Bergen - Inverness - Fort William - Campbeltown - Dublin - Dunmore East July/August 2009
The next thing to take care of is the Kessock bridge. The bridge has a sailable height of 28 meters although the Caledonian Canal information say it is 35 meters clearance all the way. Then closing up with the Inverness marina, be careful not to take any shortcuts close to any shore. We arrived in the middle of the night and were followed by three dolphins the last way into the marina. The dolphins played around the boat as to say welcome to Scotland. The Inverness marina is really nice (but expensive), the marina staff is helpful, friendly and very professional.
Had we known what we later found out, we would have stayed only the first night in the Inverness marina as the marina inside the two first locks of the canal was free of charge and much closer to the town.
We recommend sailors to stay more than a day here. The town is pretty and you find typical scotch items here. The provisioning is very good as well. There are a couple of supermarkets close to the marina in the canal. To provision along the canal is difficult so do it in Inverness or if coming from the other side do the provisioning in Corpach.
We have always heard positive comments from people who have traveled through the canal and our curiosity to see for ourselves, if all was true, was immense. With hindsight I have to say we were not disappointed in any way. The lock keepers and other personnel along the canal was very helpful and service minded, always giving a hand when you needed it and always tried to comply with personal requests from the sailors. We became personal friends with many of the lock keepers. These men and women give the best PR anyone could do for Scotland. The following photos are from the first two locks from the sea and up to the marina basin. Of course Lisa had to inspect so everything was done properly.
The Caledonian Canal was beautiful from start to end. The scenery along the canal was sometimes breathtaking and although we did not have any good summer weather, with lots of rain and cold days, it was still one of the highlights of the summer cruise.
Of course I had to take the compulsory swim in the Loch Ness, fortunately “Nessie”, the lake monster, did not eat me for lunch that day.
I will let the rest of the canal pictures talk for themselves. Needless to say, we stretched our stay in the canal to use all the eight days issued for the standard transit permit. At one place we saw a Sika deer grazing just beside where we were moored.
Especially the last locks before Corpatch, called “Neptune’s Staircase” were quite a sight from “upstairs”.
Down in Corpatch, before the last lock to the sea, we saw the famous steam locomotive driven train “the Jacobite” between Fort William and Mallaig.
Below is the last lock in Corpatch before the sea on the Scottish west coast.
The first stop after Corpatch was at the Pier House (Port Appin). It was outside the Pier House Hotel, so the buoys belonged to the hotel and one had to pay whether or not you were a guest at the premises and it was not cheap. On top of that there were a few busy ferry boats that seemed to enjoy whenever they could make the biggest swell to the moored boats. The Pier House Hotel is one of the few places we would recommend not to visit in that area.
Lisa is helping at the winch and after the hard work it is nice with a nap on "daddy's" arm.
We continued the next day down to Oban, a beautiful town, although touristic, but well worth a visit. The marina is opposite the town bay and is situated on Kerrera Island in Ardantrive Bay. Oban is very good for provisioning as everything can be found there.
Oh what a noise, better to seek shelter downstairs
It is hard to steer for a little kitten
Next stop was the Asknish Bay where the magnificent Loch Melfort Hotel is situated. Asknish Bay is on the inside of Luing island and south of the peninsula Seil. The place of the hotel is on the peninsula of Arduaine. The first day we arrived there a southerly wind started to blow and when it became more strong we did not feel comfortable on the buoy moorings outside the hotel (the moorings are free whether you are a guest at the hotel or not, a BIG PLUS for the Loch Melfort Hotel), so we moved to a bay on the north part of the Arduaine point, just opposite the hotel on the south side. http://www.lochmelfort.co.uk/about-us/
That move turned out to be one of the best anchorage we had in Scotland. The rain stopped when we let out the anchor chain and up the slope on the hill on the Arduaine Point we saw and heard a man playing on his bagpipe and the sea was flat as a mirror. The next amazing thing was that as the tide lowered, a great rock emerged from the sea and we saw two or three seals resting on the rock. At first we were scarred to make any noise so the seals would disappear, but later on we found out that they didn’t care what noise we made. When the rock was fully visible, we counted up to twenty one seals on it and some swimming around to find a better place on the rock. They showed interest in our dinghy and came over to sniff on it a few times. The encounter with the seals so close was a wonderful experience for us (and the cat) and made us feel really close to nature. I even had the chance of taking a video clip with my cell phone camera, catching the seals in the foreground with the Scotsman playing his bagpipe in the background, a truly magnificent memory from Scotland and Loch Melfort.
