Sunday 30th August 2009

On our way to the Isle of Sanda which is about 35 miles away. Will let you know how we got on later.

Saturday 29th August 2009

Had a wonderful day travelling through the Crinan Canal. We set off from lock no15 at 9 oclock. We wanted to leave at 8.30 but it took the staff all that time to get organised!!!!
It took 7 hours to navigate to the otherside on the canal.
The first couple of locks were electric. The rest were hand operated by the boats who went through. We went through with with another boat Amarilys - Wilson and Elaine and had a great time. Candi and P J manned the locks with Elaine, opening and closing them when appropriate and letting the water flood through.

Opening and closing the lock gates was quite hard because it took a lot of strength but it kept us occupied and was much more fun than the caledonian canal. We had to open and close the sluices to let the water flood through, the boats in the locks ahead forgot to close the sluices so the water was flooding through and the water was above the level it was meant to be. (by Candi Bradford)

Sailed over to Tarbert and stayed there for the night. Saw three dolphins!

Friday 28th August 2009

Left Oban marina on the Island of Kerrera and had a great day of sailing. We managed to get to our record speed of 11.1 knots while sailing. Yippee!
It was so windy we had to have the sails reefed in. Arrived at the Crinan Canal just before 5pm but couldn't get through as it was "home Time" for the staff, so stayed in the "basin" for the night.

Tuesday 25th August 2009 – Thursday 27th August 2009

Peter and P J fixed the mainsail so hopefully we can sail tomorrow. We also have charts to take us to Ireland. Hired a car as the weather was so bad and drove into Oban. The scenery is so beautiful . waterfalls, mountains and lots of woodland.
Motored on to Neptune’s Staircase. It rained all day. Stopped off and had lunch on the Eagle barge pub. What a great idea to turn a barge into a pub. Unfortunately the pub landlord’s had seen happier days. Today could have just been a bad day but I really believe they need to move on. There was no warmth or friendliness at all. Not to be revisited.

Monday 24th August 2009

We motored through Loch Ness to Fort Augustus Staircase. What a beautiful sight. We still have no mainsail but we do have some new ball barings.
Sunday 23rd August 2009

Sunday 23rd August 2009

We left Seaport Marina in Inverness at 12.30pm to enter the Caledonian Canal. We had four locks to navigate at first and then we were in the canal. We were quickly made aware of a lot of charter boats, some of who didn’t know much about boats and navigation.

Saturday 22nd August 2009

I arrived in Inverness on the sleeper train from London Euston to be met by Peter. Phillip, Louise and Logan came to visit.

Arbroath to Stonehaven

We were going to stay in Arbroath for a couple of days as the forecast wasn’t looking good however once up it looked OK so we made a run for Stonehaven, about 5 hours away. We left at 0800 and arrived at 1330 sailing most of the way between 7 and 8 knots. One hour out of Stonehaven the wind dropped so we put the sails away and motored into Harbour. We are currently tied up to the Harbour wall in a picture postcard Harbour. Weather permitting we will head to Peterhead tomorrow, about an 8 hour journey.

Eyemouth to Arbroath

Setting off at 0800 on Tuesday 11th August 2009 heading towards Arbroath we left with sunshine and light winds. Two miles out we set the main only to have the bottle screw at the top of the mast come apart and shower us with plastic bearings followed by the swift collapse of the main onto the deck. PJ quickly got ropes and the bosons’ chair ready and within 5 minutes we had him lifted to the top so that he could get the bottle screw back down. I know that PJ loves going up and has had plenty of practice however the light winds had picked up and there was a good swell throwing all over the place. Anyway he stayed aloft for approximately 45 minutes while I made repairs and we managed to get the sail back up (outstanding courage PJ). Its times like this that I realise how lucky I am to have PJ and Candi as crew. Candi was on safety rope and working hard holding the sail onto the boat when nature had other ideas. Some 8 hours later and after crossing a pretty rough entrance to the Firth of Forth we arrived in Arbroath and tied up right next to the Arbroath Smokies shop, lovely.

Eyemouth

We made it into Eyemouth on the 5th of August with the intention of stopping overnight. As we stopped the engine we heard a loud banging coming from the engine. The plan had been to sail to Granton so that it would be easier for Fiona to get to the boat from Edinburgh for her weekend visit. The decision was made to stay at Eyemouth so that I could inspect the engine. It turned out that one of the engine mounts had collapsed which will need replacing hopefully when we return to Chatham. I was able to carry out a temporary repair on Thursday which will get us through the journey time will tell. We hired a car from a small place some 34 miles from Eyemouth which meant a bus journey to collect the car then a drive back and then a 50 mile drive that evening to collect Fiona from Edinburgh Station. We had a lovely few days at Eyemouth topped off with Fiona coming up for the weekend. After dropping Fiona back and returning the car we had a further day, finally leaving on Tuesday morning (6 days after arriving).

