a proper job here?
Enjoyed the hospitality of Hayling Island SC awsome club probably one of the biggest in the universe.
Grounded to inspect bottom. Spent the day in Exmouth got Camera card backed up in Exmouth Photo Services. Set off from Exmouth at 20:00 on Monday 24/06/2013, preferring to start rather than end in the dark. Sailed for the first 8 hours then wind dropped so had to motor sail the rest. Sea state slight to smooth gave the famous tide race a wide beeth. Dancing in the moonlight its got me in its spotlight. It was the night of the biggest moon ever. Poole Harbour is big and unfriendly.
The pic says it all. It rained and blew and i am leaving the Exe tomorrow evening looking forward to an all-nighter passing the Bill at dawn bound for Poole.
Enjoying the hospitality of Topsham Sailing Club on the River Exe while waiting for the gales to pass F8 a day after the longest day! The weather God is having memory issues - "hmmm now where did I put that Jetstream? ... Oops ". TSC have been really kind and without any prompting the Rear Commodore Graham showed me where the water was where i could get victuals and offered a lift to the petrol station. Also enjoyed a pint or two of Otter and a good old sailing chinwaglast night.
Just got to get some food the we are all victualled.
Next Stop in preparation for rounding Portland... Bridport West Bay.
Beautiful sailing day. Bad weather forecast so decided to take Silent Running to her birthplace/nursery which took my memories of our introduction with her maker Dr Michael Waddel of Exton who sold her to me 18 years ago. Nice views of Torbay, Teignmouth and Exmouth. I love the Exe estuary for boats nowhere better. Nice breeze up to force 6 but little fetch so often getting up to 6.5 knots not bad for an old hobo.
Here for a couple of days bad weather forecast its sister* here havent been ashore since last Monday low on vitals great sail from Dartmouth
Must try a.not to catch harbour fever.
* bliss
The only dish on the menu from Salcombe. .. Pea Soup. No pictures cos nothing to see. Visibility mostly less than 50m so threw in the Bridport towel for today. Camped up in Dartmouth next to French Sea-Punks (thats a high compliment if you didnt know) on the lugger "Rose of Argyll" which goes places only by sail and oar. The skipper carried 4 passengers in a small dinghy showing remarkable sculling skill (wiggling a paddle strapped to the rear end of the dinghy). The advantage of a transom sculling oar is it does not use up the space of a pair of oars, hence 5 people can get across the river in a dinghy, then a natural break done the old fashioned sailor's wayin poshville or poshvoile if you prefer.
Then there is the biggest yacht ever i swear the mast top was lost in the cloud. The mast has 3 shroud spreaders and Chay Blythes 1970's round the world racer "British Steel's" mast does not even get as high as the lower spreader
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Steel_(yacht)
Turned into a eally beautiful day despite soggy damp foggy start. Did 52nm and anchored here nearly 2 hours early. Some good sailing but mainly motor-sailing. Salcombe looks beatiful and is very posh, but sonics could do with a makeover.
Mullion Cove last night. Anchored Helford River 20:00 looks good for Salcombe or Plymouth tomorrow
Abandoned use of http://www.sailingalmanac.com/Almanac/Navigation/landsendpentire.html seemed to be too much at odds with Reeds. Weather forecast looks good for today. Plan to depart from St Ives an hour before HW Dover (12:35 BST), its about 22nm to Runnel Stone mark, so we need to maintain 4kn to make the tidal gate at HW Dover +5 (17:35 BST), should get us enough fair tide for Newlyn ETA 20:00 BST. Right now blue sky all around :-)) getting on with some preparation...
Sunshine Pasty and Pottering on Boat. Strong winds at sea but lovely here. HM honoured me with keys to the toilet :-) just £6 per night.
Dolphins Galore about 8m east of Hartland point thats a highlight. Padstow beautiful
Initially made great progress but it got more challenging later made Lundy in one piece but still not much shelter as the wind had too much North in it. Got beer and bread and butter pudding from the Marisco Arms.
Set off battled the foul tide off Strumble Head and won by a hares whisker Ramsey and Skomer / Jack Sound easy this time.
Blogger and facebook being a total arse to update with gsm connection. Heres where i have stopped off...
Beaumaris 18 May
Picture attached but blogger refuses to acknowledge the existance of such a place so it will have to remain somewhere in northern europe
Abermenai Point 18 May
Porthdinllaen 19 May
Abersoch 20 May
Porthmadog 21 May expecting and got strong winds until Sat 25 May did some antifouling and stuff
New Quay, Ceredigion 25 May Fishguard 26 May waiting for favourable weather and tide for Jack Sound. Should be good to go on Friday 31 May.
