Tuesday 27 February 2024

The End of Last Year

 


Albatross (just left of centre) anchored off Eigg 


Dear Reader,

As the new season approaches, I realise that this blog is historically incomplete. 

After last year's voyage to Scotland and Ireland and back, after a brief break we visited Alderney, Guernsey, Jersey, St Malo and back.

It was a great trip, made all the more memorable by our first visit to lovely St Malo.  This was our first visit to France since ghastly Brexit.  We had a wonderful time in St Malo and completely failed to register our entry or exit from France.  As the Marina Manager said of the new arrangements "C'est pas normal".

Our final trip of the year was all the way to Bow Creek (on the Dart) for a night at anchor and swims, then off to Teignmouth to see the family.

This year we will go eastwards along the English coast, then north hopefully to Inverness.
We hope to set sail again in May.

Wednesday 28 June 2023

Ardglass to Arklow to KQ to Newlyn to Fowey to The Yealm to The Dart to Home

Hello again Dear Reader(s). If the title of this brief blog isn't sufficient, please read on ..... you may remember that our intrepid trio have recently arrived in Arglass, Northern Ireland.

Our  "day off" in Ardglass involved a very pleasant 4 mile walk along the coast.









A bird.

Eventually we arrived at a pub and after brief refreshments, walked home.

Supper at the ancient golf club was excellent, and also saved walking another 4 miles back to another eating house.

18 June 2023

To Arklow.

Despite Arklow's reputation for sewage, it is an essential stop for sailors who don't fancy calling in anywhere else en route (obviously). So we went there.  We motored almost all the way and managed to get the tide running against us for the final two and a half hours. Before landing I was careful to give Will a thorough Health and Safety briefing. "Try not to fall through the hole in the pontoon because the river is full of  shite, etc. ".

We had a "day off" in Arklow.  This mainly involved walking up and down to the petrol station with cans of diesel, a brief sleep and an excellent meal at The Old Ship.

20 June

We set off for Penzance and arrived in Kilmore Quay.

All was going nicely and we were sailing (using only the wind for propulsion), when the clew came off the genoa.  (Translation for non-sailing blog followers:  The lower back corner of the front white flappy-thing tore off so that the ropes (sheets) attached to it were ... no longer attached to it, so it flapped).

Unable to continue sailing, we opted to divert to Kilmore Quay; motoring instead.

Kilmore Quay is well known for its excellent chandlery and they would be able to help. 

The chandlery referred us to the next-door boat repair yard whose proprietor explained that the nearest sailmaker was in Dublin, probably.

The problem was simple. How to re-attach a rope to the corner a a bit of thick cloth in such a way that it would be strong enough to pull a six tonne boat through the water at about 7 knots.  How hard can this be?  We put on our thinking caps, broke into small groups, and came up with various ideas  With a combined age of over 200 years and at least forty initials after our names, two doctorates and an M.Sc. , we produced the following ideas:

1. Jean could sew it back on

2. Will could sew it back on.

3. Peter could glue it first then Will and Jean could both sew it back on.

4. Peter could drill holes in the sail and rivet a metal dinner plate onto the clew, onto which a the sheet (rope) might be fixed.

5. Two lengths of  yellow jack-stay webbing could be folded around the clew and holes drilled to take 8 x 6 mm nuts and bolts with 16 extra-large penny washers, thus forming two large loops , onto which the Genoa sheets might be tied.

6. We could motor to England.

We opted for Number 6.

21 June 2023

We refuelled (again) and set off for Newlyn  (140 miles or so) at 1000 hours.

We had a strict 2-hour watch and sleep rota.  As Skipper, I always went to sleep first.

After motoring for about 12 hours the sun set.



and next day the sun rose


We motored past Longships


And eventually into Newlyn Harbour where a very nice man at Solo Sails (just across the road from the harbour) expertly repaired the Genoa.

23 June 2023

From Newlyn to Fowey
We sailed (using the wind)

Sailing.

Note: Genoa, Goose-wing, Pole and Skipper with Hammer.

24 June 2023

To The Yealm  and  supper at The Dolphin  (and good news on the safe delivery of a great niece "Matilda").

25 June 2023

An easy trip to Dartmouth and home.

Another very good trip completed.









 

Friday 16 June 2023

The Adventure Continues

Dear Reader(s),

Don't worry. All is well.

After a quick trip to Devon to cut the lawn, water the dog and see friends and family, we returned to Kerrera and motored over to Oban where we also met Simon (of Sira) (in the communal marina washrooms), before his departure for Stornoway.

We greeted Will (also up from Devon) at Oban Station and by that evening had motored, in the hot flat calm, to Craighouse  (Jura).

14 June
The 40 miles to Rathlin Island. We sailed the last 3 hours and had a lovely day. 
Bacon and mushroom pasta for supper.
Rathlin Island.

15 June.
A six mile walk to the south lighthouse  and an easy passage to Glenarm.
Risso's Dolphins and good sailing.
Quish Lorraine, new potatoes and salad. 

16 June (today)
Up at 0545.
54 miles to Ardglass.
As you may know, we like this
place.
Bed now and a day off tomorrow. 

Sunday 4 June 2023

Jean at the helm..

Kerrera

Sat 3 June 2023
Having got up early to refuel before the rush, we set off for Loch Aline. Several hours later we arrived in Kerrera where we moored. 

This is to be Albatross' home for the next week. I won't bore you with why we came here a day earlier than planned ... yet.

Sun 4 June.
Another typical Scottish morning 


Friday 2 June 2023

Kilchoan, volcanoes and Tobermory

Wed 31 May
From our anchorage on Eigg we set off in bright sunshine for Kilchoan.  This trip took us back around Ardnamurchan Point and into Kilchoan Bay. We saw a Minke Whale, avoided the rocks around the bay and successfully attached ourselves to a mooring buoy.

As is well known,  the vikings built a lighthouse at Ardnamurchan on their victorious return from the battle of Largs, a very long time ago.  Ardnamurchan also has a viking burial site and various prehistoric ruins. The peninsula was once a volcano, so we decided to walk towards its bubbling crater.
Towards the volcanic crater

On the way we saw a Yellowhammer  and on the way back a Golden Eagle (yes, really) and several Skylarks. 
A car drove past and stopped. The driver wound down his window and thanked us both enthusiastically for having him to dinner the previous evening. "It was nothing ". (We hadn't).

After our walk, we motored Albatross over to Tobermory. We like Tobermory.
Tobermory 

Blog accuracy criticised

The editorial board has brought to my attention a number of misleading statements in the blog. I would like to reassure both of my readers that at no time have I sought to intentionally deviate from writing a strictly factual account of our epic global circumnavigation.

I may however, have inadvertently omitted the odd port or place name en route; dates, times, names, menus and bird species may be given purely on "an illustrative basis" and in any case, I did not knowingly  mislead anyone, much.

With regard to the last week:
Tues 23 May
Mallaig, nice walk.

Wed 24 May
Inverie (Knoydart), lovely walk, friends to supper.

Thurs 25 May
Armadale, nice walk around castle grounds and tea

Fri 26 May
Rum, walk to Palace

Sat 27 May
Rum, 9 mile walk, almost to Harris

Sun 28 May
Mallaig again.  Drinks with Penny Lane

Mon 29 May
Eigg

Tues 30 May
Epic mountain climbing. 

Wed 31 May
To Kilchoan
Blue whales sighted 

Long walk to Achnaha volcano.