| About a year ago, I decided that I would start to wind up my long distance sailing and return to Regatta sailing in the UK supplemented by charters in warm places. There's a limit to how many times you want to sail across the Atlantic and I found the constraints of getting moorings in the western Mediterranean spoilt the freedom of being able to sail around rather than being trapped in the same hot, humid marina. And while I'd always wanted to cross the Atlantic, I'd never harboured the wish to sail round the world. |
| The plan included sailing round Britain and Ireland, outside everything. We left Hamble at 1500 on Tuesday 30 June and twenty four hours later, we've done 170 miles, passed the Lizard and are forty miles from the Scillies from where it's another 140 miles to Kinsale. | Who are 'we'?
Bernard Lightbound, Hamble resident and member of the RAFYC has sailed several long distance voyages on Boysterous' old and new, including a win in the ARC Europe from Bermuda to Horta in the Azores. Bernard rejoices in having friends and family all over the world and for that reason is our 'Irish consultant'. He is also navigating us on this leg and in charge of gastronomy in and around Kinsale.
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John Laczik is an engineering Don from Oxford University. I once wrote to the Secretary of the Oxford University Yacht Club looking for crew and expecting to find a few students in their summer holidays. I got no students but three engineering Doctors, and this is John's third long distance trip on Boysterous. John usually brings his Ham Radio kit with him, but this time, he's concentrating on learning the use of a sextant. (I have to confess that my sextant has not been out of its box for the last two years.)
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| As for me, Colin Hall, after several decades of regatta sailing, sons Alastair and Matthew announced in 2002 that they wanted to sail across the Atlantic. And so we did in 2003, and I haven't really stopped sailing long distances since, first in Oyster 406 Boysterous, and now in the Oyster 53 with two more Atlantic crossings and voyages around the Canaries, Azores and Mediterranean behind us. | As we left the Royal Southern Yacht Club Naomi took photographs, Commodore John Beardsley wished us 'bon voyage' and the Royal Southern ladies waved from the balcony.
We put the main sail up approaching Calshot and we've been motor sailing ever since with light easterlies most of the time. Today's sailing highlight was unrolling the genoa a little before lunch, and then rolling it away again half an hour later. |  |
The forecast is for more light variables today and tomorrow, and so thank goodness for a large full diesel tank.
We've dodged a few fishing buoys, seen a red sky and sea at sunset, noticed that we still had the fender step out at 0630 this morning as we passed Start Point, and saw five warships over two hours this morning - perhaps waiting for the Iranian navy? A collared dove hitched a ride with us for a few hours this morning but didn't stay to lunch. |  |
The sun is beating down and we're hiding under the spray hood and our Factor 50. Suddenly the engine stopped. Consternation. Out of gear it starts again. Something on the prop - rope? A net? A quick blast of astern and whatever it was is gone.
Perhaps that's enough excitement for today. | DAY 2+: 2-5 July
I had intended to write a page at 1500 every day as that fits in quite well with the boat schedule, except today because today, 2 July at 1500 we were almost at Kinsale. | Last night we passed the Scillies at sunset although there was no sun to be seen setting. It was grey and gloomy with thundery squall clouds, poor visibility and the Bishop's Rock light poking up through a misty layer above the sea. We cleared the northern end of one of the Traffic Separation Zones and pointed the boat at Kinsale. The wind remained light and predominantly easterly as we motored on through the night seeing just one other vessel in eight hours.
Then at 0630, the wind went round to north east and built up to all of eight knots so for the first time, the motor went off and we actually reached for an hour and three-quarters till it died and went aft again. Oh well, we tried, and motored on again. | Kinsale
One advantage of motor sailing is that you go in more or less a straight line and so get there early.Instead of arriving at around 2000 as we had thought the day before, we were entering Kinsale harbour at 1600 and tied up in the Kinsale Yacht Club Marina by 1630. |  | Harbour Master Paul Murphy and Gareth squeezed us between two finger berths with our fenders squashed flat on both sides and bows sticking out, and shortly afterwards we were enjoying a Guinness in the Kinsale Yacht Club bar.
I had not been here before, but the first and indeed the lasting impression is of how friendly and helpful everyone is. And the high speed Wi-Fi is free provided you keep spending lots of money in the bar. |  | We walked past the old dry dock and along the shore to Bulman to check out the pub for dinner and then on to Charles Fort, a huge ramparted fortress that played a key part in the Battle of Kinsale in 1601 and was a British garrison till 1922.
