Summer Cruise to Scotland
The Great Ramsey Race and Ramsey Lifeboat Day 2000 successfully completed, left us ready to begin our annual cruise - somewhat later than originally planned. The aim this year was for a trip to the West of Scotland - probably passing through the Caledonian Canal again - as in 1998.
Saturday 5 August
A late start as High Water is not until 4pm, means we get to start our holiday
with a lie-in.
We left Ramsey at 2:15pm - after having to untangle Tidewinder from the other boats on our trot (the owner was unable to come and move "Anquette", the boat moored outside of us) hasten the arrival of the Ramsey Marina! There was plenty of wind an a bit of tidal chop at the Point of Ayre - but as we headed west, the wind settled and we had a surprisingly pleasant crossing. The forecast had been for drizzle and mist - but we got plenty of sunny spells - and arrived in Bangor at 10:00pm - making it a fast passage at just 7 and three quarter hours.
Sunday 6 August
A lazy rise (it is our holiday after all), and a visit to Hamilton Road
Baptist Church - (we are becoming almost regular worshippers there!), followed
by a cockpit lunch. We then gave Gary Haire a phone and said we pop around
to see them in their new home. Gary & Pauline and family have just
moved from the Isle of Man to Bangor as Gary takes up a post as Director of the
Christian Guidelines counselling charity in Belfast.
It was great to see them again - and
catch them up with news from Broadway.
Monday 7 August
We fought the tide (its neaps so not too strong) Northwards to Red Bay.
As we were passing Larne, the new
P&O Superstar Express fast-ferry was leaving - so we got a close look as she
passed ahead of us - then lots of wash afterwards.
We anchored for the night off the Glenarrif Pier - ready to cross to Gigha on Tuesday.
Tuesday 7 August
An early start saw us leaving Red Bay at 6:00am to catch the north-bound
tide up the North Channel. Ireland is just 15 miles from Scotland at this
point - and 8:00am saw us just off the Mull of Kintyre - just casting its early
morning mist.
The North-Bound tide helped carry us to Gigha,
just outside the Kintyre Peninsula. The weather today was fantastic - far
better than the rather miserable forecast - and Gigha will certainly be on our
list of places to re-visit in the future.
Ardminish Bay has some HIDB moorings - and is a very popular spot for yachts -
as you can see. Sharing the anchorage were boats from England, Ireland,
Norway, USA (San Francisco) and Scotland - as well as the Isle of Man!
Wednesday 8 August
The wind strengthened overnight - and although Ardminish doesn't offer
perfect shelter from the SE winds we got, we had a pretty comfortable
night. Woke to lots of rain - and a stiffish SE wind. Since Kintyre
was providing some shelter, and the forecast was for the wind to drop to to NW
3-4 we decided to break out the oilies and head north. An hour out, the
Coastguard gave out a new Southerly Gale eight - Imminent (ie 0-6 hours!).
Ah, well no turning back - in fact the sailing was great - plenty of wind and
apart from about an hour around the MacGregor Isles, no real swell.
Arrived at Ardfern about 4pm. Ardfern sits at the head of Loch Craignish, just NE of Crinan - and is a major boat yard as well as marina and moorings. Everything is wet through of course - and the day remains grey - but a good sail - and a visit to the Crafty Kitchen for a cream tea (strictly for old times' sake of course), cheered the wet crew up no end.