Germany  (Olpentz and Kappeln) 23rd-24th May

We started with a beautiful sail up the coast to a place called Olpentz.  It is an old German naval base that is in the process of been converted into a luxury marina and flats.  The flats were stunning (sorry no pictures).  We found the marina and it was more pole parking.  This time things did not go so well and we nearly gave a nice new 54ft motor boat a spare anchor through the side.  Thanks to Jenny’s fending off we narrowly avoided disaster. (Took me a while to recover, two skint knees and a couple of pulled  muscles, but no hole in the neighbouring boat!) After checking-in, I met a German called Olaf and persuaded him to come and show us how to park in the poles.

The first thing you need is 4 ropes, each one twice as long as your boat. So we failed at the first hurdle as we did not have ropes that long.  With a bit of knot tying we rigged some up.

OLAF Parking

Anyway, thanks to an hour of Olaf’s time, Jenny and I are still talking and hopefully Jenny will not feel the need to place a limb between our boat and the next to prevent a collision (unless the limb is attached to me).

The next day, following Olaf’s recommendation we went up a river to a beautiful little town called Kappeln.  Here we did our first demo of Olaf parking and then went off to purchase some excessively long ropes.

 

 

 

LYO – 25th May

Now off to Denmark.  We had a cracking sail out to this little island.  It is only about 6 square Km with about 140 people. I gather it can get absolutely packed in the summer.

Midlefart and Odense – 27th May

Next stop was Middelfart.  Jenny is convinced all sign writing is done by boys in Denmark, especially as MidleFART marina had a limit of 3 knobs….

I should also point out that all of the poles in the marina were under 3.6 Meters apart.  Luckily we found a slot at the end of a pontoon that we could use.  Glad we did not try as later on we saw a hire boat the same as ours with 8 big Germans on it park between the poles.  This consisted of the crew forcing the poles wider to fit the boat. When they left both poles were off by about 25 degrees.  God knows how the boats next to them got out.

Juelsminde – 28th May

Now a sail north through the very narrow passage between mainland Denmark and the large islands (that contain Odense and Copenhagen). It was like sailing up a Loch

 

Arhus- 29th-30th May

Tim had given us a call and said he could join the boat for a few days if we picked him up in Arhus.  So we headed there for a couple of days to await Tim.  This is Denmark’s third biggest city.  We got a nice slot with no pole parking.  This was the start of a 3 day holiday in Denmark as we found out.  Everything was on a Sunday timetable.  There was a big antiques (junk) fair next to the marina that also did speciality foods etc ( bit like a country market).  We got some nice cheese and frankfurters – lucky they were there as we had no food and the supermarkets were all closed for the holiday. In our time in Denmark, most days seem to have been holidays and on the other days, people stop work before 5, a really healthy work life balance, if you ask me.

 

We had a day out waiting for Tim.  We spent some time in an museum where they collect old Danish buildings.  It was fascinating.  It is a little town that has been built buy moving old buildings across Denmark into one location.  Fantastic bit of engineering.  They even had one street from the 1970’s .  A bit scary thinking that what I grew up with is now in a museum.

We also went to the botanic gardens.  Very taken with the butterflies.  Especially the ones with the translucent wings .

Bonnerup – 31st May

Bonnerup is one of the prettiest places we have been, beautiful beach just over wall from the marina and a stunning sunset too.

 

So at last we had made it out of the UK, and despite being boarded by Dutch customs (they actually came a second time – different crew), and the police , they let us stay.

Den Helder was the first stop.  It is listed as a naval port so I did not have many  expectations. In reality it is actually very beautiful.  There is a fantastic Maritime museum  (which we did not have time to explore in detail) and a multitude of little café and bars (#which we did dedicate a little more of our time to). Despite the look on Dan’s face, it was actually a unanimous decision to drink beer rather than look at old submarines!

After a day we set off on the path North .  This part of the cost from here up until you hit Denmark has a set of islands called the Frisian islands, both German and Dutch.  They are in essence large sand dunes with about 0.5 to 2 M of water on the inside (between the islands and the mainland – this stretches for miles in land).  So although they are islands, for our purposes , we needed to treat them as coast line.  There were only about 3 we could stop at over the 160 miles of coast due to our draft.  We stopped at two. The locals we talked to were all very casual about it being so shallow and their advice was to ‘use more power’ if we ran aground as it’s only sand!