Nome arrived for the weekend. We went on the walking tour of the town with Dermot Ryan and to a concert of Irish folk music including the fiddle, accordion, uilleann pipes, penny whistle and two lovely singers - their voices that is. Kinsale has lived up to its reputation as a gastronomic centre. We've eaten well at the Bulman, Fishy Fishy Cafe, Milk Market cafe and tonight at the Spinnaker. But this is Euroland, and it's not cheap. | Naomi had a hire car and so we drove out to the end of the Old Head of Kinsale and then along the coast to Clonakilty, birth place of Michael Collins, where the Irish Brass Band Championship was being held.
Back in Kinsale, we watched Roger Federer and Andy Roddick's marathon Wimbledon final. Tomorrow, we're off to the Outer Hebrides, to Castlebay on Barra. There's a depression closing on SW Ireland and we watch it develop on www.passageweather.com . It looks like we're going to be beating most of the next 500 miles with F5/6 WNW for two days and then going northerly and lighter as we get into Scottish waters. Oh well, at least we'll save on the diesel.
Distance on the log, Hamble to Kinsale: 356nm. |
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6 July: On to Barra
The first port of call before leaving Kinsale was the local supermarket, which had everything you might need, and then to Mylie Murphy who had the Gaz bottle we needed, but not on a Monday morning, and nor did anyone else.
It wasn't urgent and so watched by Sammy the seal, the next stop was the other marina for diesel after Nome had gone off to Cork for her plane home. |  |
| The marina staff didn't do Mondays much either but eventually we filled up with 275 litres at €0.72 and were able to work out that the boat uses about 4.5 litres per hour at 6.5 knots motor sailing speed so that's about 1,000 miles on a tank. | | By 1130 we were ready to leave harbour and set off to Barra. The short leg down the east side of the Old Head of Kinsale was fast, but when we turned into the wind - a stiff westerly and a big sea - speed dropped and the sailing angle was poor with big stopping waves. The Fastnet Rock looked a long way off, far less Barra. The tell tale track on the plotter showed a sideways tendency, and given squally clouds with reefs going up and down and furls in and out, we faced a long slog along the south coast of Ireland before getting round the next corner. |
| Then the wind dropped to six knots and with the big sea, we were down below Boysterous' motor trigger, i.e. when we're doing consistently less than five knots. So, sadly, on went the motor and with better speed and angle, the Fastnet Rock was on the nose, just seven hours away. We saw just one other sailing boat along this beautiful coastline. Our original plan included a stop at Glandore if we didn't fancy the conditions, but on we went as the course was good. |
A leak
Then John found that the fore hatch above his berth was leaking and he and his bedding were getting rather wet. A quick inspection showed that there was no obvious reason except the force of the green water driving up the deck and hitting the hatch seals sufficiently hard as to get some water through. Not much fun and so we decided to head in somewhere and repair or seal the hatch. |
 | The most likely looking anchorage was Horseshoe Harbour, just by the entrance to Baltimore. It's completely land locked except for a narrow rocky entrance facing south east. A seal watched us through the gap as we dodged the rocks and fishing floats. And here we are.
The hatch is sealed, dinner is eaten, the heating is on to dry out the fore cabin, John has found a radio signal so his laptop works, and even the sextant has come out of its box. |
| There is just one other yacht here. The Franciscans are long gone from their ruined priory and the only other signs of life are the cows clambering round the rocks on the shore, giving us a good stare. | Tomorrow, we'll get up early and head off for the Fastnet Rock. That's the first of a series of islands and headlands that eventually get us round south west Ireland and heading north to Scotland, except that the forecast is for northerly winds so it won't be quick. In the meantime, the boat is perfectly still. It can't last.
Good night.
(Distance Kinsale to Horseshoe Harbour, Baltimore: 53.6 nm. Total so far: 409.6nm) |
July 7/8/9/10: round the Irish corners and on to the Hebrides
We weighed anchor at 0800 on Tuesday 7 July, wriggled out of the entrance to Horseshoe Harbour and set a course for the Fastnet Rock, 232°T and with the wind at NW3, we were sailing again.
