Sun Dog

On Friday morning we set out for Campbeltown with the forecast being; wind east backing north east F4/5 occassional 6. Visibility was pretty poor, but looked like the sun might burn it off eventually.

Passing Lady Isle we noticed a fishing boat that looked a bit peculiar, our came the binoculars aand the reason why she was looking peculiar was that she was up on the rocks !! We had not heard anything on the VHF and assumed that they were waiting on high tide to try and refloat – fingers crossed.

Being on a broad reach we were having a terrific sail with the wind increasing as we cut past the Island of Pladda (off the south of Arran) Sara and Eilidh were taking turns on the helm and I was trimming the sails. To be honest there wasn’t much trimming required and it gave me time to relax in the cockpit and enjoy the sunshine. The only boat we saw, was a motor boat that passed us also on going to Campbeltown – no sails to be seen anywhere – and this a bank holiday weekend!

On we went until we were passing Davaar Lighthouse and into Campbeltown Loch

and down to the single pontoon which was really busy, and we were directed to go in the inside of the pontoon and raft alongside a UFO34 to leave space for older wooden boats. Turns out there was an Old Gaffers Associations meeting, and there were some really stunning boats. Sends a shiver down my spine when I think of the money and how many mandays must be spent ever year on these boats to keep them in this condition. Full credit to each and everyone of them as they are in actual fact maintaining part of our maritime heritage. There was even a full wooden Twister not composite or fibreglass – fully varnished – and from memory she was called Dream Twister, she must have been one of the originals. I should have taken photos’. Note to self – think!!

Next morning the forecast was much the same and we exited Campeltown Loch to headed up Kilbrannan Sound in a wind against tide situation, heading for Loch Ranza on the North West corner of Arran. It’s fair to say that by the time we arrived Sun Dog has an overall coating of salt ! Eilidh was at the helm most of the way as Sara was feeling a wee bit squiffy. Note to self – get some sea sickness tablets onboard.

We picked up a mooring buoy in Lock Ranza and had a late lunch, whereby the decision was made to stay the night on this mooring, so on with another line to the buoy – along with a silent thank you to the local authority for providing these facilities.

Loch Ranza is delightful, however it is well known for the squalls coming down off the mountains and sweeping across the Loch, and indeed I was awakened at 0400 by a really strong squall blowing though, and so pleased I had decided to double up on the lines.

After breakfast we were getting ready to head for Colintaraive to meet up with Roger and Hilary who have just refurbished the interior of Ducier their Nicholson 35, and had been on the phone saying they would be there today. The wind had increased and I was mulling over whether to put a reef in the main or go with full main – most yachts were going out either single or double reefed, but Sun Dog being a motorsailer has a shortish mast and therefore not a very large sail area on the main. Decision made I put in a reef on the mooring before setting off from the mooring buoy.

The seas were a bit lumpy and the wind increasing in strength of the north end of Arran, Sara was at the helm (feeling a lot better) and she did a super job on the helm through this lumpy stuff, while I again trimmed the sails – I was a bit busier today! Unfortunately Eilidh had agravated an old neck shoulder injury and was in a fair amount of pain and discomfort, the rockin’ and rollin’ the day before would not have helped! Note to self – get some painkillers onboard!

The sail across was terrific and we could, in reality have shaken out the reef – but didn’t. On the way across to the West Kyle we could see up Loch Fyne and saw the boats from the Scottish Series sailing down each side of the Loch in a flood of sail and colourful spinnakers.

We continued to sail all the way up the West Kyle in company with quite a number of other boats, and when the wind was stronger we caught up on the single/double reefed modern boats, and when the winds went lighter we lost out……….it really was a fun and enjoyable sail to the top of the Loch where we dropped sails and Sara took us through the narrows at Burnt Islands and we managed to pick up a mooring right behind Roger and Hilary.

I noticed that Roger had his dinghy inflated and he was “volunteered” as Mr Water Taxi (he was to much of a gent to refuse) for us to have a look at the work they have done on Doucier. We were all impressed and she is looking really really pretty, in fact I would have to say that she must be one of the best kept Nicholson 35’s around. Later that night Roger & Hilary joined us aboard Sun Dog for a lovely meal prepared by Sara and Eilidh (don’t know how they managed to conjure this up – well done ladies) and had a lovely time getting up to date with each other…..smashing.

Next morning we set off at 0600 and trundled down the East Kyle in calm conditions – perfect for breakfast and coffee before getting out into Rothesay Bay where there would be enough wind to sail. Indeed we ended up having a terrific sail down to Troon and we were all pleased to see that the fishing boat had managed to get off the rocks at Lady Isle.

All in all I would have to say that this was the best “sailing” weekend we have had with Sun Dog, and whilst she is not a “gung ho macho boat” she does manage to tick a lot of boxes not least of which is comfort and shelter from the biting winds – and we are increasingly of the opinion that she is eminently suitable for our type of “boating”…….Roll on the hols!!

When we got into Troon I decided to fill up the fuel tanks as it’s been some time since this was last done. After refuelling I done the calculation on ltrs/hour and was once again delighted to see that she is still only using 2.5lts per hour – or in old money slightly over half a gallon per hour. Pretty decent figures for a 92hp engine !

I crewed for my friends, John & Sue Allison in the 2007 ARC on their Hanse 461. Below is a copy of the blog entries (we all took turns) that we made during the trip with midday positions, distance covered etc.

There is also a link to Swagman’s blog under the “Blogroll” .

Before setting off, Sara and I had a bit of a holiday in Gran Canaria, staying at the Santa Catalina Hotel, (best one in the area for anyone considering the ARC) so that we could get a bit of R&R, whilst at the same time helping to get Swagman prepared. I also attended some of the seminars organised by World Cruising Club – and these proved to be very informative and thought provoking.

During this time and for some reason best known to herself, Sara wanted to get winched up to the top of Swagman’s mast (I hate heights) which is some 60ft +……….and it’s fair to say I was having apoplexy whilst all this was going on !!

Sara having a breather on the top spreader !!

For God’s sake hold on !! – at the second spreader

Shot of Swagman taken by Sara…..I’m the one prostrate on the pontoon !!

One of the common places to visit is Columbus’s house……this is a bit tenuous as going round the property you find out that he simply visited the Governor of the Island to pay his respects and ask for a joiner to make a new rudder for one of his boats, however it is a beautiful property with a lovely courtyard. Interesting fact was that Columbus took some 34 days to sail from Gran Canaria to the Carribean.

One of the boats taking part was Heartbeat – a truly stunning yacht.

With all the perparations complete we had an excellent final night with John and Sue, with Sara then flying back home the next day, and me boarding Swagman the day before the start. As we had mostly everything complete apart from a few deliveries, the day was kind of relaxing, with the excitement bubble building.

Swagman’s skipper and crew (L to R) John Sue and me.

The following is a copy of the midday blog entry as entered on the trip – with some additional photographs etc

Swagmans Log Day 1 Off to a Flying (but then very wet) Start

We had already decided to take it easy on the start line. With 2,900 to cover, best not to risk a collision just to get in the pictures. We set ourselves up with a full main and were prepared to run away before the gusting northerly winds with a poled out genoa. The race fleet, which left 20 minutes before, all adopted a port gybe out of their start and headed off seaward. The vast majority of the cruiser fleet copied this strategy. We elected to cross mid line on port, and it was not too crowded, but when we found a huge Oyster plonking itself off our stern, we took advantage of the northerly wind gusts, gybed over onto starboard, re-set the pole on the other side and and off we went rocking due south at 9 knots, almost parallel to the coast. Only a few others followed this route, as the famed acceleration zone where winds increase by 15 to 20 knots, exist close to shore only 15 miles south.

Our course decision paid off. Despite hitting the zone with full main and effecting, (a) broach, (b) second broach and (c) third broach and near divorce, we managed to tuck in the first reef just as a squall and its accompanying torrential downpour rolled over us. Very very wet bunnies.

But the boat loved it all. We topped 12 knots in the gusts and made good progress southward as the rest of the fleet disappeared in the rain behind us.

No one was more surprised than us when emerging into sunshine and then rounding the end of the island to head south west, we found ourselves in front of a goodly portion of not just the cruiser big boats, but also some of the race fleet that had left 20 minutes before! Could not help it and took shots of the Volvo 60 that then caught up and slowly slid past us. We did get a wave.

The evening saw us slide across the so called wind shadows existing south west of both Gran Canaria and Tenerife, but it was only for minutes that we ever saw less than 15 knots of breeze, all now coming from the north east. It did however give us a chance to re-launch the spinnaker after a year or so in the sail locker. Interesting as the breeze went from 10 knots at hoist, to 25 knots once set!

The night saw us running 3 hour watches but as usual first night out, we were all over the place and only a few hours sleep was gained by each. Suspect I got the most sleep. Winches rattled as reefs went in and out as the wind gusted at times to 30 knots then fell back to 20s, and the swooping motion you feel just before the boat broaches and tries to tumble you our of your bunk, is guaranteed to keep only the exhausted wide awake.

Daylight saw us closing a position 60 miles (almost) due south of the most western Canary Island, Hierro. Our 1200 position today which we are required to report to ARC by email, was 26 21.7N, 18 11.529W.

It shows we have a useful 195 miles in the 23 hours since the start, and we are still trucking along OK. Extended by our current speed, it should give us a 205 mile in 24 hours recording. Average speed therefore 8.5 knots. No engine used at all.

When Sue updates this tomorrow and we are doing it in rotation and she’ll cover this afternoon and evening as well.

Great to be sailing and apart from morning grumps due to lack of sleep all are fine and well.

Love from Sue, Gerry and John

JOHN ALLISON

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Swagman Log Day 2 Rollicking Along

Re John’s log yesterday, we had a fast rollicking ride for the first 24 hours. The boat was rollicking, I was rollicking. I rollicked from table to chairs, I rollicked out of the heads when the door flew open, and I rollicked out of my bed when the boat broached. The washing up after dinner (chicken curry made for me by a lass from Swansea before the start), ended up on the galley floor, the milk from the Weetabix went into the bowl one side, and out onto the floor on the other, this morning more milk washed down my shorts and onto the floorboards. God knows what the bilge is going to smell like by the time we reach the other end. I cannot begin to count the bruises I’m accumulating. Gerry said he should have bought me a blow up Sumo Wrestling suit, I could have bounced my way around below. BUT when we got the positions through for the first 24 hours, FANTASTIC, at the first 24 hour sked we were lying in 23rd position. In front of many of the race division boats, what a blast, I’ve told John that temporarily the caravan and the divorce are on hold.
Wind is easier now and the seas not so large, sailed through the night in company with two other boats, but this am, cannot see them on the horizon. The engine is running to recharge batteries, the watermaker is running, I’ve had a good sleep and I was allowed to have a shower (A girl dispensation), and all is well with the world.

Love from Sue, Gerry and John

Position as at 1200 on 27/11/2007 was 25 41.20N, 021 25.126W. Distance run in last 24 hours 185 miles, average velocity made good of 7.7 knots. No engine hours.

SUE ALLISON

Swagman Log – Day 3 What a blast!

Sue wasn’t wrong when she said about rollicking along, how she managed to cook us hearty meals in trying conditions is beyond me. If I had to go down to the galley it would have been snack bars and cans of juice for breakfast, lunch, and evening meals
We have been having a terrific sail however and have been munching up the miles. I am certain that if John and Sue had a full race crew instead of just little ol’ me, they would have been able to squeeze even more performance out of the boat.