The first was Terschelling.  It is a beautiful island.  Most of the island are nature reserves. We were only there for an evening. It appeared to be the gathering place for all of the Dutch tall masted sailing ships.  Some were full of teenagers on training events and some were clearly catering for tours of the coast line

The next stop was Germany, but before we left Dutch waters we were called on the radio (wakes you up when someone calls your boat name) to ask if we could stay 3 miles off shore as they were practicing live bombing practice on the island we were passing. (Yes Danny , I should listen to the notice to mariners !)  Not a request I felt we should refuse.  We had a ring side seat watching the bomers come in , drop the load, pull up, then the double “Brumph” as the shells. exploded.  Maybe this was another way of welcoming us to the Netherland???

 

Germany

Next stop was the small island of Borkum.  As this was our port of entry, and after the Dutch enthusiasm for border control we thought we should take the initiative and search out the customs office. When I asked the Harbour Mistress ( I guess that is correct, as opposed to a harbour master – but sorry if I offend) she just laughed and said we had not left Europe yet.  Borkum is a German sea side resort and is a bit like an up market Brighton.  Most of the island is like the Fens of East Anglia.  Its main industry is now maintaining the many wind farms off shore.  This is where the boys left us to make their way back to the UK.

 

In To The Fog

The day we left Borkum is definitely a day I don’t want to repeat.  16 hours of sailing and 8 of it in fog where you could not see the bow of the boat at points, crossing some of the busiest shipping lanes in Europe.  All Jenny and I could do was use the Radar and AIS to pick our way up the coast.  It would not have been as bad if the ships stuck to the shipping lanes, but I soon established that when it comes to picking up and dropping of pilot , they just go where they want.  The entrance to the river Jade was a nightmare with 3 tanker heading at me , 2 pilot boats ignoring the radio, and something with a large fog horn sounding like it was 10 feet off the stern.

Cuxhaven and the Start of the Canal

The next stop was Cuxhaven to refuel and get some bits and pieces before entering the canal. Another Greman seaside resort . Quite pretty but we did not get a chance to explore.

Danny – found these for you in Cuxhaven  (what a lovey pair!)

 

 

We were lucky entering the canal as you normally have to wait for a few hours as the Keil Canal (originally built by the Kizar to get his ships to the North Sea) is still very much a commercial shipping route. Pleasure craft can use it , but only when there is time to get you in.  We were on the other side of the river when we saw the signal lights change so shot across and just made it in.

Once a teacher……..!

After putting up our Dutch courtesy flag on the port (left hand side) of the boat as it was the easier one to get to, I thought I ought to check if there was a rule as there’s usually a rule about most things in sailing! I wasn’t disappointed…..

Flag Etiquette: from the RYA website (I love some of the phrases they use!)

“Flag etiquette is a combination of law and maritime tradition. Being ill-informed of your obligations could lead you to cause insult at home or abroad by giving a signal you do not intend to give, or could lead you to a fine for breaking the law. Only with the right flag, correctly positioned, can you be sure that you are giving the correct message and that any signal you are giving is clear”.

Basically, there are four places on the boat you can fly a flag, on the stern (back) of the boat, at the mast head (top of the mast) and at either side of the mast on the spreaders – (see photo above). I’ll come back to the two most “senior” positions next time and concentrate on the other two – the flags on the spreaders.

The starboard (right hand side) spreader is considered the more important and it is on this one that you should fly a courtesy flag and any signal flags that you may require:

“More than one flag may be flown on a halyard except that flag etiquette states that no flag can be worn above the courtesy flag.

There is no legal requirement to fly a courtesy flag: it is a courtesy that acknowledges that the vessel will respect the laws and sovereignty of that country. However, if one is not flown, or is tatty or faded, it may cause grave offences and in some countries lead to a fine.

The port spreaders are used for house flags. (flags that denote membership of a club or society). More than one house flag may be flown on the port halyard but with caution as too many might appear vulgar to some”

So, now you know, and the German flag has gone up to the very top of the starboard halyard in case we cause offence.

We spent 3 days going through the Canal  ( 2 days traveling and a day in the middle at a place called Rendsburg.  Have to say it had a good supermarket , some cool kids playground fixtures and an orange fish but that is about it.  We did the city tour (follow a blue painted line round the town ).  The attractions were  “this is a very old German house” ” this is a very old Danish house” ” this is built out of the remains of an old fort” ” this is where they cooked for the old fort” ……..  The marina was quite nice – first encounter with this Scandinavian parking system.