After rounding the Rock, we had to get to the north west round the various headlands, and the wind stayed NW4 all day and night, and the next one. |  |
| It was hard work tacking to clear Mizen Head, Sheep's Head, crossing Bantry Bay and round The Bull, across the Kenmare River to Great Skellig, south west of Valentia Island. Our track confirmed that Boysterous is not that close on the wind, and combined with currents off the headlands that seemed much stronger and south easterly than predicted (a set from several days of north westerlies?), our tacking angle track on the plotter looked really sad. |
| The moon rose at 2230 as the wind went round to NNW, even more unhelpful. We plugged on through the night after tacking in 'Unlit Island Corner' just short of the Inishtearacht light, and then we had a good long making tack during the day past Kerry up to the Aran Islands. |
Slyne Head was the next major obstacle. After clearing it at 1700 on Wednesday 8 July on a long starboard tack out to sea, we concluded that it was time to motor sail up the rest of the west coast of Ireland rather than slow tack in the north westerly that had now dropped to F3.
We also now had a new weather forecast from 'Moving Weather' on the Iridium satellite phone which showed light northerlies in Scottish waters. |  |
 | At this rate, Naomi would beat us to Castlebay on Barra, our next stop, and that would never do would it? The one bit of joy on this seeming endless beat into wind and current was a visit from a school of dolphins for about half an hour - always guaranteed to raise spirits. Sadly, the skipper was in his bunk at the time dreaming of the Caribbean.
Good progress was made motor sailing parallel to the Irish coast during the evening and into the early hours when at last we cleared the Black Rock light and were able to put some easting in the course to point at the Outer Hebrides. All day, Thursday 9 July, we motor sailed on into light northerlies, and saw just one oil rig and three fishing boats. |
A split seam
Having been mostly NNW2 all day, the wind then pulled another fast one and went round to NNE2, making the motor sailing course even finer on the wind. The main sail looked like it was more of a drag than a steadying sail, and so we decided to put the third reef in to flatten it and give it less resistance. Half way through the manoeuvre, John shouted 'Stop. Look up', and we groaned at the vertical split seam, about 1 ½ m long just above the third reefing points. |
 | At this point we had about 75 miles to go to Barra, but thank goodness for a large diesel tank. We put the sail away and speculated, rightly, that there was unlikely to be a sail maker in Castlebay. At mid-night, there was still a light patch of sky on the port bow and then at 0400 on Friday 10 July, Bernard spotted the Barra Head light on the starboard bow.
As we closed on the uninhabited islands at the south of the Outer Hebrides, the bird life was just astonishing: guillemots and razorbills littered the surface of the water, then they were gone, just like little penguins flying under water. |
Puffins joined in with the larger birds, petrels, fulmars, gannets and boobies, as well as several kinds of gull.
Our route to Castlebay was easterly through Pabbay Sound as the best way to include all the islands in our envelope on the way in to Castlebay and then leaving it for St Kilda a few days later. The pilot books talk of wicked overfalls, stray rocks and great caution to be taken. For us, the wind was light, the sun was up and the contrast of the sea, rocks and grassy islands with all the birds was a great sight. And then, as we cleared the Sound, there were two sharks close by and a small fishing boat headed down island to haul his lobster pots. |
Castlebay
Castlebay is an incredibly well protected large harbour, well marked as a ferry port, and with visitors' moorings. We had a choice of ten out of twelve, and as we were tying up, Naomi's plane flew low overhead to land on the beach a few miles away to the north. |
 | The mooring buoys all said 'Max Wt 15 Tons' which was a concern as we are 24 tons, but we tidied up, blew the dinghy up and went ashore to seek advice. Just as we dumped the rubbish in the waiting containers, a man walked by wearing a long waterproof working jacket with 'P&O' on the pocket. Sure enough, Arthur knew about the moorings for which there was no charge. 'Och away', he said. 'Ye dinna ha' tae worry aboot the weight. There's bin much bigger boats than yourn on they'. So, having been put in our place, we proceeded to the Castlebay Hotel for a rendezvous and some refreshment before addressing the problem of the split sail.
Distance sailed, Kinsale to Castlebay, Barra: 577nm. Total so far: 986.6nm. |
10 - 13 July: Three days in Barra
An old friend of mine told me that he recently spent three days in Barra - 'a God forsaken place'. Well we couldn't have had a better experience.
Naomi and I checked in to the Castlebay Hotel for the weekend. We worried at first about it being so 'laid back' but everything worked well in a friendly way, the food was great majoring on local produce, and our laundry was done for £5 the lot.
That afternoon we repaired the split seam in the mainsail in a couple of hours using a mixture of duct tape, sticky backed sail repair tape and some Dacron sail cloth, all liberally stitched in to place with strong cross reinforcement, as you would expect when designed by an Oxford engineering Don. Pleased with our handiwork, we retired to the hotel and a fine meal of Barra scallops, Barra lamb and Minches prawns. |
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That night, Naomi and I could feel our hotel windows rattling in the wind, and in the morning, we found that John and Bernard had been up re-arranging the mooring lines to minimise the yawing.
