This cruise will provide plenty of pilotage practice. In the days when trading and fishing was done under sail, most vessels used drying berths, and before the advent of steam dredgers and gated basins this was normal practice in even the larger ports. Toggle Sidebar. Beyond Duncansby Head, Scotland’s north coast offers virtually no shelter from northerly winds or waves and the normal coastal track passes through the Pentland Firth, a notorious patch of water. With that in mind we secure the boat, catch the train to Belfast and arrange our passage home to Lewes in Sussex. Row ashore and follow footpaths up the valley, through meadows beside the Caul Bourne stream to the high ground that overlooks the estuary. Be sure to have the excellent Clyde Cruising Club Pilots and a good set of charts. Topping-up little and often keeps the main tank close to full, so that we never waste time on a diversion to a marina hose. We don’t want to be trying to thread our way through this in a wind-against-tide situation. Fresh bread can be baked on board and if the boat has no oven a closed pan will do the job. There is diesel in Port Ellen but only in cans so yet again I am grateful for the size of Start Me Up’s tanks. This expedition is not particularly difficult, provided the boat is seaworthy and the skipper reasonably competent. Pushing north past Lowestoft, we are faced with a very different scenario. �߽��m��]e�����u� �����(Nt-�+�Mε���\�nl^��(!���HS1#ja�q�M��AY殺��TU��x��4f�[�&��
O�\e�+ �j�6��_�I�R����{�S] 0�UM��ńVJ���*�m�Q�vnED�. On our third and last night in Kinlochbervie, we eat on board but are told by the bar staff to come up to the pub anyway as The Trooters are playing. Our mission to circumnavigate the UK in my 27ft Rhea 850 is on track and much to my personal relief we have made it round the feared north coast of Scotland to the relatively safe haven of Kinlochbervie. This is understandable and yet gales rarely cause surprises as they are normally forecast well in advance. Buying food, in remote places such as north Scotland, is less of a problem than it used to be since small supermarkets have been established in many villages. However some aspects of design and equipment deserve attention. Of the latter, North Voe of Gletness, West Lunna Voe, Easter Wick of Fethaland and Hamnavoe were our favourites. It looks fairly boring on paper but Mary and I have been going up and down the South Coast for more than 40 years and by last summer had called at every harbour except one. Wide Scapa Flow, which gives access to Stromness Marina, was an important naval anchorage in two world wars. The whole of the east coast of England and Scotland is exposed to easterly winds, with only a few protected estuaries, and the best conditions for covering distance will probably be in a southwesterly airflow or southeasterly sea breezes. As an occasional visitor to this zone, I reckon its main attraction is the quiet, unpretentious cosiness of its riverside towns and villages. The enthralling marine museum at Harolds Wick and the spectacular Hermaness Nature Reserve should not be missed. Across the British Isles the prevailing winds are from the south-west, which looks good for sailors on the eastern and northern coasts, in the lee of the land. Starting Saturday May 31st, two sailors from Thornbury Sailing Club in Gloucestershire, UK, aim to sail an open boat around mainland Britain in record time. Strand Quay, in Rye, East Sussex, with yachts gathering for the annual Maritime Festival. Portsoy, on the Moray Firth, is an ancient harbour that holds an annual festival for classic boats. The British-designed Wayfarer is a popular family day-boat, though its seaworthiness means that it can be trusted to venture out into open waters. The north-west zone is more remote for people with short holidays, bearing in mind that a couple of Atlantic depressions can trap you there for a week or more, and a proportion of the yachts on passage through this zone will be from Holland or Germany, undertaking summer-long cruises and in no particular hurry. Of course, for a boat at anchor a decent tender is a prime requirement – one that can be launched and recovered without hassle. In July 1964, two men set off in a dinghy to sail from Scotland to Norway. Most of the present harbours were originally constructed for vessels that relied upon sail power, and visiting them on a sailing boat is like travelling by time machine. Each could serve as a temporary base for part or all of a season, with ample opportunities for local sailing or holiday excursions to adjoining areas. Whiskey in the Jar by Thin Lizzie is easily the most popular tune of the evening. Pros. Yes, it has rivers serving as boat parks and yes, many moorings are expensive, but we return frequently to our favourite spots and reflect that they are as good as anything we have seen elsewhere. Atlantic swell is most prominent around south-west England and Wales, and on the exposed flanks of western and southern Ireland. This expedition is not particularly difficult, provided the boat is seaworthy and the skipper reasonably competent. We slip our lines and exit the inner harbour, making our way down the beautiful Camel estuary past the buoy marking the Doom Bar and out into the open sea. Rounding Cape Wrath, the most north-westerly point of the British mainland, they had to time their passage to avoid the possibility of being hit by bombers practising in a military firing range. "In summary, life on board a Wayfarer at sea is cramped," said Kirk. This means that in fine weather the winds near the coast will often display a bias towards blowing anticlockwise around the land. This is part five of Phillip Davies and Nigel Boutwood’s round Britain adventure.