Parking Baltic Style

You have 2 metal poles out from the Jetty (if you are lucky they are wider than your boat – as we found out we have a fat boat by Scandinavian standards and have since been unlucky!!!), You aim between these and drive at speed to the Jetty, or the wind will blow you sideways into other boats.  You loop ropes over the poles as you pass them (or more correctly bounce off them listening to your expensive fiberglass boat getting a light sanding) then slam on the anchors before you go through the jetty. At which point you stop just inches from the Jetty (you hope) so someone (Jenny) can climb over the anchor and round the fore stay and elegantly step off and tie the bow lines. Finally you both go below and have a stiff drink, agreeing that if couples survive parking in the Baltic, they will survive anything. It’s unquestionably the stupidest way to park your boat ever invented, even the locals get it wrong more often than they get it right.

So here starts the Baltic adventure…..

 

 

The Crew arrived in Peterhead all geared up for the trip north.  We sat and waited for an improvement in the weather forecast and witnessed the people in the boats around us starting to disappear as they hired cars to go touring by road for a couple of weeks or went home.  We entertained ourselves for a couple of days mainly by chasing down a bank robber one afternoon (but that is another story and, we figure, subject to legal issues, but needless to say, we got thanked in the local rag for assisting the police).

As everyone we met told us how good the prison  museum was, we visited it. Fascinating to see inside a building and hear the insider version of what went on during the roof top riots and dirty protest that we grew up hearing about on the news. Jackie Stewart, the prison guard who was captured and tortured by the prisoners before being rescued by the SAS is in the building nearly every day, handing out the recorders to visitors and talking candidly about his experience. What a lovely, caring man, who, even to this day, talks about his job in the prison as being one of looking after and supporting the prisoners through their sentences. I did try to leave the boys behind, but the prison wouldn’t have them!

We did hire a car for a day and went up to Fraserburgh to see were Danny was basing his next wind farm project from.  Some big fishing boats here.  These things have a gym and a cinema in some of them.

 

Eventually, it was clear that the north sea was just not going to cooperate.  We did think about going to the Shetands but were concerned if no weather window came in we would be very stuck. So plan C – head south and cross at Lowestoft.

First Stop was North Shields and Tynmouth

We had a couple of days in Tynmouth and North Shields.  We also had a bit of maintenance to do.  While sitting having a sweet sherry on our first evening we noticed that we had water coming in from the bottom of the mast.  Now, water coming into a boat, even from above, is never good. Especially if it is over all of the electrical connections.  Next day Robin was sent up to investigate. Turns out the gromit was missing from the hole for the cables from the radar and the rain had been running down the mast and in to the boat.

As we had a couple of days (largely due to bad weather) we explored.  I have to say we were all pleasantly surprised about how pretty it was.  Brilliant fish mongers and really nice little restaurant’s and Cafe’s.

The thing you learn about the north sea is how incredibly shallow it is.  This has a number of effects. Firstly you need to enter everywhere at nearly high tide and you need to leave everywhere at nearly high tide.  So time for arrival and departure is fixed (and often in the middle of the night!).  As the distance between places is also fixed. You end up balancing boat speed to ensure you arrive at the right time.  In general the North see at the Southern end is only about10 to 30 Meters deep, (for West Coast sailors, this is quite disturbing but has the added advantage that you can drop your anchor just about anywhere and have plenty of chain left over.)

So another night sail to Grimsby departing at 11 PM.

Then it was time to go for it.  Over 200 miles to cover, but the weather looked settled and the swell that had followed us from Peterhead had finally given in the chase.

 

 

 

We don’t have a picture , but twenty mins later the police arrived to do exactly the same thing.  Once they realised we had already been boarded they left with a “Welcome to Holland!” shout as they drove away……  Must have been a slow week on the foreign yacht front.

 

 

Clearly we are not talking hot and sandy kind of Far East. More the “A ken a ken im, but a da Ken far a ken im fra” Far East.  But before we forget about the west totally, we found a few pics that we took with Jenny’s camera that we thought sums up one of the things we both love in the west coast.  The beautiful evenings (before Midge season)

 

 

Pace of Life

We finished our last post half way up the canal.  I have to say it was a beautiful trip.  Very slow pace of life.  No point in being in a hurry, the canal has its own pace and own way of doing things and you can either go with the flow or push on in an attempt to move quicker, but fail and get exasperated.  We had a couple of road bridges fail on us that if we had been pushing things would have cost us a day.  The locks close “around 5 ish” and depending on the time of day, train times, traffic and other mysterious influences the bridges may open when you arrive or may not.