It soon turned into a fine sunny day, so we took the bus up the east side of the island, walked on the beach at the northern tip, admired the clarity of the colours of the sea and beaches, and then returned to the airport cafe to watch the local plane landing on the beach where Naomi had landed the day before in a cloud of spray. |  |  |
| The beach is the airport and the huge expanse of cockle shell sand is laid out as three runways. Bernard asked them to move the fire engine as it was blocking our view from the cafe - and they did. And we had some fine cockles for lunch, collected just off the end of the runway. | |
Back at Castlebay, the Heaval Race - up the local mountain and back - started at 4pm while we went out by ferry to Kisimul Castle, the stronghold of the Clan Macneil that sits on its own private island.
By the time we were back, the race was won in an amazing 32 minutes - it is a very big hill - and we booked in for dinner to the Kisimul Cafe which specialises in Barra scallops and Barra lamb, everything done Italian or Indian style. Scallop pakoras were an interesting idea, best left as a concept. |  |
| The dance in the Community Hall was just starting but we decided to give it a miss as there was another one on the following evening at which 'The Vatersay Boys' were playing and by repute, they are the best. |  |
The next day, Sunday, John cooked us a Hungarian lunch accompanied by Hungarian gypsy music while we watched the fishing fleet arrive for the Fishermen's Mass.
The fishing boats and quay were decked with bunting and the flags of many nations, the altar was on the back of a lorry and the congregation was large.
Afterwards, the locals piled on to the boats with the fishermen for a burn up round the bay led by the lifeboat at full chat.
We were glad that we had dressed overall as the lifeboat cox came over and demonstrated his tight manoeuvring skills around us - very impressive. Afterwards, everyone tucked in to free herrings and mash on the quay - a great community occasion.
In the middle of all this, I heard an English voice -'Mr Hall?' There in a dinghy was Barney Darby, a former pupil of Hazelwood Prep-school where our two boys went. He and friends had chartered a yacht for two weeks and were sailing around the Hebrides. They joined us for drinks in the hotel bar after and it was very nice to see them. |  |
 | After another fine dinner in the Castlebay Hotel, we walked along to the school for the dance. The Vatersay Boys played Scottish dance music with attitude and a driving rhythm, very compelling.
Everyone, babies, teens, and grannies took to the floor and danced to the end, the Boysterous crew included, even though some of our manoeuvres were not quite what they were used to. |
| I thought of Eric Morcambe as Nome and I did the Gay Gordons: 'all the right steps but not necessarily in the right order'! I think that the Vatersay Boys' way is to accelerate the pace ever so slowly so that you don't notice at first. See what you think with this link - but stay to the end: . | | This was a special weekend. I'm sure that they're not all like that, but being cut off, the Barra community know how to enjoy themselves and we felt privileged to have joined in. We'll be back. |
13/ 14 July: 'This is the worst anchorage I've ever been in.'
Well, you are warned in the pilot books that Village Bay in St Kilda is not an anchorage to be in, a short day stop at best. We arrived here last night at 23.30 having sailed a rare beam reach from Castlebay and round most of the St Kilda islands - we'll do the rest on the way out - to find two other boats here, relative calm and the prospect of a run ashore tomorrow, i.e. now today.
It was just finally getting dark and beat the prospect of carrying on beating into the now customary Force 4 NE headwind. So we anchored for the night in 9 metres of water having agreed to keep anchor watch all night. Then we re-anchored as an hour later we were in 13 metres and the anchor watch alarm was bleeping away. |
 |  | Considering this place is meant to be almost deserted apart from the Scottish National Trust warden, there seemed to be lots of buildings with lights on ashore. We'd seen two radar and radio stations high on the hills as we went round, but thought that these days, the Army has left and Qinetiq serve the installation by remote control.