Sue currently holds the official speed record which is only between us, we don’t include John, (but don’t tell him) of some 11.3 kts. Prize at the end to yet to be decided, but we will think of something appropriate.

Late in the afternoon we had our first brief sight of Atlantic dolphins, as a fair number of them approached us like missiles from our starboard side and then turned onto our course within even the courtesy of stopping to play in our bow wave. I have never seen dolphin travel at such a speed, they shot out of the water like a bar of wet soap being squeezed by Neptunes hand. I guess they were on a food hunt and had no time to stop and play, and whilst this only lasted a few minutes, it was amazing and even John put the boat on autopilot to have a look.

Love to family and friends

Position at 12.00 on 28/11/07 was 25 17 N 24 34W. Distance run in the last 24 hours was 173 miles, with an average VMG of 7.2 knots and 0 engine hours.

GERRY PENTLETON

Swagman Log Day 4 Magic and Mishaps

John back on the keyboard. It’ been a 24 hours with a bit of both magic and mishap in this 24 hour period. Early morning saw us continueing WSW basically down the great circle route towards St Lucia, under cloudy skies with occasional rain spatters. By late morning it had cleared up, and with the wind still shifting back and forth around ENE at 20 knots, we managed to keep up a goodly pace (for a cruiser with half the Canary Islands groceries and grog on board, that is). Magic boat.

The ocean around us have been absolutely empty. No sign of any other participant or anything else for that matter. The three of us have settled into a lovely easy routine lots of laughs – shared memories and stories. Just great. Magic crew.

Have in this period been better able to stay in a straight line with solid 15 – 20 knots of breeze and gusts over 25 knots coming from behind. We were hopeful we might set a higher 24 hour run figure this day, but when eagle eyed Gerry spotted a metre long rip in our mainsail luff around 1700 and we knew our hopes were dashed.

It was an interesting exercise sewing it up whilst strapped around the mast base not exactly a real neat job. Sue reefed the main to give us a chance to get at the rip and Gerry and I sewed away almost inverted, as the boat continued to rock along downwind. It was dark by the time we’d finished, so we elected to continue through the night just with reefed main plus poled out genoa and live with the temporary loss in miles covered.

This is a photograph taken a few days later when we were patching on top of the repair carried out previously, and in much calmer conditions.

We re-sewed on the other side after dawn and then re-hoisted, but the night sail combo forced upon us proved not too bad. It is actually a nicely balanced formula and we have still managed to top 9.5 knots despite us nursing the damage but to do so we’ve two on deck at all times – so it’s meant reduced slumber all round.

Regarding our direction which we see is at variance with a lot of the others, we’ve taken a great circle route aiming for now directly at St Lucia, whilst the race fleets stayed north and west looking for more wind, and the majority of cruisers have headed SW. We like the racers want stronger winds, but we also know there is a risk heading west relatively slowly in hitting the remains of a low pressure trough which was straddling this route. It is breaking up, and the part that’s remained is still 600 miles south west, but as we’re unsure what conditions we will find if we reached it, we are hedging our bets. So far it has worked out but there are lots of miles to cover.

We are hoping the Azores high now building will cause our NE winds to swing E as we get further south west, and our plan is that when that happens, we willl gybe and get more south to duck under the remains of that trough, and finally a couple of days later, we will gybe again and head due west for St Lucia under spinnaker.

Well that’s at least the plan but hey, they are made for changing!

Love and kisses to all from Sue, Gerry and John.

JOHN ALLISON

Swagman Log Day 5 Highs and Lows of the sailing life

Last night was very tiring, the boat was rocking and rolling, sleep was impossible, we were all fractious and over tired. Some sleep in relays this morning and we are all fine. The weather is warming up and the wind fair. Added to the assortment of fungus deposited in the bilge in the galley, add two gin and tonics, sent flying off the worktop after preparation. What a waste! I’ve also smashed into the guard rail around the top of the stove and bent it inwards and for my troubles, got two more lovely bruises on my hips. We have just espied another boat, the first for the last three days, a 44 ft catamaran. Had a chat with then on the VHF, they have been busy catching fish, but I have decided not to cast my lures, which cost me a fortune in the UK, cause I’m afraid of catching Dolphin, my lures are so big. Saw more dolphin today, plus flying fish and birds flying low over the ocean this far out we have covered 1,000 miles since leaving Gran Canaria. The spinnaker went up this afternoon, but a 25 knot squall with rain in it saw us trying to get it in very quickly. It ended up with the three of us lying on top of it to stop it going overboard, and then stuffing it un bagged down the forward head hatch.
I got to add HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my younger son Robert for today. We wish that he and elder son Alex were with us now. Think they would find it a blast.
They say this is not a race but a cruising in company rally BUT we are glued to the radio when the position reports come in, and either dejected and then finding we are determined to push harder. Or we are elated and equally determind to push harder. I have to keep repeating the mantra “we are just a cruising boat“… but John simply ignores this view.

Our noon position today was 24 30N, 31 11W. We covered 185 miles in the past 24 hours, with zero time under engine, so have an average VMG of 7.7 knots.

Love to all

SUE ALLISON

Swagman Log Day 6 What a belter.

What a fantastic days sailing with at times sizeable waves and when on the helm and sitting on top of some of them it felt like being on the roof of a house, charging down a hill, driving a big shiny blue Mac truck!

With us making such good progress running repairs had to be done under way and this meant John and I up at the mast bouncing about (whilst strapped on). We had conducted most of the repairs when John said “be careful with that pin Gerry it’s the only one I have on board” no pressure then !!

Had a couple of flying fish land on the boat today, with one almost hitting John on the head boy would that have been funny as he hates them!!

Again Sue has been a star in meal preparation albeit last night we were charging so hard and getting through squalls that it was a hurried affair – but tasty non the less.

We altered course earlier today to avoid the forecast 50 kt winds as they could really spoil one’s day..and more to the point may mean snack bars and cans of juice instea of nice hot meals!

Stories are coming in about a boat diverting to Cape Verdes and another had a MOB but recovered him safely.

We are still sailing with excellent breeze and I’m glad to say that Mr Yanmar is only on to charge the batteries otherwise the heat in my cabin would be unbearable. It’s just getting hotter the further south we go.

I left the inner hatch open last night and in the middle of my sleep (if that’s what it could be called) I was wakened by a big dollop of water straight on top of me!..Sue was on watch and had taken a fair amount of water over into the cockpit during a big stern wave slap c’est la vie.

Our noon position today was 20 16N, 35 30W. We covered just over 200 miles in the past 24 hours which is a superb result. So have an average VMG of 8.4 knots.

Love to family and friends.

Gerry

Swagmans Log Day 7 Hunting some wind on the south side of the course

Since noon yesterday we’ve been heading south west, looking to dip that further 300 miles south before taking up a new heading due west for St Lucia.

Skull and Crossbones is Anteater Blues another Hanse 461 fully crewed and in the racing division.

As explained before, it’s to avoid the low that straddled our old course, and also its attendant light wind area sitting to the south of it, that makes us have to do this.
It means by the time we get to St Lucia our course is going to look a bit like a big reverse Z but with luck it should keep us in reasonable breezes most of the way and moving. I don’t care which way we go to get there, as long as we go quickly!
The full sail wardrobe has now been aired. Our symmetrical spinnaker as been giving us some good speeds for most of this last 24 hours, and it was only mid arvo when we needed to replace it with our Code 0 headsail to make further southing when the wind dropped under 10 knots and veered further. Again a super bit of mylar and tape allowing us to make 7 knots in less than 10 knots of true breeze!
The suns got so hot this afternoon we’ve even accepted we are kinda cruisers, and hauled up the bimini. Blessed shade and needed as today were celebrating our crossing of the half way point. It seems odd. What with hot sun, .flat sea, warm breezes, spinnaker flying, boat sliding along nicely, and us all with glasses charged and sippin cold wine. It’s definitely not a race right now.

Our noon position today was 18 44N 38 03W. We’ve covered 171 miles since midday yesterday, and all under sail.

Lotsa love to everyone from Sue, Gerry and John

John Allison

Swagman Log Day 9 Now Here’s the Rub

Being cruisers, we were happy to say Good Luck, give them hell to the other Hanse 461 , Anteater Blues, owned by Phil and Robbie from Perth crewed with their son and three of his racing sailing mates. (Perth being our old home town. BUT, by going west at the start, they went south we got the jump on them and have been in front of them for the last eight day, which of course has made us work all the harder to keep in front. At the position reports today they have caught up with us through the night, and are running parallel with us, albeit they are 100 miles further north. We have been reducing sail through the nights as we are only one person on watch. Now Here’s the Rub – Do we congratulate ourselves that we have sailed so well so far keeping a racing boat with six crew at bay, OR do we go for it with just the three of us and give it our best shot. If we decide to go for it, we will have to sail two up in the night to keep the spinnaker flying, and there are squalls forcast for the next few days. SO what’s it to be? Watch this space!

Sue

Our noon position today was 17 16N 40 24W, so we covered 160 miles (ED: in pretty light conditions). BUT we used the engine for 2 hours 30 minutes a factor they will compute into our results.

Swagman Log Day 10 Wea’ve Found the Trade Winds

Sue here. After yesterday’s slow ride and the good showing of Anteater Blues where she nudged 2 miles ahead of us (if you take the distance to St Lucia) , we have finally had a day we’re pleased with. We are now into the trade winds proper, getting steady 20 knot, gusting 25s up our bum. We have the spinnaker up and we are flying, getting 9.5 -10s. Trouble is while I can handle the kite most of the time, I’m nervous of the squalls and gusts that are coming through and therefore will not let John leave the cockpit. It’ss going to be a long day for him. At nights we will now drop the kite and sail with a poled out genoa the same as we did last night. Even with that reduced rig, we were getting 7 /8 knots of boat speed, which is fine. It’ss safe. We can just take in some headsail if we get prolonged squalls, and still keep trucking on.
Had a problem with our faithful auto pilot in the middle of last night. The alarm went off, and the autohelm switched itself off. It is now working again, but showing our reciprocal heading, i.e. the boat is going forward backwards on the plotter screen, and while we are sailing about 260/270 degrees the digital compass shows a heading of 75 degrees. Very strange, but at least the autohelm is still working and can take over when we get tired. We love sailing, but do not want to hand steer for the next week until Rodney Bay.
It’s getting very warm now, it’s boiling down below,and sleep is becoming very difficult. We do not have the bimini (up as we need to see the spinnaker to rim it continually) so we are all lathered up with sunscreen and frying up like sausages.

That apart, all is well. Feel as if we are on the home run now.

Sue

Noon position was 15 58N 43 01W. Zip engine hours. Distance run 175 miles.

Swagman Log Day 11 Gear Failure (Sort Of)

Had our first major failure today the outfall from the back dunny (toilet) holding tank is completely blocked. I wont go into too many details, but a mighty plunge on the toilet pump with the deck level holding tank port opened, saw a chocolate fountain erupt like Vesuvius down the starboard side of the aft deck. Poor Gerry who was standing close by got a shock. He went very grey and quiet. John came up took one look and got the giggles (not surprising knowing his level of toilet humour). It was a major clean up operation with the spinnaker still flying, the autohelm taking control, before 20 knots of breeze, It took copious buckets, plus the deck wash pump, to remove the mess – all the while and rocking and rolling downwind. FYI the holding tank outlet is still blocked, and I am refusing all male rights to use My Toilet at the front of the boat. They have buckets they can use – or they can snap on the marigolds – and get it fixed up.