Nessie Hunt

So with Sonar on and binoculars at the ready we set off up the loch. Well you have to don’t you! (20 kts on the nose so no sailing)

I have to confess, probably one of the few disappointments of the trip for us. No we don’t mean no Nessie, more the loch itself.  There is nothing. Yes it is beautiful, but it is the same beauty all of the way up.  As one of the locals said “yep its boring . One castle and that’s your lot”.  Yes there is lots of history and lots of facts, but in terms of interesting things to look at ………..  I feel a bit sorry for the people who come and hire pleasure cruisers to see the loch. I suspect that the children are setting fire to each other after 2 days for some entertainment.  I am sure I am doing it a great disservice, but we did it on a nice day and that was our impression. Maybe it is more interesting in heavy rain. Maybe it would have been more interesting if there were more places you can tie up to go ashore and have an explore but there is really only Urquhart Castle unless you find someone to ask permission from but we didn’t know who or where.

Interesting People

Not sure if we have mentioned it before (apologies if we have, but I cannot be bothered re reading to check), but one of the best things about this trip has been the people we have met.  There is a bit of me that would like to have taken a photo of everyone and then write a para or two on them. They are all just so interesting. Everyone from the Lockkeepers to the Fishermen, the people who run the Marinas, the other Sailors…..  It makes you realise what a big world it is out there. Sorry of that all sound a bit puke making , but I am fascinated by it (yes I am an embarrassment to Jenny when I corner some poor stranger and try and extract their life story). I gave up being embarrassed by him decades ago, I just monitor the conversations to make sure they don’t think he’s some mad stalker extracting information for his own nefarious purposes!

I came across this one evening ( this was taken the next day).  I had heard it come in and when I wandered round with my Spanish inquisition mind on, there were a couple of blokes standing on the stern. After my usual pre amble I get the invite on board.  Fascinating wee boat.  I was convinced it was a restoration project. Nope – brand new and been in the water for 2 days.  The guy who owned it works on the steam railway in Aviemore.  He had always loved old boats so he had the basic boat built (the rivets are false) then he did all the wood work and fitted the engine ( a 2 cylinder lister – Fred , Joe  you will remember these).  He had a coal burning stove in it.  The interior was done as it would have been done 100 years ago.  Even down the types of blanket on the small bunk.  All the controls were obtained through his connection with the steam railway.

Exiting the Canal

Inverness to Peterhead

Lossiemouth – famed for RAF these days but once a thriving herring port. In 1685 the first new jetty was commissioned from a German Engineer and after some early setbacks was completed in 1764.  So let that be a lesson to those who complained about late delivery.  This was a German (so no messing about)! only “Early Setbacks” (so not like a significant issue) and nearly 80 years !!!  So no more comments please John, Anne Marie and Andreana !!!!!!.  The current harbour was constructed in the mid 1800s for a very large herring fleet .  The picture below is of just one of the 2 basin’s and these were both packed with herring boats .  By 1970 the fishing was in steep decline and in 1991 the harbour company decided to put in a marina.  Now there are a couple of lobster pot boats and that is it.

It has potential to be a brilliant place , but I get the feeling that with the RAF there, they don’t put the effort in to attracting people.  The pub on the dock that you go to to collect the welcome pack fell silent when we walked in.   Once the tumble weed had cleared there was not a chorus of welcomes……..  It has a beautiful beach and I am sure if we had stayed longer we would have found the good pubs etc, but first impressions count.             (Sorry if anyone from Lossiemouth is reading this, but that is the purpose of this blog – to record our thoughts and experiences)

Whitehills. Same but Totally Different.

