Summer Cruise to Scotland
We'd had early plans for doing some cruising on the South Coast this year, but our chance to work Tidewinder south during our TT week break didn't work out. We then recalled that the new "Millennium Link" - restoring navigation to the Forth-Clyde canal meant we could circumnavigate Perth - out to the Forth, then back through the Caledonian Canal.
Saturday 30 June
Shipping forecasts were predicting brisk winds for the whole weekend period -
but we took the chance of the night tide on Saturday to depart Ramsey at 5pm and
get up to Bangor Marina - where we arrived at 01:30 - still in time for a bag of
chips (Isle of Man Chippies please note!)
Sunday 1 July
With a settled day forecast, the chance to make the other "quantum
leap" across the North channel was too good to miss - so foregoing the
delights of a Bokhara Curry, we pressed on northwards.
The North Channel was flat - with virtually no wind - and we made fast passage on the iron spinnaker. Deciding to make maximum distance, we headed up the Kyles of Bute - usually one of the most beautiful of routes - but murky and damp this time. South East of the Burnt Islands, we ran into thick fog - so made an "instruments" passage on radar and plotter to arrive at Rothesay at 11:30pm.
Monday 2 July
We set aside today to visit Inverkip
Marina to get our mast unstepped - since we would otherwise have had to wait at
Bowling till Thursday for the "official" British Waterways service!
Further thick fog at Rothesay soon cleared as we passed Toward - and the staff at Mast & Rigging Services at Kip - and the Inverkip Marina staff, couldn't have been more helpful.
The mast was disconnected and lowered, then prepared for passage by late afternoon - so we headed into Largs to make up for the Curry Famine by paying a visit to our old friends at the Koh-i-Noor.
Tuesday 3 July
Leaving
Kip at 7:00am in order to get to Bowling as soon as the Sea Lock could open, we
were surprised to see "Royal Princess" on the Container Terminal Berth
at Greenock - we passed within a few yards of her.
On
up the river - and into Bowling basin - then through our first bridge sans-mast
- we cleared the inner bascule bridge with about 6 inch to spare.
A
unique feature of the re-opened Forth-Clyde Canal is the Drop-Lock at Dalmuir -
the only one of its type in the world, it drops boats below the road, then lifts
them back to canal level at the other side.
We
covered locks 39 to 21 today - and about half of the Canal's 31 mile length -
before stopping, at 21:30 tired out but quite a good day's work, eh! - and
no calamities! The British Waterways staff were great, and made passage
smooth. Sadly, there is a lot of litter in parts of the canal, but we
didn't get any litter or weed in our cooling intake - or round the prop.
The Stables restaurant stops cooking food at 9pm (a weird "Scottish" tourist-hostile thing we've come across before) - so mum had to rustle something up. 11:15 pm - the threatened thunderstorm arrived - rather spectacular - we're so glad it didn't get us whilst in the locks.
Wednesday 4 July
Another
very full day - starting with a long run along the summit pound, then downhill
all the way to Grangemouth - through locks 20 - 2 (there is no Lock 1 any more
as the exit has been moved further up the Carron river. Its much easier
going down locks as there is no turbulence - but again the British Waterways
staff were excellent and we made good progress.
The
Falkirk wheel is progressing well - and will be a world-class piece of
engineering when completed - it will link the Forth Clyde canal to the Union
Canal - raising boats to the higher level in a tub on a giant "Big
Wheel"
Met up with June Scott - our National Account Manager for Scotland - we couldn't really pass by without saying hello! Andrew, her son came down with us from Falkirk to Grangemouth - following Philip working the locks for a while.
The following series of pictures were taken by Robert Walker - who lives near
the Forth Clyde Canal - and were forwarded to us by email. Thank you
Robert - it's great to have some shots which include the whole crew, and the
yacht on the move!
Dropping
Down to Lock 11
The red brick building on the left was the old
customs excise house built around the mid 1700s and is now a Beefeater
restaurant
The building on the right of the picture with the chimney is the old malt whisky distillery soon to be again reopened.
It produced the famous "Rosebank"
Malt Whisky, and it is said that Bonnie Prince Charlie sampled it during the
battle of
Falkirk in 1746.
We left the canal at the last
published available time - timing is absolutely critical in the Carron River,
which has just 3m of clearance ("Air Draught") at the time it has just
1.8m of water draft - these are the canal "critical limits" of both
measurements. Our Southerly scored here as we can lift the keel to less
than 1m depth - so we had a little extra time - though the tide was falling very
fast when we got to the critical bridge.
Passage
down the Forth was a little hairy - the seas were rather rolly caused by the
strong ebbing tide having a moderate breeze against it - usually our boat would
eat such conditions, but with the mast bouncing up and down on deck, it was not
fun! Arrived, however, safe and sound at Port Edgar at the foot of the
Forth Road Bridge by 7:30pm. We found a wonderful chinese restaurant at
nearby South Queensferry for a well earned meal.