It’s getting very hot and sticky, and a special treat last might was a shower in the cockpit at the end of the day when the spinnaker came down. Followed by a STIFF gin and tonic.

We are now running low on fruit and veg, it has all ripened at the same time, and everyday I have to go through it and throw the rotten stuff away. We’ve thrown more than we’ve eaten. And we’ve eaten lots.

Love to all Sue

John here. Our noon position today saw us at 15 27N, 46 02W, with zero engine hours. We have done well and appear to have squeeked in front of Anteater Blues and they are almost parallel 150 miles to our north but most importantly 5 miles behind. Tomorrows is another day.

Swagman Log Day 12 What a beautiful dawn (but a bad one for sailing)

Johns back. After a super run yesterday where we bowled along before 20 knot NNE lies and collapsed at dusk feeling we had done our bit to stay ahead of Anteater, this morning early (circa 0200) the winds all died away. Overnight the guys have decided man (and woman)fully to share the night watches between them allowing me virtually uninterrupted slumber so I can resume solo helming in what were promised to be even fresher conditions on Friday.

So when I awoke just before dawn, and found we were down to only just over 4 knots boat speed under our night rig of reefed main and poled out genoa, I knew our advantage may have been forfeit.

Immediately dawn broke and it was absolutely beautiful all pinks, blues, white and grey colours overlaid with the golden sun coming up over the horizon behind us we scrambled to get our spinnaker out and working. It did help. We teased Swagman up to around 6 knots and managed to keep her around that pace until our midday schedule for position reporting eagerly awaited so we could see if we had done enough yesterday to retain our lead. We were not hopeful, but did have fingers crossed. We were right. Anteater had enjoyed (???) 30 knots of breeze for some 14 hours yesterday evening and last night. It allowed them to gain and now actually lead us by 4 or 5 miles, albeit they are still 100 miles north.

We spoke on the radio, and it seems they were just entering a softer patch – so who knows? Maybe this arvo we’ll get some stronger winds and leapfrog back in front? Maybe Sue will go mad and kill me so she can put the bimini back up and get some shade from this roasting sun? Maybe Gerry will mutiny if he does not get proper toilet rights? Maybe we will keep going and get back in front. But now only 690 odd miles to St Lucia so heads are still up.

Our noon position was 15 20N 4907W, have not used the engine except for battery charging, and covered 178 in past 24 hours. Average VMG of 7.41.

Love and kisses to all

John, Sue and Gerry

Swagman Log Day 13 Unlucky for some

Including us. Had a frustrating afternoon yesterday where we had to work really hard to even achieve 6 knots. It was hot (no bimini up due to spinnaker trimming needs), we are all getting tired, and the finish line albeit now 500+ miles over the horizon seems a long way off.

As the winds were light until dusk and the autohelm easily handled the steering most of the day, it was agreed I’d re-enter the night watch pattern this day. I went for a snooze after supper and as I tucked down, we sere slipping along nicely under full main and poled out genoa making just over 6 knots in a gentle but freshening breeze.

When I awoke to change over with Gerry at midnight, the wind had risen to a solid 20 knots, and gusts were making the rigging howl at 10 knots more. Rain was flowing down like a tropical storm (well what did we expect, eh?), and the boat being closed up because of that, was hot and humid.

The genoa had already been furled away and the pole left on the mast, so we ran around with our little head torches like mini miners, swiftly turned the boat to windward, tucked in a single reef, turned away downwind and rolling out a portion of the genoa with the pole creamed off on our course to St Lucia in the pitch black night. Squalls rolling through from behind were obvious as the blocked the stars but what we could never guess was the increase in wind that accompanied each one.

Sheet lightening illuminated a glassy looking sea with big swells sort of grumbling though. Swagman lifted her tail to the gusts, and sometime early hours she topped 11.7 knots rattling along across this strange oily sea. We learnt later that the rest of the fleet north of us were hammered by even stronger winds and this mornings email bulletins showed a list of damage to both people and craft.

Dawn for us saw a spectacular rainbow from horizon to horizon like a big arch we sailed under. Awesome. The colours were so vivid they could have come from a paint pallet.

Anyway. Ended up by midday radio sked feeling pretty good with a 175 miler in the 24 hours the extra pressure during the night allowing us to keep in the competition.

Anteater herself has used the wind angels to slowly close the north / south devide between us. At noon she reported she was around 40 miles north of our line, and it seems from positions given, she has something like 506 miles to go, we have 515. Only nine miles in it so plenty to play for and we jumped around to swop sails and try to crank another .001 knot of speed to try and close that gap. But luck is definitely not with us today as we have just sailed into a hole in the weather, and a virtual calm.

Blisters.

JOHN

Our noon position was 15 10N, 52 09W. Covered 175 miles, nil use of engine.

Swagman Log Day 14 Our Fat Lady is Singing

Afraid to say our unfair advantage (ie we in the cruiser division are allowed to use the engine) has led to us declaring Anteater Blues (in the racing division so unable to use theirs) the winner in our impromptu race twix our two Hanse 461s. Silly thing is they probably don’t even know we were trying to beat them in!
But as at noon 9th December they were 10 miles closer to St Lucia and it looks like we’re now both in the same wind patterns. So facts are they’ve done really well, and we hope they feature in the racing division results.
We’re possibly the most southerly yacht out here, and today struggled all morning with winds as low as 4 knots from behind. It’s not been bad when it gusted to 7 +, as we then flew our code 0 – which still stuns us all by giving us 7 knots of boatspeed in 7 knots of true wind! But code 0 up then down, spinnaker up then down, code 0 etc finally wore us out and by late arvo it was back down at times to 3 or 4 knots and sailing around in donuts trying to get some speed. It was about then that the lure of rum punches on the dockside seemed slightly more interesting than out-sailing a fellow Hanse owner – who is after all in another division.
So on went the engine for 4.5 hours to help us move further along our line and hopefully towards some stronger breezes. It would have been great o lead them in if we had not used our engine, but because we have we can’t think about claiming any form of win against Ants.
However, if you discount the catamaran, racing and big boat invitation divisions, we are in 15th place on the water. Not bad as most in front at much bigger yachts, and who knows, maybe some of those used their engines also for more than we have.
We’re got back into some breeze albeit only 7 knots before dawn broke, so engine went off and we slipped smoothly down the rhumb line for the final 400 miles.
Midday today with cold beers under a shady bimini, over flat seas, rattling along with code 0 drawing us at 7 -8 knots, felt good. Seems this cruising does have something going for it:-) JOHN

Our noon position was 14 54N 54 52W. We’d covered 155 miles so average VMG was 6.4 knots.

Swagman Log Day 15 We Can Almost Smell Land

Sue

Today is our final full day at sea, we should arrive St. Lucia tomorrow, only one more dinner to cook, one more night shift at 3.00 am, one more night sleeping in an oven with damp, sticky sheets. How do I feel, excited at the prospect of arriving on terra firma, the rum punch awaiting and a huge lobster salad for dinner tomorrow night,stories to tell and listen to, but I also feel a tinge of sadness, it’s been a trip we have been planning for so long, and the three of us have got into our own little routine in our own little world. The sailing has been spectacular for the most part, except the times when there has been no wind, and I’ve been energised, excited and nervous by turn. Would I do it again? Absolutely YES.

Love to all Sue xx

Gerry’s Entry

From my perspective the trip has had all the aspects I thought it might have, with some 150 miles to go we are being a bit reflective on the trip and without doubt my highlights (apart from the amount learned) include charging downhill with full main and poled out headsail sitting on top of the sizeable swells and looking down into the holes really amazing ! Then to top that John taught me how to dive into the holes and across the wave for more speed what a feeling. The other main highlight was at the helm whilst sailing under spinnaker and surfing along at 10.8kts Sue has limited time left to get 10.9+.

Another aspect that has been interesting to observe and experience are the squalls that come through, in fact we were this morning sailing along in really hot sunshine and blue skies with the Code Zero giving us good speed with the breeze at around 8 kts.
We saw the squall coming in and no sooner had we dropped the Code Zero and got out some rolled up genny (we had full main still up) , that we found ourselves in torrential rain and 30 kts of breeze charging downhill with the combined efforts of the wind and rain flattening the seas.

I could go on for long enough about the trip but one observation I would make is when people refer to the ARC or indeed anyone crossing the Atlantic disparagingly as the Milk Run, they do need to have a re-think. Out of the boats crossing this year , including ARC and non ARC there have been reported –
Around 6-8 boats with damaged booms.
Two people evacuated onto a freighter and cruise liner respectively
One MOB successfully recovered
Two boats abandoned.
One boat sunk and crew rescued from their liferaft.
And probably more incidents that we are unaware of ..Some milk run.

All this without having recourse to any rescue facilities, such as calling on the RNLI or medics back home, whether sailing in the Solent or the Clyde.

John’s offshore race experience has obviously stood him in good staid, and it has been interesting for me to understand his strategy and see it all falling into place.

One more night of watches and then we should arrive tomorrow around midday (ish) and it will be strange to sleep on a level bunk without having to clamber out for a three hour watch.

Love to Family and Friends back home.

Gerry

At noon today we were at 14 37N, 57 43W, nil engine used. Distance covered in 24 hour was 179 miles so VMG to St Lucia averaged 7.46 knots.

Swagman Log Day 16 A Real Gale on to the finish line.

The afternoon saw us sailing in loose company with two larger yachts Northern Child (Swan 51) and One Too Many (a 66 footer) and we surprised ourselves by sticking with them until dusk. At times we were within 500 metres of one another as we struggled to keep up.

As night fell the winds eased and we decided to remain competitive by continuing with a full main and a fully poled out genoa. As a general rule the longer the boat the faster they go but during this, our last night, we managed to stick with them.

The winds were almost due east, with lots of squalls coming through at around 25 knots, but as we had left our bimini up from the day sailing, we did not get too wet when the rain pattered down. The boat was moving along nicely, but with a slight amount of north in the wind we found our line was taking us towards the lowest point of Martinique, 50 miles north of our target St Lucia.

We did gybe several times to see if we could lay the top of St Lucia on the other board, but going that way the best we could do was line up with the bottom of St Lucia so we ended up settled onto starboard gybe and all stayed up as we watched the loom of the lights on Martinique begin to glow on the horizon.

It was a special moment.

Dawn saw us still moving along nicely mainly due to our full main zipping us along before the squalls. Funny. When we started, you might recall we always reefed down at night for safety sake. Now on this last night we just wanted to get there quickly so carried every bit of canvas we could.

Anyway. It worked to keep us level with our two temporary sparring partners and as dawn broke and we could begin to see the size of the squalls coming up behind us we decided the extra pressure of wind might let us lay St Lucia on the port board so we gybed over. By then we had left Northern Child behind in the rain. All I wanted to do was stick with the 66 footer right to the line.

Our gybe was completed only just in time as the huge squall that then enveloped us from behind had some real sustained pressure in it. As Swagman took off still with full main but this time with only a scrap of genoa unfurled those winds howled in at close to 40 knots. Our 66 foot competitor was not so lucky. As we shot off towards St Lucia surfing each wave they struggled to reduce sail and gybe over to follow us.

Swagman’s wake at 15.8kts….!!

Within 10 minutes we had lost them too in the rain behind us and we hand steered the next five hours through that big squall to arrive off the top of St Lucia in quick time.

Our first glimpse of St Lucia…….for the more observant reader you will note the autopilot showing a course of 70 while we are actually heading 290; this was due to the electronics going a bit Pete Tong on the way over. We had the charplotter showing the boat going backwards to St Lucia, the wind coming from the reciprocal direction BUT, the autopilot was still working so we left this till we got into Rodney Bay.