We loved this harbour.  Again a nightmare getting in, but the harbour master was there to meet us. He took the lines and told us all about the  harbour and where to go.  The harbour is actually owned by the local fishing families and run by 9 commissioners.  The harbour suffered the same fate as Lossiemouth in the 80s but the local fishermen agreed that they needed to turn it into a marina.  As you can see from the pictures below it was stunning.  We went to the local pub.  At the bar there were a couple of old boys, pictures of fishing boats on all of the walls (some of them looking very new and massive – proper off shore fishing boats).  If you walked into a pub like this in the west coast a few years ago you would have done a u turn !  Not here.  We sat and chatted to the old boys for about an hour.  They were really interested in what we were doing .  They were an ex fishing skipper and coast guard .  They took us round the pictures on the walls and told us very proudly where each one had sunk!!  “Aye this one went down in Rockall – bust sea cock – no loss of life ” This one went down when it got swamped – no loss of life”  “this one killed a lad when he went through the winch, he was a cocky lad until his jumper got caught. there was nothing left of him ye ken “.  So it brings it home, no matter your experience and the size of the boat the sea can be a nasty place and Fishing has never been an easy life.

 

So we are now sitting in Peterhead  ( sitting next to some off shore supply vessels )with crew arriving . Weather very cold and blowing a force 8-9 in the north sea so we are having a week here until we get a weather window.  May be the Shetland next or Norway…

 

 

 

 

We left you with us just heading off to the Bridge over the Atlantic.  It is a old bridge that spans the Atlantic between the mainland and the Island of Seil.  This was a real tourist attraction 100 years ago, and is still probably one of the most photographed  bridges in Scotland.

 

I had promised Jenny a nice pub lunch but unfortunately the pub was shut for food, but served a nice pint. (if I had a pound for every time over the last 30 or so years that I’ve been promised lunch and the pub/café/ restaurant was shut for some reason, I’d be sailing a much bigger boat!)

Dunstaffnage and Oban

We then set off to Dunstaffnage to meet Dugald and Amy who were coming up for the weekend.  We visited McCaig’s Tower, one of those things that we have seen hundreds of times perched at the top of Oban bay  but never actually been to.  It was built by a wealthy philanthropist banker  for £5K in 1897 when times were hard in Oban to provide work for the local people. Unfortunately he died just after the outer walls were built and his vision for the building was never fulfilled.

We also visited Dunstaffnage Castle. This is one of the chain of Castles on the western defences in Scotland originally constructed after defeating the Vikings. Built in the 13th Century which makes it one of the oldest castles in Scotland. It is maintained and managed by Historic Scotland and is an excellent visit. (we have to support Historic Environment Scotland as our younger son, Fergus, is an apprentice stonemason with them and looks after and repairs some of their properties on the west coast)

We ended up in Dunstaffnage for a few days as the wind got up to a force 8 for a couple of days .  Had a visit from the local constabulary (thanks Fred!).  Why is it you always feel guilty when you see a police uniform at your door.  Turned out to be one of our old friends who knew of our trip and popped down to say Hi. Good to catch up with you Joe –– and thanks for all your excellent advice about not sailing into things in the North Sea…….we’ll keep an eye out for random oil rigs!

 

Appin to Fort William

Once the Kids left we continued north to Dallen’s Bay which is a beautiful little marina run by a father and son. Interesting guy, was a ski instructor in the Alps for 30 years.  Set up a business taking people water Skiing and eventually branched out into boat moorings.  He now has over 100 in the bay and every one of them taken.  We did a cycle round the Appin coast one day.  Beautiful. Great wee bike ride . (Appin or An Apainn in Gaelic and is part of the Lynn of Lorn National Scenic Area and is a combination of eascapes and rugged and mountainous country inland – I was very glad to have battery power to help with the uphill bits of the cycle)

Next stop was Fort William to meet Jo and Pete (2 friends of ours from Dunblane) and Fergus , who joined for a couple of days. But before that we had to pass through the tidal gap at the Corran Narrows guarded by another Stevenson Lighthouse.

Fort William

We moored up at the Lochaber Yacht Club. Nice old boy called Hamish sorted us out (he seemed to be running the place single handed), he must be well over 70 and later in the day I saw him wandering down the Jetty in his Scuba gear to fix a mooring.

Entering the Canal

Once in the Canal you are then faced with Neptune’s stair case which is a set of 8 locks all one after the other. (the second gate of each lock is the first of the next lock, saves water and moves the boats up or down hill more efficiently and wastes less water – an amazing feat of engineering and all build by men with pick axes and horses and carts) To make it more entertaining they drop coach loads of people off to stand at the side in the desperate hope of seeing some great disaster. Luckily we disappointed them all.  Pete made a few new friends offering his nautical wisdom to any tourist who was foolish enough to ask!!!

Gairlochy and Loch Lochy

This was a beautiful place to stop. Very peaceful.  Pete and I cycled the 12 miles back to Fort William on the Bromptons to move the cars up.  Impressed with Pete as he had not been on a bike for a number of years. (he claims that last time he cycled any distance was in 1995!)

