Skandia welcome su into Liverpool

Peel is beautiful. We spent the evening walking up to a monument on a hill above the town which had impressive views over the island, and across the Irish Sea we could see the Mourne Mountains in Ireland. We stayed up on the hill to watch the sunset, quite an impressive sight seeing the sun setting over Ireland.
On Tuesday we had to wait in the marina until the afternoon for the tide to come in. This gave us a chance to catch up with a couple maintenance issues while the crew went and explored the town. It has been really good to have John with us, who works for SYS. He has really helped us this week, again just taking the pressure off Karen and I with some jobs that needed doing (and not pleasant either) – valuable bonding time for Karen and her husband!
We also got ourselves prepped and ready for our sail over to Liverpool, with more fuel for the boat, and more fuel for the crew. Once we could get out of the marina we set sail for Port St Mary, passing south of Calf on Man and completing our circumnavigation of the Isle. We had a pretty good sail with good winds from the south giving us a beat down the west coast. With an early morning ahead of us it was an early night out on a mooring in Port St Mary.
Impressively, everyone was up with us at 3am to set sail for Liverpool, but with not very much wind from directly behind us, and a rather tight time schedule to stick to, we ended up motoring for most of the early morning. Gerard, Marie-Clare and I took the first early morning watch and got to appreciate the sunrise. I really do love being out on the water in the early hours, and watching the slow brightening of the sky and the pastel colours changing in the clouds is so peaceful (even with the engine on). By 10am the wind had come back to the SW, giving us a beautiful beam reach across the Irish Sea for the rest of the day, and with a bit of sun coming out (and a couple of us braving shorts for the first time in quite a while) it was pretty much perfect sailing conditions.
Skandia were waiting for us in Liverpool with another welcoming reception. This was was really good, with a load of people standing on the wall waving us in as we came up and parked next to them. The food, as always, was really good.
Iain Percy (Skandia Team GBR) was around to meet us as well. The crew were all very impressed with his two gold medals, and he was brilliant at getting them all involved in the sailing dinghy simulator competition going on, which Nial managed to win!
It has been such a fantastic craic having this crew on board. I can almost understand Irish, and the laughter hasn’t stopped all week. A great welcome into Liverpool, and with Jo, Tracy and Frank coming to join us this evening, I am really looking forward to exploring the cultural capital of Europe.
Sadly, we say goodbye to our crackin’ Irish crew – you have been fantastic- such a great craic!
Cheers,
Cath

Round Isle of Man, and BASKING SHARKS!!!

Wow – what a great couple days we’ve had on the Isle of Man! Sailing for the Disabled came out to meet us on Saturday, as we sailed from Port St Mary to Douglas, it was great to see them out there and to have the company on the way in. We go to finally meet all the crew in person at Douglas Marina. They had very kindly vacated their normal berth so that we could get Scarlet into the marina. Thank you to Marian, Alan and Roy for a wonderful welcome, and some yummy lemon cake.
Sunday was time to explore the island, and this we did! We took an electric tram up to the highest point of the Isle of Man- Snaefell. Unfortunately we climbed into the clouds so couldn’t see the spectacular views from the top, but we had a good giggle walking around in the fog. Just as we started our decent, the fog lifted for a brief 10mins to open up the views of the valleys and hills around us – Beautiful.
Being keen on trams for the day, we got onto a horse tram in Douglas that took us along the promenade. It’s great to see these traditional trams still in action, and the working horses look really well looked after and fit. We had a giant by the name of Charlie pulling our tram, with hooves as big as buckets, impressive.
After a great day out, we slipped our lines, waved goodbye to the Sailing for the Disabled boat which had just come back in from a day out on the water, and headed off to sea again. With a couple days in hand, and with a habit of going round things, we decided to go cruising round the island so headed north for the first time in a while, towards Ramsey, where we spent the evening out on a mooring in the bay.
Today was incredible – we set off at a reasonable hour this morning and headed for the Point of Ayre, the northern most point of the Island. With a good westerly breeze we had a cracking sail up, but sadly as we got to the point the wind went south, and the tide against us strengthened, making for a rather slow passage. After slowly making our way round the point we finally started heading south again, and then with mass excitement on board we started our wildlife spotting for the day. First was a breaching whale, then further along the coast we came across basking sharks – this was just incredible. These sharks can grow up to 11m long, feeding only on zooplankton through modified filters in their gills. We were lucky enough for one of the sharks to come up within 20m of our stern, giving us a better idea of their size, and a glimpse at a massive open jaw. This is the first time I have ever seen a basking shark- YAY!!!!
I must admit, I have been quite impressed with the performance we’re getting from our DuoGen’s wind generator. After a little hiccup with a part which finally arrived back with us last week, we have been happily charging our batteries using wind. Today’s sail was impressive, with the energy from the duo-gen catering for all our electronic needs, and a little extra.
We’re now tucked up in a great little marina in Peel, with the ruins of Peel Castle right on the entrance to the Harbour. Barbara and Marie-Claire are doing wonders in the galley again while the rest.. well, resting after a great day out on the water.
More to look forward to tomorrow as we go round the Calf of Man and back to Port St Mary, completing our Isle of Man circumnavigation and then prepping ourselves for another hop across the Irish Sea – bound for England again.
Until next time,
Cheers, Cath