Our fastest speed was seen as 15.8 knots but we actually averaged 10.1 knots for that last leg. Not sure if it was simply our good crew, or our full main, or our huge bimini which was still up and humming in the 40 knot gusts that saw us round the top of the island and in the shadow of the shoreline, turn upwind to cover the final half mile to the finish line.

Sue steered as we creamed up towards the finish boat with its big orange ARC flag and a photographer zoomed around us in his rib with camera clicking. Not sure what they thought about the bimini!

John and Sue at the Finish Line.

Our finish time was just after 1000 making us 37 over the line – out of 250 boats. And again, it you recall a majority of the 36 in front were either full race boats, or big cats, or invitation race boats I think we’ve done real well.

Mixed emotions dropping sails and entering Rodney Bay to a cacophony of sirens, horns and cheers from those already in. It was good to arrive, but it was also surprisingly sad to think we were ending a period, where the three of us who had bonded so well and worked so hard, were soon to be standing down.

On the way down the channel and into Rodney Bay Marina

For me, this was the single longest passage I’ve ever completed. The crew have been more than superb. They have both been fantastic. The boat has exceeded everything we asked of her. And we beat not just Anteater Blues but all the other 50 foot Hanses over the line also. Fabulous experience, albeit tiring with there only being three of us onboard.

Want to mention also all our family and pals who have kept supporting us on the trip with emails and messages. Its been additionally nice knowing others have been able to share our adventure and without that support, I doubt we would have pushed so hard.

So thanks, and bon boyage.

Photograph showing John and Sue receiving their prize from the Prime Minister of St Lucia.

And finally; no mention of St Lucia would be complete with a photograph of the World Famous Pitons.

Sara, Eilidh, and I went through to Sun Dog late on Friday night arriving around 22.30 – stowed the food etc, and then to sleep.

Forecast for week-end in SW v NW 3/4 occ 5.

Original pencil plan was to head for Campbeltown this week-end, but with the forecast we decided to head up to Colintraive which would give us a reach pretty much all the way.

When we left the marina around mid-day it was a SW F5, so one roll in the genny and full mainsail we went cracking along at around 6 kts until sadly, but not surprisingly, the wind eased for a time just south of the Cumbraes. Shortly beforehand Hilary had phoned to say that she and Roger were up on Doucier this week-end and invited us to join them and others on Sunday for a BBQ on one of the beaches around the Burnt Isles.

We persevered as we knew the wind would come back and just coming round into the Largs Channel the wind started to pick up again and off we went again, this time on a broad reach running about 5.5 kts and a bit more in the squalls – visibilty was poor. Once round the north of Big Cumbrae we were heading into the wind and it also decided to wain to around a F2/3 so we decided to motorsail and have a spot of lunch as we went along.

En route we saw “The Waverley” exiting the Kyles and heading for Rothesay – beautiful old boat;

In heading up the Kyles the sea state was calm, pretty much in line with the forecast, but the squalls off the hills were pretty strong and we had to ease the mainsheet a couple of times. As we neared Colintraive the winds eased and it ended up a lovely peaceful evening with us swinging on a mooring, run today of 31nm and really enjoyable.

Sunday morning and we awoke early to a lovely clear morning, which carried on into the afternoon. We nipped across in the dinghy and went for a walk via the Colintraive Hotel and then down to the Community Centre where there was some kind of festival taking place with live music, food stalls, kids running around having fun with a lot of smiling happy people and all this taking place under a blue sky – terrific.

We went back to the boat and whilst waiting on Roger and Hilary to arrive, what should appear going up the Kyles again but “The Waverley”, and as you can see by the numbers onboard she is still very popular.

We decided when they came alongside to pick us up, against joining Roger & Hilary for the BBQ, (we felt we might be gatecrashing) but were delighted when they agreed that they would join us when they returned – which they duly did and we had a really good night catching up and enjoying each others company. Hilary is very accomplished and has compiled a number of CD’s – see Celtic Music under Links

“Doucier”; Roger & Hilary’s Nicholson 35

(L to R )Sara, Roger, Hilary, & Me, taken by Eilidh

Eilidh also took this shot of the Moon above the ferry terminal – excellent composition;

Next morning it was up and away by 0800 and we had expected to see Roger fishing as he had promised to Hilary last night that he would be up catching her fresh fish for breakfast! . Guess “Plan B” took over. However we did motor over to say farewell, but there was no sign of life on Doucier only little bubbles containing zzzz zzzzz zzzzz noises emitting from Doucier

We had a cracking sail on the way back to Troon, but unfortunately Eilidh wasn’t feeling that great and was trying to stop a migraine developing fully. So we closed out as much light as possible and suggested she just lie down and get some rest/sleep and hope it passed. I get these periodically and they can be most debilitating, real shame for Eilidh.

This left Sara and I to sail Sun Dog, and we worked well as a team and I have to say that the macho part of me has to admit failure, as Sara is now the official holder of the (current) boat record of 6.5 kts through the water on a broad reach in a F4/5.

In truth I think we could even have squeezed a bit more out of the sails, but we were heading for a gap in the islands where the wind would have been increasing and possibly becoming a bit “squally” – so we stuck a roll in the genny again just for the sake of prudence.

This breeze stayed with us all the way down our SE course till a few miles out from the marina when it dropped back to around F3/4 which meant our speed dropped significantly, shame really, but we had enjoyed the sail immensely. Sun Dog may be an old motorsailer, but in the right conditions she fairly trots along.

On the way down we had passed a larger yacht that was going along with no main, and a genny that was well furled, just shows the difference from a few weeks ago when we were overtaken by a “Legend” that was using the same sail plan, whilst we had everything aloft. If nothing else we have realised that Sun Dog does need a bit of breeze to sail and she can carry all sail comfortably up to (at least) a F5.

I had also noticed some of the plastic clips that hold the foot of the sail to the boom had burst, they looked really old and had probably just lost out to the ravages of time and UV’s – therefore into the chandlery when we got back for a full compliment of new clips etc and had this all fixed out before leaving for home.

All in all a good week-end and we found out a little bit more about Sun Dog and her abilities, (along with ours for her) and so far I would have to say she is proving a great all rounder; and when she loses in certain areas she gains in others. I suppose it’s no different really to any type of boat – as all boats are a compromise somewhere along the line.

11th July 2007

Bowling to Colintriave

Having left Bowling we set off to motor down the Clyde (something I have longed to do for a long time) heading for Colintraive. I cannot explain why I felt so elated at this straightforward part of the journey but sometimes that’s just the way life is !

We were motoring along in sunshine, and shortly after leaving Bowling we were passing Dumbarton Rock which has a whole shed load of history attached.

When approaching Gourock we saw The Waverley crossing Holy Loch entrance – a magnificent old boat and recognised as the World’s only remaining Ocean going paddle steamer. Once round the corner I relinquished the helm and Eilidh almost took my hands off – she had been waiting a while !! We headed for Toward Point and then across the bay to the East Kyle and from there straight up to Colintaive. Nothing much happened on the way down – the sun shone – the sea was calm and the Porpoise were in hiding. Arrived in Colintraive, picked up a mooring at around 17.00 – everyone was a bit jaded so we decided not to go to the Colintraive Hotel for a meal, but to dine onboard and enjoy and savour the fact that Sun Dog had made it from Ipswich up the east coast – through the Forth & Clyde canal and was now in the West of Scotland.

12th July 2007

Colintraive – Tarbert Loch Fyne

Beautiful morning when we awoke, had a lazy breakfast and then went over to Caladh Harbour went around this small yet delightful spot………..this ” island circumnavigation” took all of five minutes, but it is seriously pretty with a lovely (small) protected anchorage.

In this photograph you can see the markers at both ends of the island.

From there we worked our way down the western side of the West Kyles to check out the mooring off the old Royal Hotel in Tighnabruich which has now changed it’s name to An Lochan, and it has a small landing pontoon for dingies – quite cool. A general meander in sunshine around Ardlamont Point with the sea like a millpond (we have seen it somewhat differently off Ardlamont before !!) and we had the odd glimpse of Porpoise and a Seal popped it’s head up to see who/what was disturbing the peace and quite!

Noticed on the way down the Loch that the wind instrument was reading diagonally opposite – realised we hadn’t moved this back (we had turned it around to go through the canal) before putting the mast back up – bosun’s chair job sometime soon – and slapped wrist for me!

Into Tarbert harbour and with us arriving early in the day we managed to get alongside the visitors pontoon. As the day progressed more and more yachts arrived and all ended up rafting. However, they either didn’t fancy our low freeboard or perhaps it was the black rubber moulding all round the hull, because we ended up with a raft of three astern and a raft of three forward.

We had to reprovision the boat so off we went to the Co-Op – back to the boat – showers etc – then out for a walk up to Tarbert castle which sit’s just above the harbour.

On the way down from the Castle the girls noticed an advert for massage therapy etc in the local Health Centre – quick phone call and they were booked between 19.00 & 21.00. They came back all enthused and it turns out it was only £10.00 per person for the therapy…………good value and they had a good old chuckle all evening.

13th July 2007

Tarbert – Portavadie

In the morning I borrowed a Bosuns’ Chair and Eilidh “volunteered” to go up the mast and turn around the wind indicator so that it would read correctly – her rock climbing experiences held her in good stead and she completed the task within a matter of minutes and was back down again energised and ready for breakfast.

After breakfast it was back round to the Gallery where we made a purchase or two, and Eilidh bought me a present of Neil Munro’s book “Para Handy” – really sweetly inscribed. Sara bought a print of Scotland from a different perspective entitled “The Big Picture” and the gallery are arranging this to be delivered to home. We then visitited the local ironmongery shop for some bit’s and pieces and then back onboard. We were thinking about staying another night due to the forecast, but Sara fancied visiting Portavadie just across the Loch – it seemed fair enough and would provide shelter from the forecasted F8. The rain started as we set off, but with the wheelhouse on Sun Dog it’s not an issue – still a strange experience, but one that I am getting more and more accustomed to

We had heard that there was to be a new Marina in Portavadie, and when we went through the breakwater we were met with a “Marie Celeste” type situation – brand new marina/pontoons – all lit up with power…….and nobody on them!! We went down to the bottom end of the marina and went alongisde facing west – the direction of the forecasted gale. I was so taken aback that I never took a photo – bugger !!

Sara and Eilidh went off to check things out – and came back saying there were portacabin offices but these were all locked up and there was no sign of anyone.

Just then the Irish couple who had been moored behind us in Tarbet also arrived and took up a berth in front of us, with Sara and Eilidh taking their lines to avoid them having to get off the boat ( I was still in the wheelhouse, but to be fair I had put the gas heater on for them coming back onboard – thoughtful of me or what ?). We reckoned that they were not officially opened but were confident the pontoons etc were finished and secure, especially as there was electricity and water operational on all of the pontoons.

We were ready for a night with a bit of a blow, but it must have missed us or we slept right through it, but we awoke in the morning to another lovely day. This time I went off for a wander to see if I could find anyone, but returned only having found out that the marina was part of Portavadie Estates. Just after breakfast when we were having another cuppa, two people (one being Elspeth the marina manager) arrived to explain that the official opening was not for a couple of weeks.