In the morning, just as we were leaving Gillian,  (Friend of a friend ) popped her head in to say hello as she lives there and was off for her morning swim in the Loch, which she does all the year round.  Beautiful location but bloody cold.

That’s it for this update. Bit of a long one but with such brilliant weather, we took hundreds of pics and were having too much fun to update the blog, sorry!

Next time it will be in to the North Sea!!!!!

So here we are one week in . We are still on the boat and we have not sunk yet. In my book that counts as a success.

We have had a week of easterly winds, which is unusual in the west coast of Scotland. At this time of year it makes it cold , sunny and gusty .  We have had a couple of gales, but in the main it has been good weather. (Rather foolishly, I forgot that it would be near freezing at the start of April, I’d always imagined us sailing away in shorts and t-Shirts!)

First stop after Tarbert was Campbelltown, for those devotees of Parahandy, this is the “Campbelltown loch I wish you were whisky …..”  It was blowing a good force 8 when we were there.  We like the way the waves are captured here in Jenny’s picture ( it was still blowing 30Kts )

But just to show you how exotic Campbelltown really is you do get palm trees ( I did promise Jenny that I would take her to sunny sky’s and palm trees ( Job done on the first week I think!) (I didn’t expect it to be hurricane season…..)

We went for a wander up behind the town (recommended by the guy who looks after the marina – nice guy, drove me up the road for Gas for the boat and a paramedic in his ‘day-time job!) , never been on this walk before (normally we spend our time in the best Nickel and Dime shop in the world. Seriously, its the size of the average B&Q and sells everything from diamante dolphins and Cannabis Lolly pops to 3 foot long adjustable wrenches and that bolt you have been looking for for the last 20 years and can never find). (I have to limit the purchasing to no more than 5 items or the boat might sink)

Talking of finding things, Jen found some interesting plants, and thanks to Kim identified them as Skunk Cabbage which is an invasive species apparently.  Looks spectacular.

 

The view from the hill top was excellent.

We felt well protected for the sail around the Mull – not one, but 2 of the largest class of UK lifeboat parked at the back door. You should hear these things when they start up.  It is like the biggest Harley Davidson ever! Must also be one of the nicest sounds in the world when you really need it.

Campbelltown is still very much a working harbour with Fishing boats and logging.  They also have a factory for building the blades for windfarms here.  They get loaded onto large ships (one was in when we arrived) and I guess they get taken directly to the farms.

 

Campbeltown is also the location of the oldest working picture house in Scotland. I like the roof. (we were too late to catch the film of the day but it was something recently released, just can’t remember what)

Friday Night is movie Night.  Yes that is 3 glasses .  One with Whisky,  one with some Nuts and one with some pain killers for my bad back ( knackered it polishing the boat, but getting better) (that’s his story!?!?!)

 

Leaving Campbelltown.  Scotland is littered with these types of light houses. They are beautiful and functional although all unmanned these days.  Nearly all the light houses were designed and built by four generations of the Stevenson family

 

We had fantastic weather for going round the Mull. The one advantage of the easterly wind is that the tide we needed and the wind were both going in the same direction.  Wind against tide is never a good thing.  in sailing terms it is nails down a blackboard.

Stayed at Gigha in Tarbet bay ( it is on the east side so we figured would give most shelter).  Apparently it is where the queen used to like to come in the Royal yacht.  We tested our new anchor sail ( stops the boat swinging around) as it was gusting to nearly 30 Knots .  At 4.00 am an alarm went off.  I thought it was the Anchor alarm, but turns out it was a low voltage alarm.  I had a suspicion we had an issue last year with one of the batteries.  So we decided to head for a marina in Ardfern to see if we could source new battaries.

 

When we left Gigha it was still blowing 25 knots so we had an exciting but chilly sail.

The sea was a fantastic colour (any suggestions where the colour comes from? Usually only that colour on really sunny days or when you can see the white sandy bottom)

We also had the odd shower ( time for Jenny to drive me thinks)….

We managed to track down the original supplier of the last set of batteries in Glasgow and Thanks to uncle Tim, he went and collected them, then came with the kids to help fit them.

