shandyseacapers-blog

[shandyseacapers-blog]

We set off from Oban on Friday morning, sailed and motored south towards Port Ellen on Islay. We encountered really heaped and confused seas as we got to the south of Jura, this was surprising as there was not a lot of wind we pulled into Craighouse and spent a comfortable night on a mooring buoy.

Saturday we set off for Ballycastle on the north coast of Ireland the seas were still heaped and confused, we had a descent reach with an easterly breeze for a few hours, but then lost the wind, the streams round Rathlin Island are very strong and interesting, we used them to our advantage to get carried round the west of the island and then back into Rathlin’s Church Bay, then due South into the marina in Ballycastle Harbour.

An early start this morning leaving at 6am we caught the massive tidal streams south running at over 12 knots for some time and then 8 knots for most of the trip to Belfast, we were here by lunch time. We had to stand off and wait for the Saga Pearl II to dock in front off us with 2 tugs turning her in the harbour, all very interesting.

The photos show Andy Eric and Alan as we set off, Saga Pearl II as she passed us and the view from Safe Return this evening with the Titanic Centre and Harland  & Wolff Cranes close by. 

We have seen Belfast on a tour bus this afternoon, tomorrow the Titanic experience.

[shandyseacapers-blog]

We are getting ready to continue our round Britain trip, Andy and I have a new crew member, Eric an old and recently reacquainted college friend who sails at Grafham Water, he is involved with training and Sailability and has experience of yachting having owned his own yachts and chartered.

We are on our way to Oban to pick up Alan Gray our friend from Castor who is also joining us, he usually sails with Andy on his Flying Fifteen FFortsmith. Tomorrow we will set off south towards Northern Ireland.

The photos above are of recent i things. 

The first pic is of the Eala Bhan, it is sad to see her sunk in Loch Oich, She was a Herring trawler converted for leisure use, I lived on her with Hugh Nicholls when we were on Sail Caledonia in 2005.

Then there is this crew of ladies from Queensferry rowing club who were rowing through the canal in an Ian Outred rowing skiff, this was taken on Loch Ness

The trip through the canal was with Jane and Charlie, seen here in McCaig’s tower above Oban.

Finally there are 4 young men who are rowing round Britain, there hopes of a record have been dashed by appalling weather. They are seen here in Tobermory sheltering from high winds as we were at the time in June .

[shandyseacapers-blog]

Easter morning on Safe Return in Tobermory. We are setting off for Skye after breakfast. Happy Easter.

[shandyseacapers-blog]

Launching of a pontoon. Here at Dunstaffnage pontoon production has begun, a new pontoon mooring facility is being built for Oban. These pictures show the first pontoon, actually a 70ton floating breakwater being launched by the crane then being moved to be moored until construction begins in Oban. According to the men building it, the new facility is due to open in June and will be for visiting yachts to moor at Oban also to aid disembarkation from cruise ships visiting Oban, it will not be for permanent boat moorings.

[shandyseacapers-blog]

This morning's vista. Last night was spent in Lochaline Harbour, a community facility providing pontoons with excellent shower and WC facilities. We walked to the not so excellent Lochaline Hotel for a couple of beers before returning for a Chef John creation of cottage pie which was unlike any other I have tasted, just delicious. This morning we have the hills of Mull behind us dusted with snow, meanwhile Jim is out on the pontoons fishing and enjoying the sunshine. Returning to Dunstaffnage later today

[shandyseacapers-blog]

It tasted even better than it looks. I am in awe of how anyone can produce such taste and wonderful food on a boat cooker with gas failure in the middle of the cook.

[shandyseacapers-blog]

Technical advice

If sailing with a chef on board in winter be prepared to have to swap gas bottles during the process as even a simple meal involves the oven, both hobs and grill being on. He will then apologise that the meal will be late because there is no heat. We go to the gas locker to find the gas bottle covered in frost. Butane stops flowing when cold so we swap bottles and put the frozen bottle on the engine to warm up and a smile appears on chefs chops. Next night we repeat the process. This steak will be good, the aromas are something else.

[shandyseacapers-blog]

After a fantastic dinner of Lamb Shank with 15 different vegetables and gravy, the hard bit. We picked up a mooring buoy on Seil Island last night, after hearing the forecast this morning decided to abandon our trip to Iona and stay in the relatively sheltered waters of the Sound of Mull and head for Tobermory. Sailing was good for the first 20 miles, but while we were enjoying half a roast chicken and salad for lunch the wind increased to 30 knots. We played,it safe,and took down the main, using the engine to finish the voyage with a force 7 blowing us from behind. Tonight will be shore leave in Tobermory followed by dinner which John is preparing as I write.