They went and got all the drawings, marina prices etc and explained how the area was to be developed……….but my initial thoughts are they are overpriced for where this is, and the travelling time from the mainland will be increased for anyone taking a permanant berth when compared to the marina’s at Inverkip, Largs, Holy Loch, Rhu and perhaps even Troon. As we have nowhere yet booked for Sun Dog I asked that she get back to me with any special deals even if this meant a three/five year deal. It would mean keeping the boat on a building site whilst they build the office block and the flats to rent complex – but it is a well sheltered marina – and if the deal is right?

(Update) Elspeth got back to me a week or so later to inform me there are no “deals” available other than those on their brochure/web site..c’est la vie. Personally I think they are making a mistake as it’s all about occupancy ratio’s, and it would be better for the marina to have say 80% occupancy at a reduced price than say 15% occupancy at their published price. It will be interesting to see how this develops, but I wish them every success given the level of investment and it would also be good to have another successful marina available.

Time to go; and we decided to head over and pick up a mooring at one of Sara and I’s favourite hotels Stonefield Castle Hotel just north of Tarbert on the west coast of the loch. We picked up one of the hotels moorings and went ashore in the dingy to have a coffee or perhaps lunch in the hotel.

You can get a glimpse of the hotel in this photo’

The hotel might not suit everyone but we like it. From there we decided to carry on and head up and take a mooring of the hotel just past Otter Spit on the eastern side of the Upper Loch (Fyne). As we were approaching the Spit we noticed a yacht with a French Ensign heading for the hotel/moorings area and when we went down they had picked up the last available mooring. Fair enough we all thought, as they are visiting and we can come here almost anytime – so we headed a bit further north to Largimore where the almanac had mentioned possible moorings. There was only one that seemed suitable for a yacht and it had a a Moody 37 on it. They were waiting on a couple of the crew coming back from the holiday park – and we hung around until they were ready to leave – and subsequently picked up the mooring.

I couldn’t really settle here so phoned the Creggans Inn further up the Loch, as they were listed in the almanac as having 5 moorings. They owner said they only had two and were both available this evening – so off we went again. I decided to take the narrow channel through the Minard narrows – lot’s of jaggy rocks at low tide! There is also a submerged rock that needs to be avoided when through the other side – when we passed it had a small marker on the surface – but vigilance is required.

The mooring off the Creggans Inn (which is diagonally across the loch from Inverary) are pretty close inshore – so we picked the one nearest the shore (still in 15 mtrs) got into the dingy and across to the Creggans for an excellent evening meal – albeit the bar sounded a bit boisterous after having been on the boat for so long. It’s well worth a stop and they are very friendly helpful people keen on attracting yachties. We also had a bit of fun skimming stones on the beach before returning to Sun Dog, childish I know – but fun non the less.

15th July 2007

To the head of Loch Fyne & Back to Tarbert

We left the mooring at the Creggans Inn, once again in beautiful sunshine and decided to go to the head of the Loch and check out the availability of moorings – there are a reasonable number on the western side of the Loch opposite Cairndow with others belonging to Loch Fyne Oysters on the same side right at the head of the Loch. They are pretty much in a line north of this lovely property situated on the west side of the loch.

Guess this house must be owner by a sculptor or an art lover as there are a number of sculptures visible in the grounds.

From here we went over to Inverary but decided not to stop despite it being bathed in lovely sunshine.

From Inverary we again went close inshore on the western side of the loch with everyone enjoying the sunshine – crew were basking in the sun and they had no intention of taking the helm

Once again we went through the inner channel of Minard narrows and then down to Otter Spit – into lower Loch Fyne, and back over to Tarbert to get some provisions/showers – and a visit to the local launderette was also required.

Seagull on mooring protection duty !!

Tarbert was particularly busy with boats all rafting together – however there was a spare mooring available in the middle of the harbour so we picked this up – dingy was still inflated so no issue in getting ashore.

16th July 2007

Tarbert to Loch Ranza – Arran

Visit to the shops again for some provisions and picked up the laundry at 11.30. We left Tarbert at 12.30 and hoped to get a nice beam reach down to Loch Ranza – however Murphy’s Law struck again and we had once again to motor sail again. With the main up it does steady the boat quite well – albeit we still haven’t sailed her properly during the entire holiday !!

We entered Loch Ranza, but the wind direction was creating squalls off the hills which made picking up a the mooring (no pick up buoys) a bit of a lottery as I would be lined up going into the wind when sudden squalls made the wind change direction before we could get the line through the mooring. These were pretty powerful squalls and at the third attempt we managed to get a calm enough spell to get the rope through the mooring and settle down for lunch. Well done Sara & Eilidh as this was not easy.

This reminder me of the palaver I had at St Mary’s pool in the Scilly Isles whilst crewing for Marcus on his yacht Csardas !! We never really appreciate pick up buoys when the weather is good – but sure as hell miss them when the wind in strong & flukey! The agility of Marcus saved the day in the Scilly Isles.

It wasn’t just us who had an issue getting a mooring picked up as a “Fisher” came in and it took them about 15 mins and half a dozen attempts before they finally got a mooring picked up and managed to get settled down. I was also very surprised at the amount of “hunting” around their mooring a Bavaria 38 was doing when compared to the other yachts in the Loch – guess it was either a bilge keel or the skipper handn’t locked the wheel/rudder !

When we left Loch Ranza we initially planned to go to Millport, but if the forecast was proved to be right, it would have been an uncomfortable night – so we decided to head back up through the Kyles and get some real sailing in as the wind was perfect for a beam reach!!

Just out of Loch Ranza – all sail up – engine off – lovely. Within 5 mins all change – wind back on the nose and the rain started again…aaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Passing Ardlamont point back into the Kyles the sun came back out again and the West Kyle was lovely. As it was low tide we had another look at Caladh Harbour – looks a lot different at low water! Back through the channel at Burnt Isles and back onto a mooring a Colintraive around 20.00.

Yet another lovely day with a dramatic change to the scenery as the sun started to fade.

17th July 2007

Colintaraive to Troon

Set off at 09.20 for Troon with a quick nip into Millport so that Eilidh could have a look at this popular resort on Big Cumbrae. We were once again motorsailing as there was precious little wind – enjoyable none the less.

Going between the Cumbraes I decided to take the inside channel into Millport bay, bobbed around for five mins to have a good look around, and then exited by the conventional route and off towards Portencross then a heading to clear Horse Island, Ardrossan etc. Wind was building to around F4 and as soon as we cleared Ardrossan we would be able to sail……….yippee.

Genny out, full main and we were trotting along nicely settled at between 5.5 & 6.0 kts and holding off another yacht heading in the same direction as us. Great sailing for an hour and a half and then the wind started to get get a bit lighter. The other yacht turned out to be a Legend 36 which eventually passed us with only their Genny out……….we had everything up but couldn’t get enough breeze to move ol’ Sun Dog along properly – c’est la vie. After all Sun Dog is around 8.8 tonnes displacement – a wee bit heavier than the Legend !

During this time both Sara and Eilidh were like me, hoping for a F5/6 to get her creaming along – but it never materialised – real pity as everyone was up for a cracking sail.

Arrived in Troon at 16.00 to take a visitors berth but not before we had a visit ourselves in the outer harbour from Sammy the Seal (well three of them to be accurate) one of them sure is a big ol’ boy.

Anyhow into the visitors berths and the one we had been allocated meant we were going to be blown away from the pontoon – we had a quick crew discussion – and we got in perfectly with Sara and Eilidh getting lines on pronto………really neat job in front of a gathered audience.

Another yacht tried to reverse in and naturally lost his nose to the wind ending up across other boats…….thankfully not ours.

18th July 2007

Troon to Lamlash Arran

Departed Troon at 12.35 – “calm as” all the way over with hardly even a zephyr on the surface. Altered course to check out a white object floating on the surface – no one could make out even with the binoculars. At times it looked like a dingy – other times like an old ships lifeboat. When we finally got close enough it turned out to be a big lump of white polystyrene !!………….but it had to be checked out, and didn’t take us too far off course.

Back on course, and it’s many a year since I crossed to Arran in conditions as flat as this – from the photo below you can see the sea state looking towards Ailsa Craig, famous for top quality curling stones.

However when we looked back to the mainland it was covered in black thunderous looking clouds, but thankfully they stayed well away from Arran. Turns out there were thunderstorms and torrential rain but we only had sunshine!!

We picked up a mooring in the bay watching the kids jumping in off the pier – yes it was that warm, and went for a walk along the front and also to pick up information on the Holy Isle for Eilidh, and do a bit of shopping.

Had a bit of banter with the folks on Bolero IV a Hanse 411 out of Largs as their crew was trying out their rowing skills whilst onboard Bolero they were trying to get the outboard fired up – with a bit of difficulty despite the fact one of them was a mechanic ! On the way back to Sun Dog in our dingy they rammed us with theirs (well a gentle nudge really ) they were only having a bit of fun as they had finally managed to get their outboard running.

We rowed back onto Sun Dog for delicious evening meal prepared by Sara & Eilidh and set off for Troon at 19.30.

The wind gods must have been happy with us, as we had a great beam reach for all of 45 mins again getting 6kts, before it all went light again, we kept trying to sail until the speed dropped – and then sadly it was case of firing up the engine and motorsailing back to Troon arriving at 22.30, but not before enjoying a terrific sunset – couple of photo’s below, but they don’t do it justice.

Onwards into Troon where Sammy (as we have Christened him/her /them) was once again there to welcome us into Troon – or possibly to check if we were a fishing boat with perhaps supper on board !!

That pretty much ended the holiday with the following day spent refuelling/cleaning and organising a permanent berth. I had tried to arrange a trip to Ailsa Craig on the Kintyre Express, but they have had such little demand they are now focussing mainly on golfing runs to Campbeltown – a real pity as it would have been neat to go ashore on Ailsa Craig. I have sailed past it before and been scuba diving at the side of it – but have never landed……oh well sometime later perhaps.

We had a fun competition on how many litres of fuel it would take to refill the tanks – all we had to go on was that we had spent a total of 37 engine hours since the last refill at Bowling and we had kept to around 1200 revs on the engine. My guess was around 140 ltrs which would have been an average of 4 ltrs per hour.

Anyhow, the upshot being that we were all pleasantly surprised as she only took 95 ltrs; which divided by 37 engine hours equates to 2.57 ltrs per hour……………..in my book excellent considering she runs with a 92 hp Perkins.

In summing up the holiday Sara gave it a 9 out of 10 as we could have done with more wind. Eilidh gave it 10 out of 10 and really enjoyed her first boating trip. Me; well as I was happy as a sand bunny and just wished it didn’t have to end. Still all adventures must end to allow others to begin.

7th July 2007

Having clarified with the staff of British Waterways that the maximum air draft to facilitate a transit through the canal was 3 metres we prepared Sun Dog and carefully measured the air draft as being slightly under the maximum at around 2.9 metres.

We set out from Port Edgar to arrive off the Carron River entrance around 18.15 as previously arranged with the guys from British Waterways.

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On board was myself, my partner Sara and her good friend Eilidh who had not been on a yacht before and also had never been through canal locks either. Eilidh was keen to take the helm so once clear of Port Edgar she took the helm in a F3/4 wind against tide situation with the associated short choppy waves.

I’m delighted to state that she was as happy as a sand bunny riding through the waves. As for me; I was pleased that I had taken the time to lash the mast and boom securely to Sun Dog as this would not have been the time to try and re-adjust !!

We had pre-booked our slot to get into the first lock (currently numbered Lock 2) but first we had to get up the Carron River with enough water underneath us whilst having sufficient air draft to get under the Kerse Road Bridge. Given the fact that the river level (impact on height) can fluctuate, we had arranged to give the lads at the Lock a call when we were approaching the river as they agreed to come out and allow us to follow them up the river to the first lock. This was the start of what can only be described as first class service from all the staff of British Waterways (BW) who were involved in our transit of the canal.