As we had some time and the weather was good we thought we would try out the electric conversion on the Brompton folding bikes.  Had a couple of good rides and only one puncture and a broken connector to show for it  ( I count that as teething problems) and, maybe, something to do with the fact that we tend to use the bikes both on and off road

 

Then off towards Oban and through Dorus Mor and up the sound of Luing

Staying in a nice anchorage called Puilladobhrain.  Probably the best known anchorage in the west of Scotland. Always too busy in the middle of summer, but only 3 boats in tonight.

 

Off to Cross the Atlantic now…..

Cheers all

Andy and Jenny

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At Last, at least that is how it feels. 2 years in the planning. Many thanks to all of those who have encouraged us along the way.  Moira followed us down the road as we dropped the car off at the car auctions (I am car less for the first time since I was 17 years old.  That is car less not careless as I am sure the editor will point out is all I have been since I was 17!)

Bags unpacked and stowed, well almost…

 

We set off on bright sunlight after topping up the fuel. We wanted to get at least one Red diesel receipt in the file, as you need to show you have filled up in the UK when you go to Europe otherwise they slam a tax bill on you as the UK is the last country to still allow red diesel for marine pleasure craft.

Good Bye Largs

It was a bit squally on the way over to Tarbert (our first stopping point).  Buy it was nice to get the sails up for a bit and check that we had rigged them correctly.  It normally takes us a couple of goes at the beginning of the season to stop the sheets an lines crossing over each other. (right first time this year – maybe we’re finally getting the hang of this sailing lark?!)

Yes I know the third reef still needs attached.

On the way in we hit a snow storm. (as we were trying to tie up to the pontoon, never had such cold hands before……)

Nice to get tied up for the night on the first day of the trip.  We were both shattered. Guess all of the prep finally catching up.

 

Today it has been a gale force 8-9 blowing round the lower end of the Clyde.  That is just a wee touch breezy for us so we have spent the day in Tarbert.  We have been coming here for the last 10 years. It is a typical west coast fishing village.  Needless to say the amenities have also been west coast fishing village standard….No more!  Nice new shiny toilet block.  The lady who looks after them told me that the only thing right with them was the look – you should try cleaning the things.  Clearly the architect needs to have spent a month working in some public loos before completing the design .  But for us it was fantastic to have nice hot showers and under floor heating.  Oh and by the way, Stirling Dive Club , she also runs the Dive Boat and can fill bottles!

We spent a lazy day having a nice  walk up to the castle then up the hill behind the castle. Something we have been planning to do for years and never got round to it.

 

 

 

There was a little park with some wooden art in it. One bit was a Celtic knot made out of boardwalk.

 

 

Stopped off at a coffee shop,  that after we chatted to the owner for 40 mins turned into  a lunch stop!  She lives on the Crinnan canal at  a beautiful spot that Jenny and I have often commented on as looking idyllic (the little marina just before you get to Crinnan for those who know the canal).

One of my bug bears about the west coast of Scotland is we catch some of the finest fish, yet trying to get some is always a challenge. So armed with some info from the nice lady in the coffee shop I  went in search.  Eventually I found it.  I spotted a couple walking out of this old out-building with a carrier bag.  So either they had been in spending their pension a quarter a pound of your finest Jamaican Black  from the local drug dealer or this was it.  It looked like an old cow shed, but the cows had been replaced with a couple of tables of fish .  One bloke in the corner skinning and filleting and another at the till.  Great place, and again it took me 40 mins to purchase some beautiful Lemon Sole. Us retired people have all the time in the world to chat, and in the west coast there are no shortage of people willing to assist. If banter was an Olympic  sport the west coast of Scotland and Ireland would make it to the final every time.  And those of you who know me , know that I would be the team coach….

We finished the day with a read of a book and enjoying a bit of sun on the aft deck.

If the wind die’s enough tomorrow we will head down to Campbelltown. Then spend a day there before going round the mull.

Cheers all Andy and Jenny

 

Well that’s me (Andy) all but finished work. Need to go in on the last day (this Friday) to hand in my laptop and pass, get my epaulettes ripped off and marched into retirement. The last weeks have been a bit of a Party session (one of my work colleagues said that my leaving made an Indian wedding look like a rushed affair!). One of the guys doodled a brilliant picture for me.

 

While I was off drinking , Jenny was busy completing her dive qualification ( look at those curves!!!!)