[shandyseacapers-blog]

Look who is cooking our breakfast this morning. With John and Tom Goodall, we plan to go over to Iona today, then continue round Mull to Tobermory, returning to base on Thursday for a lift out. Just one worry is all the locals are talking about the snow due to fall tomorrow, oh well that will be a new experience, sailing in the snow!

[shandyseacapers-blog]

This last trip was rewarding, we had an objective which was to travel with Tom and his Dad Martin to Mull principally to observe Deer during the Rutting season. After the first night in Tobermory, we headed out of decent internet or phone coverage. ( My Apple devices had no signal whatever while Martin’s Samsung, also on EE managed to utilise the weak signals) Hence no blogs from me.

The pictures show the Chillys dishing up roast chicken dinner while at anchorage on Canna.

The wreck of a French Trawler spotted as we motored from Canna to Rum, she ran aground in 2011 when the skipper who was on the bridge alone fell asleep. Just before we got to this point, we had a large pod of common dolphins swimming round us for about 20 minutes. Andy calls a group of Dolphins  be  a hysteria of dolphins because when sighted the crew starts leaping up and down, pointing and screaming “dolphins dolphins” very excitedly.

The buildings are the researchers hides and accommodation, Tom had been in touch with them and would have liked it if we had anchored in Kilmory Bay as our base but it is not permitted to land on the Island except from in Loch Scresort new where the ferry lands.

Safe Return against the old pier near Kinloch Village. We anchored in the bay but with the strong breeze coming from the East it was very lively and transfers ashore in the Dinghy very wet and hazardous. Andy went ashore with the Chillcotts at low tide and spotted the inside of the pier was clean sand with no rocks, so ideal to dry out. An advantage of sailing at this time of year is that facilities like this can be used without fear of a tour boat turning up to offload passengers. We spent 2 comfortable nights here.

Tom had his first go at helming as we sailed across to Arisaig, he is a very determined chap and did a good job. Arising is a tricky entrance especially at low tide, we touched the bottom a few times on the way in and had to wait half an hour before we could pull ourselves onto the landing pontoon. As there was no one about we decided to ignore the landing only notices and stayed on the pontoon overnight. Lesson learnt though, we woke at low tide in the middle of the night with Safe Return heeled over, one of the keels was aground  near the pontoon. We hadn’t thought of that when we had to wait to tie on!

Finally after our final night in the beautiful Loch Aline we had this sunrise as we motored back to Dunstaffnage the castle was Ardtornish Castle abandoned in the 16th century.

[shandyseacapers-blog]

Since my last blog, we had a week with Charlie, Sam and Tony. The weather was so bad we had to have a day sight seeing in Oban and Glen Coe. I was too disappointed by the weather to blog that trip. We returned home while the good weather moved to Scotland. We have just returned with Tom and Martin Chillcott to do a nature tour on Mull bringing the rain and wind with us, luckily today was brilliant. We started with breakfast in Weatherspoon on Oban Harbour followed by Tesco for provisioning then the tourist thing, we drove up to Mccaigs Tower for a view over Oban Bay. As we set off the weather was ideal, we sailed up to Tobermory expecting a quiet night and we got excitement, the Mull Rally was starting from the car park above the harbour, this is a serious car rally on closed roads, though seeing a Marina start was a highlight for me. Tomorrow we set off for Mull to see deer rutting and other nature. Eagles maybe with Tom as our Guide

[shandyseacapers-blog]

Tobermory was a somber stop, having lost Q to a tummy bug, we were concerned for Hugh who lost his appetite for the day and instead of having dinner with us took to his bunk early, after 12 hours sleep he was back on form and we were able to enjoy our last sailing day. We cut this trip short by a day because of the poor weather forecast for this weekend. We motored back to Dunstaffnage, Andy returned to his caravan to be with Louise & Dusty, we met up again last night in Oban and had an excellent evening in The Lorne, a pub we visited years ago because it was one of a few pubs in Oban selling real ale at the time. It now has a well deserved good reputation for it’s sea food menu. Earlier last night we watched as a large classic looking yacht arrived, she had an exceptionally long mast and was surprisingly thin of beam. She is Sceptre a 12 metre racing yacht built for the 1958 Americas cup. After Hugh and Jan left this morning I went to look at her and Tom her skipper invited me on board. There is a photo on a bulkhead inside showing Prince Philip at her helm with Uffa Fox who designed Andy’s Flying Fifteen. She has a good website sceptre1958.co.uk I have started doing maintenance. First job this morning was to find out why the water alarm went off at 7am this morning. I found that despite Andy being regular with greasing my stern gland, it was dripping badly, now adjusted the leak has stopped. Sam Howard and his friend Tony will be bringing Charlie up on Monday for a week.