They asked us to follow them up the river (keep in our wake) while they were taking depth measurements with a stick all the way up the river.

To be honest I think this would be advisable for anyone transitting the canal with similar air draft, because at times we were pretty close to the banks of the river – local knowledge is a wonderful thing! I’m pleased to say that we slid under the Kerse Road bridge easily enough and entered the first lock and into the Forth & Clyde Canal proper to berth for the evening, mightily relieved and looking forward to the rest of the trip.

8th July 2007

The next morning we had been asked to be ready for around 08.00 to ensure we completed all the paperwork and provide a copy of insurance certificate ( a “must have” document) and were informed that we would be locking through with a 60ft barge that would eventually be cutting off to join the Union Canal at the Falkirk Wheel (as they were heading for the centre of Edinburgh) . Going through the locks with the barge crewed by Charles & Hamish was a lot of fun – nice guys.

I have to say that the BW staff were exemlary in taking lines and working all the lock gates etc. Also Sara had given Eilidh some instruction on handling the ropes while going through the locks and she stuck to her task well, so well in fact it never once looked like this was her first experience of rope handling – well done Eilidh.

Our plan was to get through to the Stables at Glasgow Road Bridge and spend the night tied alongside, all through the locks Sara and Eilidh worked as a great team and made the whole process really easy and straightforward – not once did they miss a throw or end up with a rope in the water – really neat teamwork.

We said goodbye to Charles & Hamish at the Falkirk Wheel and wished them well on their return journey. The girls had gone up to the Falkirk Wheel to find someone to open the bridge, and while they were away the person arrived……..had to happen. I cast off the lines and took Sun Dog through the bridge and picked the girls up on the other side – much laughing and banter – so good for the soul.

We were to pick up another boat at the road bridge further down river and accompany them to the Stables.

There were some really lovely parts of the canal, and given the fact the sun was shining, really enhanced the experience. I really never thought it would be so pretty.

When we arrived at the hydraulic road bridge we had to wait while two other boats came through first, this was to be the first of a number of different solutions to the road crossings now in place since the canal was closed and subsequently re-opened. This bridge being hydraulic with some others being basic and others can only be described as somewhat ingenious – like the Falkirk Wheel linking the Forth & Clyde canal with the Union canal.

We duly arrived at the Stables and had a lovely quiet night alonside the pontoon. Chap next to us was not so fortunate as he had picked up a lump of plastic sheeting around his prop. However as luck would have it, he has a dry suit onboard and nipped over the stern to cut this away and disposed of it safely so that no other boat would have trouble with this particular piece of plastic.

9th July 2007

We set off from the Stables (Glasgow Road Bridge) at 07.00, as we had a reasonable run to get to the next set of locks at Maryhill in Glasgow and start our descent towards Bowling. En route to Maryhill we reached Stockingfield Junction ( a “T” Junction) where to go left ,would take one towards Port Dundas whereas we branched right for Maryhill and arrived at the top of the locks around 08.30.

Once again the BW staff were already there preparing the locks, and lo and behold another 60ft barge was joining us for the descent. They were heading for the penultimate lock gate before Bowling, therefore we would be in company all day. When we were going “up the locks” with Charles and Hamish and their 60 ft barge, they always went in first and were properly tied alonside before we entered. This time as we were going “down the locks” we had to enter the lock first and then watch a mass of steel heading towards our fibreglass boat. All I can say is 10 out of 10 for the chap at the helm of this barge and he was inch perfect in every lock – a mighty relief to me I can assure you.

After going down the initial batch of locks at Maryhill we tied up to a rest area where there were BW shower blocks and toilets – everyone took full use of the facilities and also took time to enjoy a cuppa and feed the swans.

After this we had only another lock to negotiate before arriving at the worlds only sail through Chippie – right in the centre of Clydebank. As we were approaching we could see that McMonagles restuarant was shaped like a boat. We had been told by the BW staff earlier that we could tie alongside the pontoons and walk back to the restuarant, or tie up at the “take away” window and get our Fish N’ Chips prior to going onto the pontoons. Well what would you do ? – Correct we did the same and pulled up the take away hatch……………really neat and a “must do” if transitting the Canal for the first time – a real novelty.

We had to stay tied alongside the pontoons while the walkway to the shopping centre was closed to pedestrians and the bridge raised enough for us to get under – a fairly substantial number of people stood around watching all this happen – again I think pretty neat and different thing to happen whilst out shopping!

With everyone suitably rested we once again set off heading for what was for me, going to be one of the highlights of the trip – going through the Dalmuir Drop Lock – which is one on the ingenious solutions on the canal. Boats arrive in the canal at the same height as the road and then they drop the water level down so that boats are below the level of the road – boats then motor underneath and them reverse the process once across on the other side……..really neat solution.

Exiting the Dalmuir Drop Lock we were asked to take our time getting down to the next bridge, which was one of the Bascule Bridges, and a neat fit for Sun Dog given the height and width of the wheelhouse – however we had been under others previously so no drama.

Onwards from here we had another type of crossing ahead, this time stopping the vehicle traffic as it was a swing bridge – but prior to reaching this we had a our first glimpse of the Erskine bridge which spans the Clyde and proved we were nearing the end of the transit.

Once through the swing bridge we had the penultimate lock before entering Bowling. The barges are not allowed to go any further once through this lock. If you look closely you can see the swing bridge only a few hundred yards astern.

Within another few hundred yards we were at the final lock into Bowling and as the barge was not allowed through this lock it felt quite spacious

Once through this lock we had only to get under the footbridge and old rail bridge, neither of which needs to be opened – and we were into Bowling Basin where we would get the mast back up and all the rigging adjusted. Incidentally this re-stepping of the mast is included within the transit fee – which makes it even better value.

10th July 2007

Decided on a rest day after getting the mast up the previous evening, but with all the wee jobs that needed doing- it wasn’t too much of a rest day! However we did get the chance to see a small fishing boat coming in through the sea lock, and we went for a walk to look at the wrecks that are in the outer harbour. These are no real navigational issue for entering or leaving the canal, and I guess in the fullness of time they will be removed and this area will be developed.

11th July 2007

All jobs done, topped up with water and fuel – the first refuelling since Marcus & I topped her up in Sunderland.

Total fuel 114 ltrs which equated to under 3 ltrs per hour since Sunderland – I reckon in the 16 hours the engine had been running in the canal (albeit barely above tickover) fuel consumption must have been around 1-1.5 ltrs per hour, as the overall fuel consumption when bringing her up from Ipswich was around 5 ltrs per hour at around 1600 revs. It will be interesting to see the consumption figures over the balance of the holiday.

Entered the sea lock at 11.00 in company with another yacht – once again BW staff were on hand to assist and hat’s off to Alex and all the guys from BW who made this transit so enjoyable and trouble free.

When the lock gates opened the skipper of the other yacht opened his trottle as if the Devil himself was trying jump onboard and the poor guy at the stern almost lost the lifebuoy and possibly could have got himself caught up whilst trying to get the line off……………….not good……………but thankfully no one injured and no damage done…that is good. But the Lord himself only knows why this skipper wanted to exit at warp factor 5 !!

Anyhow, out we went exiting the lock and into the harbour then into the River Clyde for the balance of our holiday. A wonderful few days with good weather, excellent company, and exemplary service from British Waterways staff.

Any fellow Rogger owners who are considering this transit through the Forth & Clyde canal can do this happy in the knowledge that at least one (perhaps a lot more) has/have already done so – it could save a fair amount of time if travelling to the West of Scotland /Ireland from Holland etc – an alternative to having to go up to the Caledonian Canal and transit from Inverness to Fort William. Currently the charges are £6.00 per metre for a transit and less than half that price for a return journey, and bear in mind this also includes the re-stepping/dropping of the mast in Bowling. We ourselves had dropped our mast in Port Edgar before setting off for the canal, but my undertanding is there are facilities for dropping/re-stepping the mast around Grangemouth Yacht Club – but if you have any doubts, simply call either Carron or Bowling Sea Locks as the guys are very helpful and a credit to British Waterways.

One final point to end this part of the blog – and as a general observation for anyone planning to transit the canal. My engine overheat alarm went off once when going through the canal, and when I checked the raw water filter basket it had a fair amount of weed restricting the flow of cooling water to the engine. An easy fix and no damage done, but in my honest opinion it would be advisable to check the raw water filter basket at each stop – only takes minutes! Just glad that I had an audible alarm as I might not have noticed the engine temperature climbing on the gauge.

Thursday 21st June

Right to Left: Skipper Marcus, Phil & Me

Return leg to Poole crewing for my good friend Marcus Tettmar onboard his Hanse 371 “Csardas”

On Thursday morning the wind had vanished. A slight puff from the North. So after a lazy morning, filling the tank with diesel and buying a few extra items for the ships stores, we headed out of the harbour just before noon.

This would be Phil’s first passage, his longest trip to date Poole to Lymington and back with Marcus – about 20nm in either direction. He took a few anti-seasickness pills just in case. Probably a good job as there was a bit of a swell left over from the recent strong winds. And with only light winds to begin with the waves would often knock the wind out of the sails. So there was a fair bit of rolling around and crashing and banging of sails to begin with but slowly the wind picked up with Phil taking the helm and staying on it to the point where the back of his hands were sunburnt, whilst his fingers were white!

We were all looking forward to Phil experiencing his first night sail and basic tuition on lights was given fully expecting us to see one or two ships and fishing boats. In the event it must have been the most uneventful night ever. It was also incredibly dark. The cloud cover obscured the stars and moon and we didn’t see one other vessel all night!

Friday 22nd June

The wind had picked up on Friday morning and we began to make up for our slow progress. We even managed to fly the spinnaker for a while but took it down when the clouds we had been watching towering up into the sky behind us began to get closer. We weren’t quite sure what it meant but it looked ominous. As it happened the wind picked up only a little and we avoided any rain. We ended up with the genoa poled out instead.

We caught sight of the Isles of Scilly by about lunch time and decided to make use of this wind and get further East. We skirted the northern, rocky shores of the islands …..

…and then headed across the shipping lanes towards Wolf Rock and on towards the Lizard. Crossing the traffic separation scheme gave us plenty to do as we dodged the ships.

Later on, somewhere near The Lizard we noticed a dolphin break a wave on our starboard side. Then more. Phil was down below making tea or something so Marcus shouted for him to drop what he was doing and get on deck. You never tire of seeing dolphins around the boat, and apparently it’s not a daily occurence in the channel as it is further south, so this was special. For about half an hour we had a large pod of dolphins playing on our bow wave and swimming around the boat. What a treat.

The following night was much more pleasant. The stars were visible. We saw several shooting stars and even a couple of satellites and the phosphorescence sparkled in our wake. In the morning, with the wind dead aft we poled out the genoa to stop it flapping around and picked up our pace.

Saturday 23rd June

Marcus had decided to head to Dartmouth as neither Phil nor I had been to Dartmouth before and it is his favourite port on the South coast. So he wanted us to see it and experience the grand river entrance.

We arrived just before Noon. We could see rain lashing down on the land. It was dry out at sea. It was strange to have to put our wet weather gear on because we were heading into a harbour rather than out of it! We got soaking wet as we motored into the river, but we were all impressed at the car ferry. Look carefully and you will see it is only a raft being controlled by a small tug !!