Goodbye Ireland, and fantastic sail across the Irish Sea

Leg 12, here we go. This week we are joined by Gerard, Neill, Marie-Claire, Jodie and Barbara, with Chris from Skandia. We also have John Pullen on board (Karen’s husband), which is fantastic! We started off in Bangor, with a dinner with Peter and Gillian from Northern Ireland Cancer Fund For Children. They have been incredible with our entire Belfast visit, helping us out whenever needed and welcoming us. The young people we have on board this week are all through NICFFC and are really an incredible group of people. Thank you to NICFFC for all the help and making our Belfast visit so special.
We set sail on Thursday afternoon, headed down to coast to Ardglass. This was our final Irish stopover (can’t believe it), and was a really pretty little port. The marina was quite tight, but they welcomed us in and very kindly let us berth for free for the night – thank you Ardglass! Our sail was unfortunately not much on the sailing front (what wind there was was right on the nose), so we motored most of the way, getting in at around 8:30pm. After a peaceful night in Ardglass with lots of card games going on, we set sail again in the morning, headed for our next country, the Isle of Man. It was such a beautiful day, with hardly any clouds in the sky, giving great visibility of both the Island and the mountains on the Irish shore. With a light southerly breeze we managed to reach across the Irish Sea and had an absolutely fantastic day out sailing, with Gerard hard out on lookout for sharks (still haven’t seen any yet), but we did see quite a few porpoises and had the usual birdlife to appreciate. We headed round the south side of the Island, and passed through Calf Sound, between the Isle of Man and the Calf of Man, a little island to the south. The sound is quite narrow and has quite a strong tide running through it, but with light winds and calm seas we were able to cut through the sound without any problems. Even then it was quite something to see, and I can imagine that it gets incredibly rough when the wind and swell picks up.
Port St Mary’s is our harbour for the night, and we are moored up next to a fishing vessel and along the harbour wall. Chris, being a local IOM man, has been our on board info guide, pointing out places of interest and even filling us in on a little island history. After a long day on the water I was quite impressed with Barbara, who wasted no time at all in getting dinner on the go.
We’re on the island for a few days now and plan to cruise around the island, exploring all her ports. This is also the most popular spot for seeing basking sharks – so we will be out on the water looking for sharks in the morning, really hoping to see one. We’re off to Douglas tomorrow which will be a nice little hop up the coast.
From a beautiful island, goodnight!

A window to Ireland

This week has been a little bit of an odd week, as we managed to get all the sailing for the leg over and done with on the first day. This was for good reason, however. Simon Rowell has been very good at giving us his thoughts on what the weather is doing and I have been quite impressed with his accuracy. He mentioned that we might get a window on Wednesday- Thursday to go across, and this is exactly what we got. It was a little weird for our Irish crew though, they came all the way to Scotland only to sail straight back again.
Wednesday turned out to be a perfect day for sailing. After getting a few jobs done in the morning we were briefed, fuelled and ready to set sail by noon, with the evening’s Irish stew already on the go. With SW winds of no more than 10kts we set off on a beat for Ireland. Beautiful flat seas and the light but constant breeze made for some fantastic sailing, and slowly the wind clocked round to the West, the WNW, bringing our course up to heading for Ireland, so we somehow managed yet again to sail most of the way on one tack – still starboard!
The crew were absolutely loving it, with each of them taking a turn to helm and mostly spending their time up on the rail or up at the bow, enjoying Scarlet’s dance through the water. Slowly the evening came on, and slowly we lost crew to the warmth of below decks, but at about midnight we had the whole crew back on deck to enjoy the night sail. We even had patches of clear sky letting us see the stars, and with a beautiful moon setting over Belfast and dying breeze, we slowly crept into Belfast Lough. We got into Carrickfergus at about 2am with a cheery but rather chilly and tired crew – it didn’t take long for everyone to disappear into their bunks.
Northern Ireland Cancer Fund for Children have been fantastic. Angela has been with us for the week, and what with the horrible weather settling in for a couple days we were off in the NICFC minibus for some shoreside adventuring.
After eventually creeping out of their bunks and a bit of brunch (well, more like lunch by the time we actually ate) we went off for a nice walk along to Black Head light house, which was the light that had guided us into the Lough the night before.
The evening was beautiful so we had to take advantage of the good weather while we could and went for a little cruise across the lough to Bangor – homecoming for Karen.
She has been so excitable about sailing home, I can’t imagine how chuffed she must be right now. Hillary and Bob (her parents) were down to welcome us in, and of course a long overdue hug with their daughter. It has been really good to meet them, and Hillary has also been spoiling us each day with treats and apple crumble (YUM!!).
We spent yesterday exploring the North Coast by minibus, but even then it was difficult to appreciate the beauty as the rain and wind were just pelting down. Today was off to a waterpark to have some fun on slides, then off to the NICFC log cabin for a rather late lunch and relaxation time. When we got back to the boat it was down to work, and Aiden, Aimee and Clodagh got down to giving Scarlet a good scrub while Molly and Rob prepared a yummy dinner. We’re all set for our arrival in Belfast tomorrow, and I think we might even get a break in the weather to have at least a final good morning of sailing for the leg. It’s been great fun having all the Irish chit chat going on, not that I can understand all the time, but my ‘Irish’ is getting a wee bit better..

