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West Coast of Scotland 2015 Pt 1

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West Coast of Scotland 2015 Pt 1 “The year summer missed Scotland” The account of a cruise to the west coast of Scotland – May/August 2015 Early planning I hadn’t sailed on the west coast of Scotland since I was a teenager, when we’d had a wonderful family summer cruising on my parents’ yacht through the Caledonian Canal, around the Inner Hebrides, and back to the east coast via Cape Wrath and the Pentland Firth. It’s a very special cruising ground and I was keen to explore it again, ideally in a bit more detail, on Rosinis. In 2014 I’d been to the Azores and, although the planning considerations were rather different, putting a cruising plan together for Scotland seemed to be every bit as challenging, not least because I wanted to share the experience with as many people as possible which would involve crew changes, some of them potentially in quite inaccessible places. I’d spent the winter working on some niggling issues that had bugged us out in the Atlantic; specifically resolving leaks around the shroud plates and through the ventilators and I was now hoping for a completely dry ship with a good flow of air through some greatly improved ventilators in the heads and the forepeak, and some new ones in the saloon. Just before launching I’d replaced the genoa furling gear and was looking forward to being able to reduce headsail area with confidence, rather than finding grub screws and bolts on the foredeck, which had been our rather alarming experience the preceding year. Beyond new equipment, I’d also spent a great deal of time on routine maintenance, working on the principle that ‘a stitch in time saves nine!’ Early in 2015 I put together an outline itinerary to share with prospective crew. My plan was to sail as quickly as I could from the Solent up to the west Scottish coast via St George’s Channel and the Irish Sea, and back again at the end of the cruise, so I could spend as much time as possible in what I knew would be glorious cruising waters once there. Family commitments in late June and early July meant the overall cruise would be split in two, with a month’s gap in the middle. So the outline itinerary quickly fell into place: two weeks to get there, two weeks cruising on the west coast, a month home (while Rosinis stayed in Scotland), two more weeks cruising, and two weeks to get back. It wasn’t long before the master plan was sufficiently mature to start sharing with potential crew, to find crew change locations and to arrange somewhere to leave Rosinis for the month I’d be home. In the event, as is often the case, the ‘difficult’ things were easy and the ‘straight forward’ things took much longer than anticipated. I spent much more time sorting out crewing arrangements and ensuring I could get to crew changeover locations at the right times, than I did arranging to leave Rosinis which I thought might be an expensive problem to crack. However, Graeme Geddes, the owner of another Rustler 36, Unicorn III, very kindly offered me his mooring at the Royal Gourock Yacht Club. He was planning to sail to Norway and would be away for the whole of the period I would be home: problem solved! I was very fortunate in being able to borrow charts, pilots and supplementary reading from a variety of sources and quickly found myself with a large library to stow: 150+ Admiralty charts, full Imray chart coverage, Clyde Cruising Club and Irish Cruising Club Sailing Directions, a full set of relevant Imray Yachtsman’s pilots, and, of course, the bible for exploring in this area: Hamish Haswell-Smith’s “The Scottish Islands”. As I shared plans with potential crew members, more than one commented that my schedule seemed a little ambitious. I checked and double-checked, but concluded that it was all workable, so I then fixed key points on the cruise, mostly determined by crew change requirements, and left the remainder to be decided on an opportunity basis once there. It soon became clear that I would be sailing solo up to Scotland, but with crew for the majority of the time in Scotland and some of the way back. That was fine with me and I relished the prospect of a fast delivery passage in new waters. The plan was in place, the 1 overall itinerary was agreed with plenty of room for detailed exploring once in Scotland, crew travel arrangements were made, and within 3 weeks of launching I was ready to depart. The overall cruise chart shown below indicates where we actually went. Crew change ports are labelled in green to give some idea of how much freedom was still achievable, even allowing for picking up and dropping off crew. They were the only time and space constraints within the plan. The Solent to Scotland (9th to 20th May 2015) As I slipped from Marchwood Yacht Club’s pontoons in the early afternoon of 9th May it was blowing hard from the southwest, so I started with the staysail set and a reefed main. This made it slower than I would have liked as we headed down Southampton Water, but we were rock steady as other yachts broached all around us in the gusts. Once we reached the western Solent we had a thrilling beat into a F6, untouched by anyone around us – a great test for my winter’s work, which passed with flying colours: everything stayed 2 completely dry below. By 1800 we were at Hurst Narrows and headed out via the North Channel. Shortly afterwards the wind eased a little and I decided to change the staysail for the genoa and stow the inner forestay before it got dark: quite a chore. From 2100 the tide would be against us so we headed south to clear the stronger adverse stream off the headlands. Just after midnight we tacked back to the west and then suddenly found ourselves in thick, wet fog and able to see nothing apart from the coloured sectors of the masthead tricolour illuminating a weird disc overhead. Strangely the wind held up and within a couple of hours the visibility cleared just as quickly as the fog had arrived. At daylight I shook out the final reefs, so we were now under full sail, and by 0645 we were 4nm south of Portland Bill with a strong tide underneath us. The forecast had suggested a wind shift to the south and it arrived at 0700 freeing us up for the passage across Lyme Bay. Late morning brought masses of swallows heading north, but otherwise the horizon was empty. By midday we had covered 100nm and by 1330 Start Point and the coast as far north as Brixham was visible on the starboard bow. As we made our way on towards Eddystone in the early evening we lost wind so I switched to the light wind vane on Millie (the Monitor self-steering gear) and rigged a fore guy on the main boom to stop it slatting as we rolled. At 2215 I was admiring the beautiful stream of phosphorescence caused by the keel cutting through the clear water when I noticed that we had company. A pod of dolphins was playing around the cockpit, darting from side to side as I watched them, their own phosphorescent trails outlining their body shapes clearly in the darkness below. If their squeaking was any indication of the fun they were having they were enjoying it just as much as I was. By 2330 I was just half a mile south of Eddystone when the AIS identified a yacht closing from the south moving quite fast under sail. I spotted his lights and lit up my sails, realising that he would pass close even though he was the windward vessel with no right of way. On he came with no indication whatsoever that he had seen me, and passed about 30m ahead before disappearing off into the darkness. Strange, particularly as we were so close to Eddystone Rocks. I wonder whether he knew they were there?! The early hours of 11th May were spent dodging fishing boats and buoys off the coast between Dodman Point and Falmouth, some of it in thick, wet fog similar to the previous night. A tack south was needed to make it into Falmouth and I did this early, then had a fast reach towards St Anthony’s Head in grey drizzle. By 0700 we were moored in Falmouth Yacht Haven having covered 190nm in 42 hours with 2 nights at sea. It felt good and I’d had enough rest in 10/15/20 minute spells A grey dawn approach to St Anthony’s Head, Falmouth to feel fine. Following breakfast and a short nap I called Rustler Yachts to see if they could get hold of some replacement service batteries as I’d had to charge them far too frequently during the passage from the Solent. This was annoying as I’d thought they were suspect, but hadn’t done anything about them through the winter when I should have done. However, within a couple of hours the problem was solved (at a price) and it was good to have reliable power again. I spent some time ashore in the afternoon, then sorted charts for the next leg, and did some navigation planning, trying to work out how I could get to Milford Haven before the next low pressure system arrived.
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