Leg 8 Kirkwall to Inverness

Leg 8 Kirkwall to Inverness

Sunday 26 June to Saturday 2 July


Kirkwall to Pierowall, Westray
Westray to Whitehall, Stronsay
Stronsay to Wick
Wick to Hemsdale
Helmsdale to Inverness


Crew:

Christopher Nash
Ian Conway
Lorna Davies
Penny Abbott

Skara Brae neolithic house

The Italian Chapel 

The standing stones of the Ring of Brodgar

Pierowall harbour, Westray

Grobust beach, Westray

On Grobust beach

Noltland Castle, Pierowall

Helmsdale

Inverness bridge

North Sea Gas

Leg 7 Kyle of Lochalsh to Kirkwall, Orkney

Leg 7 Kyle of Lochalsh to Kirkwall, Orkney. 263 Nmiles


Saturday 18 to Saturday 25 June.

Kyle to Plockton

Plockton to Loch Gairloch

Loch Gairloch to Lochinver

Lochinver to Kinlochbervie

Kinlochbervie rounding Cape Wrath to Loch Eriboll 

Loch Eriboll to Stromness, Orkney

Stromness to Kirkwall

Crew: 
Bill Price
Christopher Nash
Ian Conway
Paul Rider
Penny Abbott


See video clip at : http://m.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en&client=mv-google&v=fpAirdur6mI

Start at Plockton

The rugged and empty north west of Scotland

Rounding Cape Wrath - our Cape Fear - 'nae problem'

Serene and lonely Loch Eriboll

Hoy, Orkney

Old Man of Hoy

Mainland Orkney

Domestic bliss

A proper Orkney yacht

Forever

Leg 6 Oban to Kyle of Lochalsh, Leg 7 Kyle of Lochalsh to Kirkwall, Orkney

Sorry, folks, the blogging has been delayed by the inability to find a decent internet connection - we are in the far north after all. 


All is well; Arc Angel and new crew are in Orkney. 


Leg 6 Oban to Kyle of Lochalsh. Saturday 11 to Saturday 18 June. 


On Saturday Oban was en fete and a pipe band heralded the arrival of Bob House and Richard Terry .

The Sunday departure from Dunstaffnage Marina  to Tobermory was delayed by the few hours it took for big Jim the mechanic to remove the lovely shiny, but dead, Lewmar electric windlass and replace it with an old manual windlass found in the back of the workshop with a bit of steel tube for a handle. Meanwhile the keen, rooky crew was fully briefed in the throwing, coiling and knotting of lines, and tying of fenders. 

A lovely sail up the Sound of Mull was a gentle intro to the sailing and an evening on a mooring in Tobermory with a visit to the Mish Nish hotel bar finished an eventual good start to the week.

The following morning, Monday, a tour of the distillery sealed a new allegiance to Tobermorey and Ledaig (pronounced Letchik) single malt whisky with their distinctive notes of creosote. Setting off in a bit of a blow provided a quick lesson in how to put a couple of reefs in the main, but it resulted in a fast sail down past Ardnamurchan Point, the most westerly in mainland Britain, to the beautiful anchorage at Aranagour, Coll, where the new crew and windlass were tested. They all passed and the crew went for a quick swim. Quick being the word. After dinner, the dinghy was out again for a trip ashore to the Coll Hotel and a friendly bar, made raucous by the arrival of a german crew on their way to Barra, and celebration of Andy Murray's success at Queens. Less celebrated was our ignominious paddle to knee height at midnight to get the dinghy afloat - the tide had gone out, skipper.

Tuesday took us on a lovely sail from Coll, past Muck, to Eigg, where we picked up a buoy in the harbour of this proudly self sufficient island and went ashore for tea. 

Then an evening motorsail in slight winds past the sunny and dramatic west side of Rhum, with the Outer Hebrides in sight, brought us to a suddenly rainy and gusty Canna harbour. It is notoriously hard to anchor there because of the kelp, and so it proved to be for us, causing, after two attempts, an anxious night in gusty weather. In the event we were secure, but our neighbours' anchor did drag and they were up resetting their anchor in the rainy small hours to avoid being blown ashore. 

Wednesday started with gloomy wet mist, but it soon cleared and a fresh southerly breeze gave us a joyous sail up to Skye. Our joy was shared by a big crowd of exuberant dolphins. 20-30 of them hurled themselves around, in front and under us for a good 10 to 15 minutes. Using the boat's new 'Whale and Dolphin guide' we identified these as Atlantic white-sided dolphins. Beating round Castle island, just for the hell of it, we came into Loch Harport for a lovely sunny run up to the anchorage outside the Talisker distillery at Carbost. It was a heavenly place, the anchorage set against a backdrop of evening sun light on the Cullin hills, enjoyed from the lochside pub garden.