5th August 2009

We left Blyth at about half five and put up the mainsail straight away, but there was very little wind. We motored most of the day but the wind picked up a little after the Farne Islands. There's allegedly the largest seal population in the UK in the Farne Islands, but we didn't see a single one. What we did though were lots of castles dotted along the coast and also our first mountains in the distance. As I write, we're just off the shore of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which means we'll shortly sail into Scottish waters for the first time. Eyemouth is in the distance and we should reach there in the next two to three hours depending on the tide.

Tomorrow we're hoping to sail up to edinburgh or Dundee and pick up Mum on the weekend. Where we go depends on whether or not we can find decent flights to Edinburgh or to Dundee. Edinburgh is a long way inland and it will add a day or two to our journey to go there, but maybe we will just for the experience.

4th August 2009

We finally, after 4 days in Hartlepool, managed to get going again leaving at 0630 catching the tide with a following wind of about F5 and headed up to Blyth about 30Nm. Dispite the swell we arrived 5 hours later just as the wind was starting to pick up a little. Blyth is not a Commercial Marina it is owned and run by the boat owners. At last the price dropped, we have been paying approximately £25 a night Blyth was £18. When we arrived the vistors Pontoon was busy so we were about to raft up when a couple of club members very kindly directed us to a single berth . The yacht Club is an old wooden light ship built in 1880 and had all the facilities we needed from beer to showers. We wandered into town (a distance of about 3 miles) to stock up on supplies. The local butcher was reasonably priced the quality was excellent with some beautiful white pudding. The rest of the afternoon we rested and popped into the yacht club for a quick drink and to settle the bill before an early night ready for an early start.

3rd August 2009

After Fiona and I came back by train at the weekend, Fiona to ready herself for work on Monday whereas I had a few things to sort in London. I finally made it back from London on the afternoon of the 3rd and was met at Hartlepool station by Peter and Candi. We Had some Lunch in town before wandering back to the marina and getting things prepared for the off the following morning. Hartlepool Marina and facilities were good however I am still waiting to see the prices drop as we travel further up North. If you are so inclined there are plenty of bars and restaurants surrounding the Marina.

1st August 2009

31st July 2009
Left Whitby at 12.20 to catch the 12.30 bridge and actually sailed without motoring for 4 hours averaging 7 knots. We did have to dodge lots and lots of lobster pots though but the views off the coast were magnificant. Arrived in Hartlepool at 16.45pm. Came into the lock with a small fishing boat which had just caught some mackeral and they gave us a couple. This was the most wonderful mackeral I have ever eaten. We are planning on 3 days stop over in Hartlepool before the next journey possibly to Tyneside/North Shields.

30th July 2009
Left Scarborough for Whitby at 9.45am. The last bridge after high tide was at 13.02, so once again we had to motorsail to get there on time and we did with 1 minute to spare. if we had missed this bridge we would have had to wait on the waiting pontoon until 9pm for the next bridge lift. When we first came into Whitby we didn't know what everyone was raving about but after being there for 24hrs it truly is a beautiful town and St Mary's Church sends you back in time giving you a real insight into how life was over 200 years ago.


28th July 2009
Candi woke us up at 2am so that we could leave at 3am but we went back to sleep for a little bit longer and got up at 4am and left at 4.15am. If only we had left that little bit earlier, we could have got into Scarborough. As it turned out there was not enough water in the harbour entrance so we had to anchor in the bay. We took watches to get us up to Scarborough as we anticipated that it would take us 24 hours continual sailing. Peter and Candi took the first 4 hr stint while P J and I slept a little bit longer.
P j and I were at the helm from 0800 until 1200. Thankfully the autohelm was working this time.
We got to Scarborough at around 3am after motorsailing all the way but couldn't get into the harbour until 6.45 as the depth over the sill was too low for our boat so we anchored up in the dark and caught a couple of hours kip.

Total distance travelled 131 nm.

Got into the harbour and moored up on the visitors pontoon which was a pleasant surprise as we were next to a trawler boat last year.

While Candi and P J were sleeping, Peter and I went and had breakfast in the cafe overlooking the harbour.

After catching a few more hours kip, we spent the day with my sister Anna and Jane. Had the best fish and chips in Scarborough.

25th July 2009
We had put into Lowerstoft to sort out a couple of problems one of which was the autohelm as we had planned to sail straight from Ipswich to Scarborough however we didn't fancy 30 Hours with someone at the helm throughout. After some soldering and fuse replacement we were ready for the off.