Then, just to give us a bit of a tour Marcus motored up to Ditisham and back before mooring at the marina in Kingswear.

With dripping overalls hanging up in the boat we tried to time our trips to the shower block with breaks in the weather and then went over to Dartmouth on the ferry for a late lunch. Back on the boat the weather began to improve and we were soon sitting outside sipping a beer.

A wooden 50 foot Sparkman and Stephens designed yacht of around 20-30 years old was tied up outside the pontoon and it turned out was being handed over to it’s new owners, a young Belgian couple. They were left by the old owner with just their dog as crew and asked us if we would help them take it to their fore-and-aft mooring in the river.

However, what wind there was was, plus an ebbing tide, was pushing them on to the pontoon and boats of this design and age are notoriously uncooperative under power. A power boat was moored, unattended in front and a boats length behind were moored boats and the boat hoist dock. At first we just assumed the usual role as crew and stood around waiting to be told what to do. But it soon became apparent just how inexperienced this pair was.

The young lady on the helm appeared to want to go full power ahead and hope for the best. Marcus and I both knew that the power boat in front would become a heap of fibres if we tried that tactic. We saw three options – one was to spring off, another was to use a long line across to the next trot of boats and pull the bow off, and the other was to move the powerboat.

We suggested springing off to begin with as that involved less rope and messing about. This presented two options – springing forward and moving out astern, or springing back and moving out forwards. The first would get us further off the pontoon but then we would be putting our faith in the ability of the boat to steer backwards under power, and we all knew that a boat like this would probably make it’s own mind up as to which way it would go when motoring astern, so we decided not to risk that method.

Springing aft would be safest, but wouldn’t get us as far off the pontoon due to the shape of the boat. Sure enough the ebb tide, the wind, the long keel, the shape of the aft section of the boat and no doubt the offset engine all contrived against us. We just couldn’t get the bow to come round far enough. Oh, and the fact that the owners had clearly never sprung off before and the young girl just wouldn’t leave the engine in gear. She finally insisted that we tied the stern line tight and she put the engine in full ahead. We had no idea how that would do anything other than keep the boat on the pontoon, or pull a cleat out of it, but she seemed to think it would pull the bow out. Marcus was beginning to lose patience, albeit he is to much of a gent to show it !!

As he put it – we were here to help not give instruction to unwilling students. Finally the most sensible decision was made – to leave it until tomorrow, get the marina to stand by with a rib and try again with the tide and/or wind hopefully pushing the other way.

Sunday 24th June

On Sunday morning after a trip to the chandlery for some necessary and some unnecessary items, including a bit of “practise rope” that we bought as a bit of fun for Phil, we were again accosted to help move this enormous yacht.

This time the wind was blowing lightly off the pontoon and the marina guy had quite happily obliged with a dory. At the end of the day faced with the option of attending with a launch or the potential for several squashed yachts it is an easy decision for the marina to make.

Of course with the wind now helping the boat left the pontoon easily and safely. We then motored up to the trot of moorings to which the boat should be tied. It then transpired that the new owners didn’t actually know which mooring it was and got on the blower to the old owner.

Finally they discovered that we were to tie alongside a ketch and that lazy lines had been left for us to pick up. Unfortunately the new owners appeared to be in a bit of a hurry and rather than motor around and reconnoiter the situation they made a decision to go port alongside.

The marina guy moored his dory the other side and helped with lines and we were eventually tied up to this ketch after a bit of tug of war against an overzealous helms person. We then discovered that the lazy lines to the buoys were on the other side of the ketch. So we had to cast off and start again, this time the other way round.

Again a simple case of helping out turned into a bit of a chore and we all got covered in seaweed and wet from the lines. Eventually the marina guy, eyes rolling, ferried Marcus and I back to the marina. We were left wondering if this couple had bought the right boat for sailing two handed. These boats were built with no engine in mind, when marinas were scarce and designed to be sailed by 12 crew. But I’m sure they’ll learn about the boat’s idiosyncrasies in time.

Our plan was to leave the Dart that Sunday evening and catch the tide round Portland Bill at 1am.

We motored out of the river in a light drizzle at 1830 into a flat calm with ominous clouds once again looming.

The engine stayed on for about 4 hours until the wind started to fill in. The forecast was for NWly gales later. Later means 12 hours. We should be in Poole by then, but hopefully we’d get the beginnings of the gale and get a fair breeze behind us. We certainly did and were soon charging along at 6-7 knots. Phil seemed to be enjoying helming and ended up helming almost all the way, right through the night, and did a great job, keeping us bang on course and at a good pace. The low cloud cover at night meant we could see Portland Bill lighthouse earlier than expected, and we could even see the light from the RACON buoy marking the TSS mid channel. It was a great night sail and as the sun came up we could see Anvil point ahead.

Monday 25th June

We pretty much sailed the rest of the way by eye, back in familiar waters, hanging a left at Anvil point and rounding Old Harry to head North up to Poole Harbour against the wind, with Marcus enjoying a fast beat into the harbour.

A superb sail back, and what a first passage for Phil, logging 340 nautical miles. We pointed out that many yachts in the marina probably do less than that in a season.

Shame about the weather as Marcus Ange & Ben didn’t get to see much of Ireland due to the poor weather.

But the passages there and back were for me, great fun, in great company. Cheers Marcus.

We departed Scilly yesterday morning at 10:00 but not before going alongside the Island Packet and asking what sounded like a bizarre question to ask anyone – however I heard myself ask -”do you happen to have a Bob Johnston on board” – amazingly – “yes” came the reply and up popped Bob from below – nice to see him again. Bob runs Maritime Connection (see link on home page) out of Troon in Scotland, and after a brief chat we motored around to the north side of the islands into a gentle Atlantic swell and a light North Easterly. Once clear of the islands on our course to Ireland we hoisted sail and settled onto a close reach, gliding along at 3-4 knots in only 7 knots of breeze, the water rippling hypnotically past the hull of the boat.

We were in no rush. Ange (& Ben) don’t fly out until Friday, so we saw no reason to burn diesel and quicken the pace on this 135 mile leg. As it was the wind picked up a little and we were soon seeing speeds of 6-7 knots on the log.

It was a clear day and the sailing was easy. The sun didn’t set until almost 10pm and the stars shone brightly until the moon lit up the sky. Over night we passed the Kinsale oil fields. Night was short lived and the sky began to turn blue at 3am – but Marcus eventually saw his first satellite.

Soon we were in sight of the Head of old Kinsale

By 7.30 we were in the harbour gliding past the magnificant Charles Fort, no way would anyone in the past want to enter the harbour as a foe with that fort so strategically placed and cannon lined up across the bay.

Great to be here, especially after such great sailing. I’m heading back on an earlier flight to catch up on business whilst Marcus is very much looking forward to seeing Ange and Ben on Friday and exploring this part of Ireland.

After quick trip to Chandlery for some essential items we slipped lines and headed out of Falmouth. Wind blowing f3-4 from forecast NW. Sailing down to the lizard with the wind abeam we managed to air the spinnaker for a short while. I was a bit nervous when Marcus suggested the spinnaker but was relieved when it went up without any hitch.

Coming up astern of us was this beaut of a boat, to get some idea of scale look at the person at the foot of the main mast! Certainly a world girdling boat.

The forecast suggested the wind would go round to the north and continue on to the East sometime over the next 24 hours giving us ideal conditions for our passage north to Ireland.

As we slipped past the Lizard and turned west the wind blew stronger from the NW. We swapped the spinnaker for the genoa and gathered speed as the wind strengthened. Before long we were romping along at 7 to 8 knots, 9 over the ground.

What an amazing sail. Big grins on both our faces. We made Scilly in 9 hours averaging over 7 knots. A good blast. A great day.

Now on swinging mooring in St Mary’s Pool ( after I cocked up three times trying to get the line on the mooring) which has moorings with no pick up buoys all rather close to each other and there was a fair breeze – well that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!

Marcus and I changed roles and he picked up the mooring first time – don’t you just hate smart b*****ds ? Once secured we noticed that one of the boats on a mooring in front was the same Island Packet we saw when it was exiting Falmouth…..couldn’t see them clearly enough to check out if Bob was actually on board. Wind appears to be gradually turning east. So could be set to leave for Cork tomorrow some time. Time now for another hot bowl of Chilli and a good night sleep.

Poole to Fowey to Falmouth

Picked up by Marcus from Southampton airport at 8.30 on Friday morning and we went back to Shaftesbury to do food shopping, and when we were ready Ange took us and luggage etc down to boat so we wouldn’t have to leave a car at the marina.

I am helping Marcus sail his boat to Cork where Ange and Ben will fly into on Friday. The plan is for Ange, Ben and Marcus to spend a couple of weeks in Ireland, before I return at the end of June to help Marcus sail back to Poole while Ange and Ben fly home.

After stowing provisions we motored round to fuel pontoon and milled around waiting for our turn. Finally fuelled up just minutes before 4.30 bridge, so missed that opening, and ended up waiting near the bridge on a swinging mooring ready the 6.30 opening.

We wanted to get away as soon as we could to make use of the forecast southerly winds rather than have to drive into the prevailing westerlies. The tide is going our way past Portland Bill at midnight so we didn’t want to leave too early. The 6.30 bridge was therefore ideal.

Sails up in harbour and sailed out of Poole but then, as expected, had to turn engine on and motor against a light SW breeze. It was quite neat for me to sail past “Old Harry” as I had heard of this before and it’s quite impressive and at the same thought provoking.

We bashed against a strong spring tide until almost Portland Bill where it turned to whisk us past. Came upon a number of yachts tacking up and down against tide and wind, they must have been a race. Early in the morning the wind picked up from the South and we were able to start sailing and join the racing yachts.

Marcus being the skipper was extremely alert as we bowled along in the midst of these racing yachts !!

We were both quite tired. I had been up at 4am on Friday to catch my flight, and I don’t think we had quite recovered from our Ipswich to Edinburgh trip on Sun Dog (my Rogger 35) the weekend before. Despite taking it in turns to sleep we both would need a full sleep so decided to stop somewhere for the night. Fowey would be ideal as we’d arrive there by evening.

We duly entered Fowey harbour just after 5pm and rafted next to some charter yachts. Soon discovered these were chartered by a stag party all dressed as pirates. Not so sure we’d get the full nights sleep we were after and badly needed.

The pirates all got the water taxi into town and after a bowl of chilli we put our heads down. Amazingly we slept right through without disturbance. Considering the amount of empty beer bottles we saw that went into the recycle bin on the pontoon I’m amazed we weren’t disturbed as there must have been a bit of a party on the pontoon when the got back from the town!. Two of the charter yachts went over to the town quay apparently to go and press gang pirates that had not returned the previous evening!

After a lovely breakfast of bacon and eggs and feeling fully refreshed, we slipped lines and headed out to sea. Decided to just do the short 20 miles to Falmouth as we wanted to refuel before heading round corner to Ireland. The forecast was for N winds the following day which is not much good for heading up to Cork, but should go round to East on Tuesday. Therefore figured we should take it easy and pop to Falmouth, (then Scilly on Monday) do a chandlery stock up and then wait for the Easterlies before heading up to Ireland.