Thursday was again a great sailing day, along the coast of Skye, taking a detour through Soay Sound to get closer to the drama of the hillsides. 

Fine views of the steep sided Rhum and all the Small Isles of the Inner Hebrides visible. Around the peninsular of Sleat and into its Sound, to pick up a mooring in Armadale Bay, Skye, in preference to Mallaig Harbour who have failed to deliver their promised marina on time. A fiery red sunset.

Friday was gloomy weather, but we felt we had to check out The Old Forge Inn, in Loch Nevis, which is proclaimed to be the most remote pub in mainland Britain - it seemed a pretty average pub and a self congratulatory, spurious claim to us. But we pressed on in the afternoon and ran with the wind up the Sound of Sleat to the Kyle Rhea narrows. Here the tide picked us up and took us at 11 knots through a gorge teeming with seals and seabirds (we suspect it brings the fish through here too) and out into Loch Alsh. Looking at the dull town and moorings we decided to head on to the famously pretty Plockton, and sailed under Skye bridge, a disappointingly banal structure that could have celebrated this gateway to the north, at 6:15 pm. 

Plockton is a pretty harbour 

and village set along a palm tree lined strand, and has a friendly Inn with great seafood. Thus we enjoyed on our last night as a crew together.

In one final act of daring on Saturday morning the crew took another, even quicker, swim around the boat,

before we took Arc Angel back to Kyle of Lochalsh for provisioning, crew change and the start of Leg 7.


News of Leg 7 Kyle of Lochalsh to Kirkwall, Orkney will come soon.

Leg 5 Largs to Oban

Leg 5 Largs to Oban


Crew 


Christopher Nash
Brian Turgoose
Paul Dawe
Ruslan Scutenic (Scooter)

Day 1
Ice Creams at Nardini, Barbecue on the beach at Largs.

Day 2 
Sailing Largs to East Tarbert on Loch Fyne, via Rothesay (crunch 1) and the Kyles of Bute. Crunch came as we hit a hard bit of the pontoon in a fierce onshore gust. Zavaronis ice cream was not a patch on Nardinis.

Scooter negotiating the Kyles of Bute

Day 3
When just about to cast off found the steering was jammed at the wheel hub. Hilarious chasing an RAC van around town before finding Hamish who fixed the jammed steering after a couple of hours preparatory investigations.
East Tarbert to the Crinan Canal. Meeting Morag in the rain, the good and hearty face of the Crinan, staying at Lochgilphead, and witnessing binge drinking in the Argyll Arms.

Arc Angel in the countryside

Day 4 
Through the Crinan Canal, Paul and Scooter operating all 14 locks to Crinan. Meeting Catriona, lock operator and heartbreaker of the western Isles. Staying a second night in the tranquility of the canal.

Clyde 'puffer'

Day 5 
Crinan to Port Ellen, Islay via the Sound of Jura. Meeting Eilean, who directed us to the pub her parents would choose.

Day 6
Port Ellen via Lagavullin (Double crunch) and the Sound of Islayto Scalasaig, Colonsay (Triple crunch). Oh dear. A really tough day for crew and boat. Tying to visit Lagavulin distillery we went hard aground in the cove on rocks in a falling tide. Trying all the techniques described in the recent Yachting Monthly article on going aground, with  Paul and Scooter getting soaked in the rain and dinghy, but without success, we were finally saved by an adjacent anchored yacht pulling our spinnaker halyard from the mast top to heel us over and we were free - our saviour claimed his salvage ( a bottle of wine) but we missed the distillery tour.  The exhilarating and fast sail up the sound of Islay that followed made up for it. At Scalasaig, Colonsay we anchored next to the ferry pier - after three attempts, and anchoring by muscle power- the windlass had failed again. We had the main 20kg bruce anchor down and Paul out in the dinghy laid the kedge. On these two hooks we spent quite an exhausted, worried and windy night in the rainy bay. 

Day 7
Scalasaig to Craobh Yacht Haven avoiding the Gulf of Corryvreckin. Pulling up the anchor by hand took three people. Sailing to Craobh was a joy and was fast, with the tide all the way. We reached 12.4 knots at one point. Craobh yacht haven gets my vote for best marina ever.

11 pm at Craobh

Day 8

Craobh to Dunstaffnage Yacht Haven via Kerrera Sound and Oban. All morning was spent with Gregory bashing and swearing about the windlass. 'It's dead' he declares. Sailing blissfully along before the wind and in the sunshine all the way through Kerrera Sound to Oban Bay, and on to Dunstaffnage, for an appointment with Jim who said he'd fix it. 
Evening taxi into Oban to a really great fish restaurant by the ferry terminal. A blissful end to the week.