You can see the seals on the last photo here and on the next one I have added the short video clip with the Scot playing his bagpipe up on the hill.
Click on the thumbnail, as usual, above and wait a little bit for the video to load.
We did visit Loch Melfort Hotel after two nights on the northern side of the Arduaine point.
You can download their brochure on the internet http://www.lochmelfort.co.uk/common/downloads/brochure.pdf
Close to the hotel you find the http://www.arduaine-garden.org.uk/ Arduaine Gardens also well worth a visit when you are in the vicinity. The hotel itself has a very good kitchen indeed, we did have a dinner there and were not disappointed. The interior of the hotel is very nice and tranquil with a wonderful view over the Asknish Bay in front. We had telephoned in advance to ask if it was possible to have some mail for us sent to the hotel to keep until our arrival. No problem with our request and when we arrived, our mail was waiting for us. The present owners Calum and Rachel Ross together with their very professional and friendly staff are doing wonders with their property and we have already recommended the place to our friends who would like to see Scotland and have a nice place to stay. Thank you Calum and Rachel for keeping and maintaining such a wonderful place in “Gods own country” Scotland.
There would be no more to say if we did not continue our sailing trip, so after three days at Loch Melfort we sailed south-south west for 7 NM and around the tip of Craignish Point and up to Ardfern. We were expecting some bad weather so we wanted a good protected anchorage or a safe buoy to moor at. Well Ardfern Yacht Centre was a disappointment. They charged £20 for a buoy and in the village, so much “over” advertised, we found very little for provision. We do recommend our fellow sailors to skip Ardfern and Ardfern Yacht Centre, there are so many other beautiful places to see than wasting your time in Ardfern. We finally found an anchorage in a bay south of the yacht centre, which was OK for the night.
The next day we continued south to the island Gigha and the Ardminish Bay. The Nature Foundation on Gigha has placed out a lot of buoys in the bay and I was surprised to see such heavy chain from the buoys to the cement block on the bottom. We felt secure there even in a little blow we had one day. Sadly the weather on our visit for a couple of days turned out windy with rain and only a few moments of sunshine. Nevertheless, we did visit the island and the lovely heritage garden and we really like the island of Gigha. It is said in the cruising guides that provisioning is limited on Gigha. We found that statement wrong. There is a nice little shop just on top of the hill from the anchorage and they can supply you with most things, even camping gas. The shop on Gigha was ten times better than the" over advertised" provisioning shop at Ardfern.
Our plans were to visit the island Islay and Port Ellen. The island has a few of the better distilleries in Scotland worth visiting. However, the weather changed our plans and as we had to be in Dublin a week later we had better to move on to a place where we could sit and wait out the coming northerly gale. The choice was Campbeltown round the southern tip of Peninsula of Kintyre, on the east coast. The trip to Campbeltown was quite rough. We were lucky and arrived just in time before the big blow came, the wind was 35knots/Hour when we moored.
Campbeltown is another nice and wonderful town on the west coast of Scotland that we highly recommend a visit. There is a restaurant with a bar having more than 300 sorts of whisky for those who like to sample that spirit.
From Campbeltown we set sail one evening to make Dublin,
Howth rather, north of Dublin. We had an appointment with a surveyor at Howth
marina the 23rd of August, yes on a Sunday! The magnificent chap
John Roberts ( www.marinesurveyor.com/allpoints
) understood our
wish to continue south as fast as possible, so as he was in the Dublin area
anyway, he did the survey on a weekend. We can highly recommend John Roberts
for surveys in the Hamble (UK) or Dublin area as he has offices in both places.
Howth
is a nice little town on the northern shore of Dublin bay and we like the
marina with all its facilities, WI-FI etc. You find a very famous restaurant
in Howth called King Sitric. It is a restaurant well known for its cuisine
and old fashion good service. I visited King Sitric a few times when I worked
in Ireland in the early 90-ies and it was the same good old place as then,
although a little rebuilt. If you want to visit one of the best restaurants
in Ireland, King Sitric is the place. http://www.kingsitric.ie
After
5 days in Howth we set sail an afternoon to reach Dunmore East (outside
Waterford) the next day and before another blow coming. The journey to Dunmore
East was one of the better this summer, with good wind and not too rough sea. I
had phoned in advance to the yacht club representative in Dunmore East, Dave
Harris, and he had confirmed no problems with a berth for us. We arrived early
the next morning and before entering the harbour, which is really a fishing
harbour, I phoned Dave to make sure we could get a berth somewhere inside. Dave
was impossible to get on the phone so we found a place between two trawlers,
just good enough for us. I was just laying the last mooring rope on the quay
bollard when a roaring voice from above reach my ears. “You cannot moor here,
it is a fishing harbour, get out or find a place among the private boats on the
other side”. There was no way we could find another place on the other side
among the private small boats with a max length of 20 to 30 feet and they were
already at least five abreast. So I started with a polite “Good morning” which
did not weaken the harbourmasters heart at all. He continued to shout with
words not mentionable here. I told him we were seeking shelter for a storm that
was coming within 12 hours, that didn’t help either. In the end I told him we
would move, but I just have to find a place first and he gave me a few hours to
sort things out.