Anyway, to bed and on anchor watch relay. For my part, it was a pleasure to get up this morning at 0600 after the rolliest anchorage ever. John reported an uneventful dawn watch with minimum depth 5m at low water. |
| Looking out, and bearing in mind that this is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, I was astonished to see the lower parts of the historic old village almost completely obscured by a variety of large institutional sheds and barrack blocks. As the sun rose to slant across the hills, the outlines of the old stone and grass roof storage buildings, houses, dry stone walls and sheep pens stood out on the slopes of the hill. But down below, what looks like an olive green Portakabin city and a sheet steel municipal recycling building dominate the shore line. What a shame. I know that the Army had to have somewhere to live while stationed here, but this ranks high in the 'monstrous carbuncle' stakes. |
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| Just along the shore several men are cutting up and hoisting lumps of metal off the beach and onto a lorry while the remains of the bright red bow of fishing boat FD29 lie wrecked on the rocks. The scrap merchants are Spanish: I wonder why? The Spanish have eaten all their crabs and lobsters and so buy a large part of the Hebridean catch on contract. Perhaps they are now luring the Scottish fishing vessels onto the rocks so that they can break them up and then send their own fishing boats up here instead? | | Two dayglo orange windsocks are flying on the pier and the slipway where there are more green sheds: today is supply day. What will come? And as the downdraughts of wind hit us from different directions we slew around on the anchor. John saw 1.5 knots on the log as we yawed from side to side. |
Comings and goings
Last night there were two yachts moored here, a traditional gaff rigger and what looked like one of Chay Blyth's older BT Round the World boats.
This morning, we can see that the old gaffer is 'Ezra' of Lerwick with six on board.
From starting their hauling anchor routine to hoisting sail and sailing away took an hour, and now they are away on the horizon to the east. |  |
 | The BT boat is STS Arctic Tern of Southampton and flying an RCC burgee but no ensign, at 0822. We are, but he has a Scottish courtesy flag and we haven't. As Ezra left, 'Shogun', a Sigma 33 arrived after a boisterous night at sea.
We plan to go ashore when the chaps get up. We also have to try to fix a mainsail batten end fitting that parted company with the slider on the mast on the way here. Then it's off to renew our acquaintance with NE4. | | Distance sailed Castlebay, Barra to Village Bay, St Kilda: 88.6nm. Total so far: 1075.2nm. |
14 July: St Kilda and on to the Shetland Isles
At 0915, Bernard and John dinghied in to the small pier at Village Bay, St Kilda. They met the warden, signed the Visitors Book and had a quick look round - well worth it, they said. It was still very windy with gusts blowing over and round the hills from all directions. |  | We fixed the batten end and reattached it to the car on the mast track while today's supply helicopter arrived.
At 1115, we headed off into a very lumpy sea, wind over tide and waves bouncing off the cliffs between the islands of Hirta and Boreray. |  |
Birds
Then followed one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen: Boreray itself is a very lumpy and dramatic island with jagged peaks. It has two outlying Stacs several hundred feet high, one of which looked shimmering white. It can't just be bird droppings we thought. As we got closer, we could see that Stac Lee was surrounded by hundreds or thousands of birds wheeling and diving in the wind. Then we saw that the Stac itself was covered in thousands of birds, cheek by jowl, or beak to beak, to such an extent that the whole stac looks shimmering white. |
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| This is the largest gannet colony in the world, and they all pile onto what is a tiny area of sheer rock with a sloping top. They and thousands of fulmars were gliding around, diving for fish while strings of razorbills, guillemots and puffins sped by at sea level, wings whirring. Others sat on the water, upended and dived for fish and then reappeared as they stood out of the water and flapped their wings to dry. | | The story of the inhabitants of St Kilda, the most remote of the Scottish islands, and their evacuation in 1930 is well known and it is the ruins of their village and the stories of their catching the gannets and fulmars on the sheer cliffs that many people come to see and hear. But for others, it is the sheer quantity of the bird life, and I found it one of the great experiences. |
Sailing again
Off we went, heading north and hoping for the wind to back from NE to north, which surprisingly and obligingly, it did a few miles later. Tacking on to port, we could turn off the motor again and sail to clear the Butt of Lewis and its fierce tides. For the time being, we could even point more or less at Orkney, not quite north enough for Shetland but well on the way. A couple of tankers went down the channel inside the Flannan Islands while we continued to go 'outside everything'. |  |
Then John said, 'Do you want to go to Stornoway?' as I was down below making a curry for dinner. The wind had veered and there we were pointing direct at Lewis. Then obligingly, it backed again and now we were pointing direct to Shetland. But a bit later the wind went all the way round to SW and dropped to Force 2.
Boysterous does not respond to eights knots dead astern and so on went the motor again. |  | | All night we motored on, went outside Rona, (did you know about Rona?), and in the morning saw our first oil rig on the horizon. |
July 15: Not much to report
In fact nothing much happened at all: the sun shone during the day and the wind stayed light and directly astern. I rang Naomi on the Iridium satellite phone. She told me about gales in Thames, Wight, Portland and Plymouth while we were enjoying a gentle summer's day again, now level with Norway.