 

Not only did I have 3 work do’s but Jenny and I also had a bash to say goodbye to family and friends in Dunblane.
We put up the marquee and our good friends Mike and Lynn along with Geoff and Moira all came to help. Then it Snowed…. We are sailing north in 2 weeks and it snowed! Spent the morning clearing the snow off the roof. Think we had 100 people through the house. We did not realise we knew that many people ( we are sure a few left then came back again!). needless to say I had a very sore head the next day!
Below are a few pic’s

 

 

Back to the boat preparations. We managed to find some neat solar panels at last years boat show that are designed to go on your canvas. They have small pins that hold them in place. This way we can have them on the spray hood but then move them to the bimini when we get into warmer weather. We have put in some triple layers of fabric to stop them ripping out in high winds. Hobnob’s proved to be a vitally important ingredient in getting the fixings placed properly, thanks Robin for all your help!

Down at the boat over the next few days to finish off getting ready. Second car load stuffed to overflowing. Need to get it done as the car goes back next week.

Pleased we managed to get the canvas up today. A bit like rebuilding a car when you put the engine back in. It’s a key part and somehow she is not our boat until it is in place.

There was one casualty during all of the prep work – ships Parrot. The UV killed the rubber band that held him up.

He was rushed to intensive care ….

 

I am glad to report that he has made a full recovery.
So that is us fairly well packed , every locker is full , all the under deck storage is stuffed with everything from dive gear to power tools (yes , you never know when you need a good power tool). The PLBs have been attached to the life jackets and the MOB alarm system is in place (Bernie – that is safety stu(ff!). Even managed to fit in a wee generator ( Thanks Keith). Stern anchor and drum has been fitted ( in case we try any of this Scandinavian style mooring). Still a few jobs to do , but they can be done on the move. So I hope the next post from us will be of us setting off . Cheers

So with about six weeks to go it is all getting a bit real.  We have been fairly busy over the last few weeks getting things sorted, everything from health insurance and boat insurance to building a rack for the dive bottles.

The key item we needed was a boat! (ok so we had one, it was just that it was stuck in a car park in bits). We were starting to get a little anxious as we have a bit to do on board. So as I had this week off we spent the week getting her ready for the water.  The yard also focussed on getting most of the electronics connected up.

So we spent a day polishing the hull.  A 40ft boat is a lot of polishing.  Not something we do a lot , but we figured she deserved it. (Andy’s very pleased with himself as he made it so shiny he could see his face in it!)

I have also been varnishing the boat name on to the dingy paddles.

 

Robin had been down and painted the hull last week, so we got her on the lift and lifted her off the cradle so we could do the bits that were under the pads.

 

The guys in the yard have also fitted the solar panels and the new GPS plotter

So after a few finishing touches like replacing the Anodes and polishing the prop

it was time to take her for a walk….

 

I have to confess to being nervous taking her round to the pontoon as was not far off gusting gale force 8 and not having taken her out for 5 months you always worry that you forget how she handles.

Once on the pontoon we gave her a clean and Jenny sorted the insides out.  It was great to see her looking so good.

 

Jenny cooked and Robin served celebratory fish pie in our clean and shiny boat!

 

 

 

 

So we have about 3 months to go and it is all getting a bit real.  Jen has now retired and I am due to leave in a couple of months.  We have lots of list , so that must count for something, everything from what tools to take, to what paperwork we need to photocopy and scan so we have access to key information on the boat……….Ah, the boat……….. if chaos is a sign of progress and preparation then we are doing alright. New Radar in, New AIS in , new plotter to go in, fans and solar panel charging system to go in.

We have been making some more progress on the outside. As we have gone for a large anchor (sailing is all about making the boat go and more often about making your boat not go!), it is chipping the gel coat when it gets lowered. To address this I have made a stainless plate ( still in the plastic wrapping if you think it looks a little un-stainless).

 

We have also purchased a bow ladder.  Docking in the Baltic appears to consist of driving at the peer (or even a large rock) and throwing an anchor out the back to stop the impact.  When only a foot away you step off the bow (Jack Sparrow like) and take a turn.  To assist in this process a bow ladder is essential (think I will let Jen have a go at this first). He’s never been any good at heights to be honest and it’s usually me leaping into the unknown with a rope in my hand. so, nothing new there then!

We have been prepping a few other bits like the dingy oars (now have the boat name under the varnish)

Jen has also been leading the way in her mermaid classes.  She assures me this is what all good looking mermaids are wearing this year. Next new sport I take up is NOT going to involve so much kit – I’m exhausted before I even get into the water.

Will do another post when we have made some more progress