Well tomorrow, we're booked for our mast raising - so we should stop looking like a travelling junk shop!.
The canal has proved an exciting, interesting, fun experience - great BW team and everyone along the canal was friendly - and hundreds watched, clapped and cheered us on - this newly restored route is highly popular with everyone along its length - and the new engineering impressive.
We were told horrific tales of
vandalism - and even one story of a boat being stoned near Maryhill, Glasgow but
our passage was fast and friendly.
Thursday 5th July
Today's
task was resurrection - the resurrection of our mast and the return of
Tidewinder to her proper status as a sailing boat.
Not only had we to get the mast up
and the rig set - but re-fit the boom, sails and of course, all the mast wiring
- like the radar. This is the first time we've done this job, so here's
hoping we got it all right.
All
done, we were delighted to meet up with Grandma & Grandad Dorricott from
Ancrum near Jedburgh, and to have a nice meal with them in nearby South
Queensferry.
Friday 6th July
A
very dense, wet North Sea "Har" hung around the bridges as we left
Port Edgar - so it was instruments, radar and a close look out to inch down
under the bridges, than a quick dash across the main shipping channel.
We wound along the northern coast of the Firth of Forth, keeping to relatively shallow water to keep out of the way of shipping. The day gradually got clearer, and we arrived at Anstruther (pronounced "Enster") mid-afternoon.
As soon as we
stepped off the boat we were greeted by a couple of Motor-cyclists who not only
knew Ramsey well (from visits to the races), but also knew the
"Dorricotts" of Inverbervie Ironmongers - having previously kept a
small yacht at Gourdon harbour - small world eh!.
To reinforce this, the checkout lady at the Co-op supermarket was wearing "Legs of Man" ear-rings and knew the Island well.
We had to do the "tourist thing" and get an ice-cream - but here's a picture of cruel Ann stealing poor Stephen's ce-cream. The other "fame" of Anstruther is the chippie - people are reputed to queue for up to 2 hours for its fare. Armed with this intelligence, we made a test purchase of a bag of chips during our evening constitutional - eat your heart out Anstruther, they were nothing special at home - we could take you to far better chippies!
Saturday 7th July
The 7am Forth Coastguard forecast outlook for early next week did not make good
news - strong North East Winds Monday, and the possibility of Gales or Severe
Gales for Tuesday & Wednesday. Since the North East Coast is not the
best place to be in strong North East winds, we decided to get cracking and left
promptly at 7:30am.
Up to Fife Ness (NE corner of Fife) - although almost no wind we hit large sloppy swell waves - we think a result of the tide pulling north against a NE swell. In deeper water they subsided as we crossed the outer Tay estuary towards Arbroath (where Ann used to work as a Nursery Nurse) - with a distant view of the Bell Rock lighthouse several miles off shore.
A fresh breeze just off the nose, meant we couldn't sail - but motored quickly North East. We passed Ferryden (where we lived when first married) and Montrose, before passing the Fishing Villages of Johnshaven and Gourdon, then Inverbervie - where Mum & Dad and brother Paul and his wife Shona used to run "Bervie Ironmongers".
Although
we'd planned to spend the night at Stonehaven, we decided to make use of the
good going - and continue North, passing the busy Oil Port of Aberdeen (which
doesn't welcome yachts) to at least Peterhead. There was a stream of Oil
Service boats going into Aberdeen as a large Dolphin joined us for 10 minutes
riding our bow-wave.
The evening forecast brought no better news, so we took the decision to carry on overnight and use the light winds to escape the exposed coast. The seas turned extremely sloppy again near Buchan Ness just south of Peterhead - even though the wind was relatively light. Our guess is again that the north-bound tide, against the North East swell, was kicking them up - Yeugh. Anyway, conditions moderated after passing Rattray Head - and we went into night-watch mode as we travelled west along the Moray Firth. Fog soon descended, so we didn't see much of it!
Awoke
to lighter winds - and gradually improving visibility. We'd plenty of hot
water from all the motoring - so the crew restored humanity with a nice hot
shower, and some fresh baked bread for breakfast re-energised us. There was no
sign of our dolphin friends at Channonry Point - so we carried the tide up under
Kessock Bridge and into the canal at Clach-na-Harry Sea Lock. Progress
through the lock was rather slow - we were with a local Scottish yacht, one from
Denmark outbound on a four year round-the-world trip, and one, we think, from one the the
ex Soviet-block countries.
We tied up in the Seaport Marina, Inverness at 2:40pm - after 177 nautical miles on the log.
We declared Monday a rest day :-).