We ate and slept, stopped the sails slatting and banging and John did some sunsights. We were happy to motor sail along at 6.5 knots as if we got to the top of the Shetlands too early, we would have a strong tidal flow against us and the danger of overfalls. |  |
July 16: Muckle Flugga
As the day broke, we could see the outlines of the Shetland Isles over to starboard. The birdlife increased and we saw one fishing boat, that's all for two days.
Muckle Flugga is the northernmost lighthouse in the UK and has a small Out Stac just north of that. That's where we could be sure that we would complete our circumnavigation of the British Isles and Ireland because it would be much quicker to carry on than to turn back. | |
Just before mid-day, we rounded Muckle Flugga and the Out Stac and turned south. Our most northerly position was 60°N 52.40. The log read 354 nm which means that we had done 1487.8 nautical miles, well over half way round.
Boysterous champagne
This merited a celebration, so out came the Boysterous champagne and some Shetland smoked salmon from Tesco in Bursledon that I had been hoarding until we went round the top of the Shetlands. And amazingly, the sun was still shining and the wind remained SW Force2 although we did hear on the radio that the gales in the Channel were heading our way. |  |
Baltasound
We rounded the top of the island of Unst, the most northerly inhabited island of the UK, round the islet of Balta and into Baltasound which had several salmon and mussel farms. |
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There was a pier near the head of the Sound with a couple of local boats and a pontoon inside, just waiting for us. I'd heard about this from some nice Shetlanders that I'd met at the London Boat Show. There was a wee boating club with showers, the most northerly bar and hotel, and the most northerly bus shelter, decorated and fitted out in all things pink including an arm chair, TV, computer and the Visitors Book which we duly signed.
Bernard and John went one way with a food shopping list. I went the other way to the garage to track down some distilled water for the batteries which we had been unable to find in Kinsale or Barra. Bernard and John were offered a lift to their shop. Going the other way, I stopped to sign the book at the bus shelter when a car drew up and Donald offered me lift to the garage. Donald had been a relief life boat crew for the RNLI, delivering boats all round the UK including to Calshot. |  |
The garage was also a cafe, good shop for food and hardware, internet cafe and they had a huge drum of battery water but no containers. So Donald drove me back to the boat for two plastic containers and the kettle, and then back to the garage again. And then later on, he reappeared to drive me back to the boat again.
Here, everyone helps each other. I wonder if there's ever anyone at the bus stop as they would all be offered a lift before the bus arrived. |
£7.97
Back on the boat as I was topping up the batteries there was a knock on the hull - Ian Mackay, the Harbour Master. He had produced his own Visitors' Notes and was very helpful and informative. And the charge was £7.97 for 1 - 4 days! Outrageous! We must go back as we still have three free days to claim! Ian told me that I had waved at him earlier when he drove past me in a Police car: He's also the policeman. |
13th out of 13!
By now we were up to speed on the locality and so had a busy evening ahead, first to check out the most northerly bar in Britain and then to walk to the village hall for the quiz night that was part of Unst Week.
We came thirteenth out of thirteen. Oh dear! Our knowledge of clinches from films was as bad as our knowledge of Shetland history. But we won a box of wine gums and a round of applause for turning up. Great fun but not as much fun as the dance with the Vatersay Boys back in Castlebay.
On the way back to the boat we were close to that bar again so had to pop in. There we engaged in hearty conversation with the locals including Drewie who lived by the pier. Could he come back and look at the boat? Of course. It was a scary ride back to the boat in Drewie's car, and several hours and hints later before we finally got to our bunks. |  | | Distance from St Kilda: 425.6 nm. Total so far: 1,500.8 nm. |
July 17: More Shetland Isles
We thought that it might be unwise to spend another evening in the bar with Drewie and friends so set off for Lerwick via the Outer Skerries, the most easterly of the Shetland Isles. Time was an issue as we knew that there was a sail maker in Lerwick and we wanted a professional eye and attention cast over our repair. As it was Friday, we had to get to Lerwick before they all went home for the weekend. A call to Malakoff and Moore gave us the assurance that they would wait for us to arrive in the afternoon.