Fantastic Scottish hospitality in the Crinan Canal

I have been incredibly impressed with Scottish Highland hospitality, everywhere we have been we have been met by friendly, helpful people. Peter, Donald, Alli and Chris where down to help us through the Crinan Canal. The two young boys were on their bikes and cycled the length of the canal, helping our crew with opening the lock gates as we made our way through the canal. It was fantastic fun, with Luke doing some really good boat handling driving Scarlet off the dock and into the canal. I must admit it felt quite tight, through the first part there were times that there was only about a meter clearance on either side of Scarlet, very much like going down a little country lane. There were passing pools though, but I was quite glad that the only yachts we passed travelling in the opposite direction happened to be in the lock basins where at least there was space to pass by.
The Mid Argyll Sailing club invited us to a BBQ that evening which was delicious. All the crew really enjoyed themselves. Again, a Scottish piper came to play. He was really good – just a treat to be able to absorb the beautiful Scottish culture so much. I hope that Peter and Donald were impressed that our lunch through the canal was Haggis. A huge thank you to Peter, Donald and Hamish from the Mid Argyl Sailing Club for making the Crinan canal such a memorable occasion for us.
We did have and incredible week and everyone just seemed to be having such a great time. We were also blessed with some periodically beautiful weather, and I think we got off reasonably lightly from the midgies (although, they were still out in force a couple nights). Luke, Raechel, Fran and Gareth also braved the outdoors and slept outside a couple nights, but it was particularly pretty in Caladh Harbour anchorage without a cloud in sight. It was a rare sight but beautiful to see all the stars out.
Skandia were waiting for us on our arrival into Largs. This was a great event with around 80 people turning up to wave us in, and again, the BBQ that they put on for us was really good. Bart Simpson was around again to chat to the crowd and the kids, who were quite impressed with his gold medal (adult kids included).
After the BBQ it was off to a field for the final night of leg10 sporting events, but having given up on the Ashes series, we took to rugby and played a game of older vs younger touch rugby. Frank and Simon joined in, but even with all our seriousness and competitiveness, the younger crew still managed to run circles round us, which was hilarious.
Sadly, we had to say goodbye to our new friends again, although, it is definitely a see you later as opposed to a goodbye. Such a great crew – well done all of you on a fantastic leg!

So here we are in Largs. We now have the crew of Leg 11 on board, all of whom have come over from Northern Ireland. We have Molly, Aidan, Aimee, Clodagh and Rob on board, with Angela as our volunteer from NICFC, and John from Skandia. All our crew are from Belfast or nearby… I hope we don’t have any nationality sporting competitions on this week as I might not do too well – I am a wee bit outnumbered!!
The weather…. Is being the weather again and giving me a bit to think about. Looks like we might have a window in the otherwise grotty looking forecast, and hopefully we might be able to get out and straight over to Ireland tomorrow night. I can’t believe it – we’re on our way to Ireland after an incredible 6 weeks in Scotland.
Thank you to everyone in Scotland for making our time here so special and unforgettable – we really have loved this part of our adventure and I must admit I am a little sad to be saying goodbye…

West Coast Cruising!!