[shandyseacapers-blog]

We left Coll and motor sailed over to Eigg, during this journey, there was much excitement as dolphins swam alongside for about 5 mins. I missed this because I was in the heads at the time. We dropped anchor and had lunch in Eigg, waiting for the tide to become favourable in the Sound of Sleat and the Kyle Rhea, a narrow passage leading to Kyle Akin where the Skye Bridge is located. We moored there overnight and in the morning found the monster truck in the photo on the quayside. There was lots of activity at the road junction with men taking down the traffic lights and other street furniture to make way for this truck seemingly doing a test run. Note the pile of pallets on the rear of the trailer with a long ladder and pole extending back, under this can be seen a team of observers debating the angles as it made its way out of the harbour area up onto the sky bridge. After watching this we set off for Plockton where again we were treated to a wonderful evening as the hills were illuminated by the evening sun. We had a lovely meal in the Plockton Shores menu and retired quite early to bed. Unfortunately the rich food seemed to aggravate Q's delicate, stomach which still hadn't settled after a recent illness. He hasn't felt well all trip, so he decided to call it a day and caught a train home which was sad for us all. We headed south intending to go to Arisaig, but after bashing into head winds for 4 hours we pulled into Mallaig. Quite a busy port but good for stocking up. Andy roasted 2 chickens and we had a feast. Today we have had a good sail down towards Ardanamurchan Point, we were tacking and had 4 hours good sailing in lovely conditions, but as the wind veered and strengthens we resorted to engine power. Rounding the point was a very lively experience, we are tied up in Tobermory tonight.

[shandyseacapers-blog]

I have just been chastised by the crew for not mentioning the wildlife. Picture shows the Otter in Coll, Q posted a picture on Facebook last night. Today we had several dolphin experiences apparently. I however was either in the heads or asleep while the crew were enjoying the experience.

#I have just been chastised by the crew for not mentioning the wild life.

[shandyseacapers-blog]

After chatting to Proff Plankton we set off for a sail. The best sail so far on Safe Return. The sea was "moderate", as the breeze built to 26 knots we were fully Reefed and touching 8 knots. At this speed the bow was going into the waves. The new anchor went under a few times. Fun it was but quite wearing so we took a buoy on Coll and we are now enjoying excellent pints of Jarl in the Coll Hotel. We have to shuttle ashore and the vid is of Hugh & Jan being ferried ashore.

[shandyseacapers-blog]

My blog yesterday got lost in the ether'. After our conversation with Proff Plankton we set off for Coll and had for me the best sail I have experienced on SF we had full reefed sails with 25 knot breeze we were sailing at 7-8 knots into a moderate sea. I watched from the comfort of the inside steering position as my new anchor disappeared into the waves. Very exciting! The crew had stinging eyes and were elated by the experience. We embibed in the Coll hotel where we were greeted by two golden labs. A Nicholls curry was enjoyed on board. Today we found little wind and due to some serious winds forecast in the Outer Hebrides have changed our plans and headed for sheltered sailing between Skye and the mainland. After a stop in Eigg for lunch, new anchor used, we took advantage of a north flow through the narrow gap to the Skye Bridge. We saw 13 knots on the gps. We have just scoffed a pork and butter bean stew cooked by me. The photo shows the crew enjoying cheese provided by Chris and Holly Baker from their wedding- and a glass of wine from the ample cellar stocked up by Hugh and Jan.

[shandyseacapers-blog]

This morning we met Proff Plankton, here are Hugh and Jan looking at a sample from his catch this morning, also Andy and Hugh talking to Proff Plankton (in life jacket ). He is going back to the aquarium to study and photo this sample. The results will be available on line a bit later https://www.facebook.com/ProffessorPlankton/?ref=ts&fref=ts