More light airs and another fine day gave us a motor sail outside the east coast to the Outer Skerries, sixty people and a lighthouse together with a sheltered harbour. We thought we'd look in but not land as it would make us late in Lerwick. We dodged the rocks successfully on the way in, turned round and retraced our track - but not quite, as the keel scraped the bottom of the channel. A few revs and a small hop, skip and jump and we were out again. Lunch was the flaky hot smoked salmon that we bought in Castlebay - delicious and highly recommended - see http://www.salar.co.uk/ for mail order. |
 | More birds
Going outside Bressay, we cleared Noss, another amazing bird colony. The strata of the sheer cliffs slant down gently to the sea, and every two feet or so, there's a gannet, row upon vertical row of them lined up just a peck away from each other, plus all the others wheeling, diving and just sitting on the sea. There must be a lot of bird food in these waters to feed the thousands of birds that watched us watching them.
More wind
After another fine sunny day, the wind started to build from the north east and strong winds were forecast overnight.
As we rounded Bressay and set north up the channel for Lerwick, we rang the sail maker again. It was nearly 5pm, but Tommy said he would go home and have his supper, then come round to the boat in the harbour to have a look.
There are two yacht basins in Lerwick, one for smaller boats well sheltered, and the other for us, open to the north east. |
It was already rafted three or more deep, except for a very large Belgian catamaran which we decided to lie alongside. It was already blustery in the dock and the only way in was to back in to the corner of the dock.
A season in the Mediterranean gives you lots of practice at stern to mooring so we swung round and backed in to come alongside the big cat. Doubled up lines and shore lines were the order of the day. The cat's owner was worried because although a good fifty feet long, he only weighed seven tons and we are twenty four! We did offer to change places, but that would not do. | Tommy the sailmaker came round but by now it was too windy to undo the sail to show him our repair. We drew a diagram of what we had done. He agreed to make some strips of strong sail cloth to place over our repair and then go over it with his best strong hand stitch as his machine was too small.
That was for tomorrow as we went off first, to call at the famous Lerwick Boating Club, and then to the Queen's Hotel for more local scallops and lamb, this time from the Shetlands of course. |  |
| Distance Baltasound to Lerwick: 53.0nm. Total so far: 1553.8nm | 18 - 19 July: Split tacks
Next morning, Saturday we got up early to stuff the fenders back down between us and the Belgian catamaran. Tommy came and went as it was still much too windy to fix a flapping sail and the chaps hired a car with which to see the Islands. |
I was to fly back to London for son Alastair's and fiancée Francesca's Engagement Party the next day and Bernard and John kindly drove me down to Sumburgh Airport for the flight. And so we split tacks for the next two days. Bernard and John went down to Sumburgh Head and communed with the puffins.
They then went on to the Scalloway Boating Club where Alan, who also owned a sixty foot fishing boat, told them that to comply with EU fishing regulations, for every box of quota fish brought ashore, 10 boxes of dead fish of the wrong kind are tipped back into the sea.
So much for fish conservation with regulations made up in an office in Brussels, not at sea.
Bernard and John got the sail fixed with Tommy on Sunday, filled up the water tank and did their washing. |  |
| The Belgian catamaran skipper calmed down and asked them aboard for drinks. I went back to London for the party via Edinburgh and returned on Monday 20 July for a planned departure on Tuesday. |  |
20 July: Weather, and off again
A note about the weather because you may have noticed that apart from flogging round south west Ireland and the odd short reach, we have been doing a lot of motor sailing. You may also have noticed that any time there has been a big wind, we have been in port - Castlebay, Lerwick etc.
The weather down Channel from Hamble was damp and gloomy, and off Ireland was sunshine and showers, but very cold. Throughout our time in Scottish waters, we have had bright sunny days with amazing clarity of light and beautiful colours.
For weather we have Navtex on board which works intermittently, either swamping you with information or totally blank. On board we also have Coastguard weather forecasts when in VHF range and 'Moving Weather' animated three day grib files via the Iridium satellite phone at any time. Ashore, we tend to use 'Passage Weather', and it was looking at Passage Weather on Sunday evening that made me think that we should leave Lerwick for our next stop, Peterhead, on Monday rather than wait till Tuesday to depart.
The forecast was for a day of obliging westerlies on Monday night/Tuesday, then strong south easterlies by Tuesday evening. And so, as soon as I arrived back on the boat at 1600 on Monday, we topped up with diesel and departed south for Peterhead. Sadly, this meant that we could not call in at Fair Isle as had been an option, but we did go outside it, and so we have still gone 'outside everything'. |
21 July: back on the mainland.
By midnight we had passed Fair Isle, silhouetted against the darkening sky. I tried to take a picture of it when the lighthouses at either end flashed simultaneously, but ten shots later I owned up to being beaten by the delay on the camera shutter.