I was
trying to locate Dave Harris on the yacht club and other places, but with
no success. Finally he called back on our call from the cell phone and I explained
the situation for him. By now a Norwegian Hallberg Rassy 49 had arrived and
moored outside our boat, I could just see the harbourmaster getting a stroke
on that sight, luckily he did not show up. Dave told us to go up and enjoy
a nice calm breakfast at his cafe along the main street facing the harbour,
while he sorted things up, as he said.
We
had a wonderful breakfast on the cafe and after a while Dave showed up and told
us that we could stay as long as we wanted on the place we had now. We asked
him how he had managed that with a seemingly lunatic harbour master, but he
kept that a secret. The funny thing was, that some time after we had returned
to our boats the harbourmaster came and told us that “he” had arranged things
and we could stay a couple of days where we were. Of course we had to thank him
for his kindness, but inside we were all laughing as we knew where the pressure
had come from. Dave Harris is a real Public Relations man for his town Dunmore
East and Dave and his wife has become our personal friends as well. Thanks Dave
for all the help during our stay in Dunmore.
We stayed a week in Dunmore as the weather would not let us leave to cross the Bay of Biscay. During the week Bea and I visited the old cathedral in Cashel where one of my forefathers was a bishop once upon a time.
The
right weather window wouldn’t show and Biscay during bad weather is not nice
at all. We had done that crossing twice before so we were looking for better
weather this time. Our plan was to winter in the Canary Islands, but before
the Canaries we liked to visit Madeira. The weather just did not give us more
than two to two and a half days before the next depression came roaring in
from the west, so a direct passage to Madeira was canceled. Instead we planned
a crossing from Dunmore to Muros in Spain. Going for Muros was a bit longer
than heading for La Coruna, but at least we should with that destination have
passed the infamous north east corner of Spain. That part of Spain is where
two weather systems meet as well as two ocean currents. If one is unlucky
this part of a passage can be one the worst encountered.
We were watching the weather forecasts and grib files every 6 hours every day, finally there was a window we could use. Kai and Alina on the Norwegian boat and we on Sea Otter decided to go the same evening. It would mean a bit of rough weather at first but later it should be calming down, at least below 30 knots. Hmmm, half an hour after departure we had gusts up to 50 knots and very high waves, luckily the wind was abeam or 10 degrees aft of that so we did not have to sail into the waves and wind. The last photos are taken by Dave and you can see how rough we had it just outside the harbour.
Anyway,
with a bit of luck and using the performance utility on our navigation system,
we could, for once, sail along the best track to Muros. Now afterwards I think
we shall have a difficult time to beat that passage time/distance wise. Of
course the Norwegian boat and we were racing, both with destination Muros.
They, with 4 onboard, later decided to head for La Coruna. However we did
beat them over the same latitude just outside La Coruna, of course we were
more west and had a few more hours to go to Muros, but passing the said latitude
we were 5 hours ahead.
The
passage was not comfortable at all except for a day of passing through a high
pressure area in the middle of the passage. Close to the north west corner
of Spain, the winds started to build up the seas once more and we really had
to fight every mile passed the corner and then the wind almost died. We sailed
into Muros Bay in calm weather with the water as a mirror, quite a difference
from a day before when we had water all over the boat, except inside.
In
the Muros Bay we stayed the first night in the Portosin marina. It is a newly
renovated marina with all facilities, nice staff and a very nice club restaurant,
where we had more than one meal. We stayed a week in the Muros Bay, three
nights in the marina and four nights at anchor in our favourite corner, 1.45
NM at 49 degrees from Muros. There is a very good sand and gravel bottom where
the anchor gets a good grip. We survived the same place in the spring with
over 50 Knots wind at anchor.
Our plan was to carry on to Madeira and the Canaries, but as the wintering contracts in the marinas in the Canary Islands had almost trebled since last season we started to look for something else. The Azores would be an alternative.
More on that in the next Newsletter.