It’s amazing, two blinks and the time has just flown by! I realised that I haven’t blogged for a few days, not since seeing Hillary. We managed to catch up with her and her crew in the Canal, on our final full day of the second Scottish trip. Hillary is doing amazingly well, it was really good to see her again, and to see her in the Caledonian Canal after 2 months of sailing was really special. She is due to finish sometime in August, may the North Sea be as kind to her as it was to us.
A few days have passed now, and we have had another crew change. Fort William was a rather quick changeover again, but luckily we had 4 volunteers from Skandia who came to help us get the boat ready for the new crew – and another big thank you to them, it really does help especially when we have such short change over times. This week we have Gareth, Fran, Rachel, Joe and Luke on board, with Tim from Skandia and Cath, our token Aussie from EMT, on as volunteers for the week. We have had an incredible time so far, with everyone settling in very quickly, not without a few comments about the Ashes (and also the start of our own Scarlet Ashes series), but all in good spirits.
We said goodbye to new friends made in Ft William who came down to the boat to wave us off, out the sealock and off again. Ben Nevis even came out of the clouds for us for the day, which was just spectacular. What a way to enter the Atlantic cruising grounds and the start of our West Coast cruising...
I was feeling incredibly lucky again, as the weather forecast we had seen earlier did suggest that we might be spending a few days playing card games in Ft William, but thankfully that changed and out we went. We sailed down to Dunstaffnage, through Loch Linnhe. Unfortunately it was more like a drift with intermittent motoring and the occasional blast when a gust came down the Loch. We managed to get the kite out again, but not so successfully as our magic furler was not so magic, forcing us to ditch the kite and resort to just plain sailing.
Dunstaffnage is a really pretty natural harbour, tucked up in amongst some islands, with an old castle ruin on the entrance. The whole area is just so impressive, and again, we were blessed with another incredible day out today.
We left Dunstaffnage in good old Scottish dreich, having eaten square sausage and potato muffins for breakfast. Not very much wind at all, so we motored up through Kerrera Sound to Puilladobhrain, which is a lovely little anchorage. The sun came out just in time for our Atlantic Challenge, and this time most of the crew joined in and jumped into the water. It was freezing, so we pretty much all shot straight out again. However, it wasn’t long till we were back in again and swimming our lap around the boat, with some braver souls (namely Karen and Luke) heading round again.
The sun stayed with us for the afternoon, but sadly the wind didn’t materialise much at all, so we spent most of the day motoring.
We had a fantastic welcome into Crinan Canal, with a young Scot playing his bag pipes for us. Peter has also very kindly offered to send us a couple helpful hands as we make our way through the canal tomorrow, should be great fun as from here to Ardrishaig it is all manual labour that opens and closes the locks… I hope the boys are feeling strong for tomorrow.
Good night from a very beautiful Crinan,
Cath

Loch Oich - Scarlet's highest point above sea level!

Crew change – Ft Augustus was the changeover point for our Scottish Summer trips. On Wednesday we said goodbye to the first leg 9 crew, and said hello to the second lot. We now have a boatload of boys and our two youngest crew yet. We have Jo, Stewart, Brandon, Michael and Rauridh. It didn’t take long at all for the boys to settle in, and they have been running riot since… all good fun though, and it’s great having such a busy boat. We went off to see the Caledonian Ceilidh Trail again, who were playing in Ft Augustus. This time there was a proper ceilidh dance so we managed to get at least the older boys up and dancing. Young Jo and Stewart were quite happy just to cheer the others on. It was great getting involved with a bit of traditional Scotland and I think everyone really enjoyed themselves.
On our first boating day with the new crew we wound our way through the canal to Loch Oich, going up a few more locks. Loch Oich is the highest point at 32m above sea level. It’s stunning, with beautiful mountains surrounding the loch, and forests huddling the loch shorelines. We stopped at Invergarry Castle ruins, but didn’t get to see much of them as they are closed off to public (dangerous!). It did make a perfect spot to go for a swim and it didn’t take long before Stewart was in the water. Slowly, one by one, the rest of us made our way in. A little chilly, but not quite as cold as Loch Ness. Unfortunately the Loch is a little narrow so we weren’t able to set sails. We got to Laggan Locks for the night, which is at the eastern end of Loch Lochy. We had to keep the boys on their toes with line handling, as for the first time in the canal we were starting to descend back to towards sea level again, so the boys had to ease out on our mooring lines to prevent us from being hung up on the canal wall.
After yesterday’s fantastic weather, it took a little bit of getting going out into the chilly wind today. We also woke up to rain ~(which is always a peaceful sound to wake up to). Loch Lochy is a little wider, and with the wind straight behind us we could got for a great little sail down the Loch. Jo did a fantastic job driving the boat, considering he has to stand up on the seat as the wheel is almost a head taller than him. We’re now at Garilochy Locks, the entrance to the final stretch of canal down to Ft William, but with some rather mucky weather around it’s down to card games for a bit, then hopefully I’ll be able to convince some of the crew that a walk along the canal (even in the rain) is a good idea. Ben Nevis is somewhere near, lurking in the clouds, but sadly we can’t see the top today.
Hillary Lister has also been doing incredibly well and is arriving into Ft William today. We’ll be seeing her somewhere on the canal tomorrow. It’ll be great to catch up with her and hear all about her adventures up the West Coast, and share some of our East Coast stories.
I think it might be hot chocolate time…..
Cheers, Cath