Had a great sail from Fowey to Falmouth and saw this square rigger coming out of the mist ala the “Black Pearl”

Light southerly saw us close hauled and slipping through a calm sea along coast. It was very misty so couldn’t see land despite being less than a mile from it at times. Going into Falmouth there was a blue hulled Island Packet leaving, and I thought I saw Bob Johnston of Troon on board, it was too far away to be certain, but I recalled that he was going on a trip on such a boat. I was so convinced it was Bob that I tried his mobile – but no answer – c’est la vie

While berthing at fuel pontoon engine decided to cut out when going astern. Luckily not much wind and it started again quickly so no drama. This had happened a few weeks ago to Marcus when leaving lymington but at the time he had put it down to the engine being cold. Didn’t have that excuse this time. Exhaust also seemed quite smoky when opening up ahead or astern. I thought it might be a dirty air filter. After refuelling and finding a berth we took air filter out and gave it a bath in petrol. Very dirty. Wrapped knuckles to Marcus for not checking it before. Suspect the problem solved. Poor engine was being strangled.

It’s now Monday morning. We’ll leave Falmouth for St Mary’s after a trip to the Chandlery for a few essential items such as an Irish courtesy ensign that we forgot all about before our trip!

Sara & I had initially travelled down to view Sun Dog and we both felt she could be ideal for our needs, we then travelled back home and I returned a few weeks later with Mike Hall a surveyor with Paul Jeffes & Co. We also had the added benefit of the current owner being on hand. He explained the way the electrics etc functioned, but unfortunately he had no idea how many litres per hour the boat used, anyhow the deal was completed via Opal Marine Brokerage, and I then had to arrange to get her back to Scotland.

I had initially considered having her transported on the back of a truck, but my good friend Marcus Tettmar (who lives in the south of England) said he would take some time out and help me sail her back, as he stated, “Gerry, boats are not meant to be on the back of trucks, they are meant to be in the sea”…….how could I argue with this logic – bonus!

With Sun Dog being on the east coast of England it seemed our best (quickest) option would be to sail her northwards up the coast and into the Forth Estuary, berthing her at Port Edgar marina ( just under the Forth Road Bridge) a distance of some 350+nm. From there we could (later in the year) take her through the Forth & Clyde Canal.

Maximum air draft of vessels going through the canal is 3 metres, maximum depth around 1.5 metres (?) therefore she should fit through the canal, if a bit tight on air draft once the mast is down. If she didn’t fit we would have to sail her up to Inverness and bring her down through the Caledonian Canal at a later date.

Marcus and I agreed a date and arrived about the same time on the Thursday. We split the list of chores with Marcus doing the food shop and me doing the chandlery purchases and collecting the liferaft we had hired for this trip. Our pencil plan was to either get away that evening with the tide or sleep over and leave the next morning.

We seemed to be making good time with the provisioning etc when by chance we found out that the marina didn’t have a 24 hour fuel facility and if we wanted fuel we would need to get the boat round rather quickly as the fuel berth was about to close!

With kit lying everywhere we went round to the fuel berth to fuel up, but in the rush we had trusted that the fuel pump would cut out when the tanks were full, but unfortunately we suffered a fuel blow back and ended up with diesel sprayed all over the boat!!

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and with the value of this we now know that we should have opened the side lockers and simply looked at the clear filling hoses!! In the chaos we also forgot to fill the spare jerry cans; and by the time we remembered and ran round with the cans the fuel berth was closed until 0830 next morning..much muttering was heard on board along with a bit of frustration/exasperation. When things calmed down a bit we had the boat cleaned up and fully ready to go, we then checked the fuel sight glasses and it looked like one tank was only half full.

However the decision was made to leave Ipswich and refuel at Shotley marina further down the river where the fuel berth was open until around 2100, this meant time spent going through a lock etc and meant a little bit more time would be lost.

In the event we filled the jerry cans and topped up the tank it must have been an air lock in the sight glasses as she only took 23 litres! What I would have given for the boat to have fuel gauges for both tanks!!

Anyhow we were now happy enough that the tanks were full, and our plan was to include stopping off around Newcastle area and refilling the tanks. This would allow us to calculate the fuel usage and also ensure we had enough for the rest of the trip to Port Edgar should we have to motor the whole way and stay within our weather window.

We finally left Shotley marina around 2000 and headed for the exit with still a few hours of tide in our favour. The weather forecast was indicating variable weather with winds from the NW, NE force 4/5 occasional 6. We were now committed to getting to our first stop somewhere around the Newcastle area, as most of the other ports of refuge were either ones that dried out, or could be tricky entering in an ebb tide in the wrong wind conditions.

Passing Felixstowe we saw this huge container ship – amazing number of containers on the deck – hopefully they all stay there !

The electronics on board consisted of a Geonav 6 Plus” black and white chartplotter, with a Garmin GPS linked to a Raymarine 530 chartplotter. We also had all the appropriate paper charts and had agreed to not only keeping a detailed log, but also to mark off the paper charts en route.

As we turned the corner and started heading north we were amazed, that with the engine running at 1500 revs, the effect of this with the big three bladed prop and tide, had us charging along between 8 & 9 kts, this was almost surreal. All of this without the benefit of any kind of breeze as it was non existent at this time, ain’t it great when the tide give’s one a lift at the start of a trip!

All through the night the calm conditions prevailed until mid afternoon when we had about a F4 on the nose, but Sun Dog was quite happily motoring sailing along. When the tide was with us the speed was good, and when against we dropped below our intended average speed of 6 kts. Engine was kept at between 1500 & 1600 revs and we had the mainsail up to steady the motion.

Passing through the gas rigs some 20 miles + from the coast,

Marcus was at the helm and said that the Geonav was fading, and it eventually failed completely, within seconds this was followed in turn by the other electronic systems. Not a major issue as far as navigation was concerned as we had the chart up to date, but we assumed that there must be a loose connection in the power supply to the instruments.
We checked all the connections and they seemed fine. Double checking with a multi meter showed that the power to the instruments was down at 10 volts. Up went the floorboards in the wheelhouse to allow us to check the domestic battery bank, and yes the whole domestic bank was down at 10 volts.

The previous owners understanding of the way the batteries operated had been wrong, and we can only guess that he must have done short day trips and subsequently connected to shore power, thus keeping the batteries charged. The reality was that since leaving Ipswich the domestic bank had been running everything including the fridge for a considerable period of time, in itself quite impressive!

We simply adjusted the switch that we now knew would link all the batteries together, and trusted the alternator would be able to bring the domestic bank back up to full charge.

This situation clearly showed the benefit of keeping a log and also keeping the position and course on the paper charts if we hadn’t done this ……..?

Passing Whitby lighthouse during the night there was a fair amount of commercial traffic, and tides that were a bit stronger than we had imagined they would be given the ditance offshore. Watches were around 2 hrs during the night, with some discussion early the next morning about where to stop and refuel. The first option was North Shields where Marcus could have met up with a friend of his, but this would have meant a few miles down the river to the fuel berth and the same on the exit, using up some valuable time.

I left the decision to Marcus who finally decided that Sunderland would offer us the quickest turnaround time. A few miles out from Sunderland we called them to ensure they were open 24 hrs (the situation we experienced at Ipswich was still on our minds) and in we headed to the fuel berth.

This is where the trip took a bit of a bad turn. As we entered the marina there was the fuel berth which also doubled as the reception berth, and it had a fishing boat already there – no worries, we simply hovered around until he left the pontoon. Then as we went to go alongside another fishing boat nipped in at our back and as he was small and wouldn’t have needed much fuel we let him get fuel first.

When it came our turn, we obviously had to ensure we filled both the tanks and also checked the engine oil and water. Unfortunately the fuel hose wouldn’t reach across the decks to the second tank, and while we were considering turning her around on ropes we were being subjected to verbal abuse from a group of men on the pontoon. I’m not sure if these were sailors or anglers, but either way their behaviour was appalling. We will never be back there – ever – it was an absolutely atrocious way for any group of adults to behave.

When we left we were both still furious and trying to calm down it really was that bad! The good thing was that when we had done the calculations on fuel consumption it worked out at 5ltr per hour, a lot less than I had imagined. If we had known this in advance we would have been able to go the full distance without stopping and avoided these “brain dead” individuals, who are simply a waste of good fresh air!

The wind god’s must have known we needed a bit of cheering up and they gave us enough wind to be able to sail with both the main and Genoa doing their best, and we were sailing along at 5.5 kts in glorious sunshine – this was indeed good medicine.

The rest of the trip was spent back in harmony and we also had the pleasure of enjoying the sight of a whale only a few hundred metres from the boat, and also watching pairs of Puffin, really delightful little birds.

We crossed the “border” back into Scottish waters, when off St Abbs I saw what looked like a fishing boat with a peculiar rig coming from astern on the same track as us. As it was getting closer I realised that no fishing boat would be going at that speed, and would not be painted grey. As we weaved past the lobster pot markers, it did the same closing to a few hundred meters astern and then the VHF kicked into life.

Turns out it was HM Customs who asked a number of questions, and once satisfied thanked us for our time and off they went heading north. It is quite reassuring to know they are around and doing their best, whilst at the same time conducting themselves in a very professional and courteous manner.

I was hoping that we would have enough daylight left to be able to see the Gannet Colony on Bass Rock which sits at the southern entrance to the Forth Estuary, but by the time we got there it was dark. However we could make out that the island was covered in what looked like lighter rock across a fair area, could this be guano? We lifted the binoculars and it was astonishing to see the island was completely covered in Gannets, this would have been amazing to see in daylight as it is the largest Gannet Colony in the world with some 80,000 birds all on this one rock. http://www.beautiful-scotland.co.uk/bass.htm

The final three hours or so that was left before reaching our destination was down this busy stretch of water with navigation lights everywhere marking out the various channels. The light on the hills above the town of Burntisland proved to be a good marker and pretty much lead us to the safe water mark, from which we could pick out the first starboard marker from which we could then work our way accurately down the North Channel. By this time we were both getting a bit tired, however we had been really comfortable in the wheelhouse with the gas heater keeping us nice and warm.

There was a bit of swell running with the tide and we had the mainsail up and were charging along toward the Forth Rail Bridge. As Marcus had not been here before, he sailed us under both this bridge and the Road Bridge and then within a few hundred meters we were safely tucked into the berth in Port Edgar Marina.

Previous daylight photo taken from underneath the Rail bridge.

We had some 5 hours sleep before Marcus was due to fly back home, having booked a flight whilst entering the Forth Estuary isn’t technology wonderful when it works?

In the morning we calculated that we had covered some 360nm in 54 hours, most of this motorsailing with excellent fuel consumption figures.

We also jokingly said there was no need for lifejackets sailing through the night on Sun Dog, but that instead we should have been wearing Dinner Jackets given that we were sheltered so much in the wheelhouse.

This had been a totally different kind of sailing experience for both of us, but for me it proved that the Rogger is eminently suitable for the type of family boating I have in mind.

She sailed well when the wind was up, was really comfortable in a sea (albeit only experienced so far in a F4) and it was warm and comfortable in the wheelhouse; it was a strange experience sailing through the night not wearing full waterproofs and woolly hats.

Great experience in great company, and with the exception of Sunderland, a superb trip – thanks Marcus.

Since we arrived at Port Edgar the weather has turned horrible with strong winds and gales forecast. I guess our guardian angels decided to take good care of us on this trip and made sure the weather window stayed open until we reached our destination.

I am a delighted with Sun Dog and look forward to getting her through the Forth & Clyde Canal to the West Coast where time can be spent (hopefully) in sunshine. But there again if it rains there’s always the conservatory sorry wheelhouse.

However, first of all I am flying down next week to meet with Marcus and give him a hand to get his yacht Csardas a Hanse 371, over to Ireland for his family’s holiday…………life can be hard at times don’t yo think?

Blog will be updated in due course.