The log from when we left Lerwick reads NW1, NNW1, S1, WSW1, W2, SW2, W3 and so we sailed for an hour when the wind went back to WSW2, WSW1, and so on. The cruise liner 'Saga Rose' passed two miles astern. |  | | Then in the morning we had two full hours of real sailing and another spell of two hours in the afternoon when we had SE3 for a while as we approached Peterhead. |
Peterhead
Peterhead has a Port Control system that you call on approach in view of the large number of oil rig support vessels coming and going. Permission to enter was granted. We couldn't raise the marina on the VHF but went in and there was a suitably large space, but now complete with Jim ready to take our lines. |
 | That night, as forecast, the big wind came and once again we were in harbour, and a day ahead of our schedule. I thought we might hire a car and visit Speyside for a tasting or two as one of our number is a confirmed Malt man and was denied any visits to the west coast distilleries as they were too far off our 'outside everything' track.
The next day we drove up to Fraserburgh with its fleet of enormous deep sea trawlers and visited the Northern Lighthouse Board's Museum - full of bits of the old lighthouses before they were automated - well worth the visit. |
We carried on to Strathisla Distillery and had a kilted tour of the still room and bonded stores, the home of Chivas Regal. At our visit to GlenDronach distillery, John was also able to buy a limited edition bottle of the new owners, Benriach's 'Maderensis Fumosus' - one of the few peated Speyside whiskies.
This made John a very happy man as he flew back to Oxford and on to Sheffield for his older daughter's graduation day. Bernard and I rounded off our visit to Peterhead with a good curry and the next morning, a trip to the library to do our emails. |  |
| Distance Lerwick to Peterhead: 167nm. Total so far: 1770.8nm. | 23 July: Aberdeen
The pilot books say 'yachts not welcome / no facilities for yachts' about Aberdeen, another big oil port. I had emailed the Harbour Master in advance and got back a very nice reply saying 'just turn up, call my colleagues on Ch 12 and they will look after you', as indeed they did. But first we had an 'interesting' re-fuelling experience on a large jetty at Peterhead which involved a death defying leap onto a distant ladder, declined, and a very bumpy ride for the 20 miles from Peterhead. |  |
Wind, S4, over tide, southerly at three knots, meant that our six knots of speed over ground was half from the tidal stream and only half from the three knots of motoring almost directly into the wind and a horrible chop. We weren't in a hurry so no problem. We could see a dozen rig support vessels anchored outside Aberdeen harbour and we were told on Ch 12 that they couldn't let us in till at least 1730, about an hour's wait. We'd just anchored behind the breakwater when we were told it was our turn after all. So in we went, dwarfed by large vessels, packed in bow to stern and towering over us.
There were just two other yachts in town, moored like us on the Eurolink Ro-Ro ferry terminal, together with the Royal Navy's Yorkshire Universities' training patrol boat, on their way to St Kilda. Our £20 charge for a short stay was certainly well over any other charges we had paid, but then, this is not a yacht harbour. We had a fine meal at 'Stella', John arrived back from Sheffield on schedule, and by 2200, we were off again, heading down the North Sea direct for Lowestoft. |
24/25 July: Down the North Sea
The wind was going to be relatively kind to us down the North Sea, and so was the tidal stream. The Tidal Atlas shows the stream dividing off the Forth and then again off the Humber and the Wash, and making good speed, we seemed to have the tide with us all the way until the last couple of hours off Norfolk. The wind increased from SW3 to SW4 and veered to WSW at times and so we were ringing up eight mile hours regularly. | Whitby missed
At 2200 on Friday 24 July, after 24 hours, we were off Whitby, albeit thirty miles off Whitby but we could see Fylingdales Moor and noted this for the Commodore's benefit.
The wind died for a bit with some big rain clouds, but then the new WNW wind came in and off we went again. |
In the morning, we saw lots of oil and gas rigs and their service vessels, but nothing close enough to worry about. Meanwhile we came in to wind farm territory.
John now has some new material for a University course that he runs: 'What is this radar target?'
I noted that the further down the North Sea we came, the fewer birds we saw: no fish equals no food and no birds, except those stealing ice creams from the trippers on the prom. |  |
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Lowestoft
Our good progress, thanks to wind and tide, meant that we arrived in Lowestoft at 1550 having covered 311.6nm in less than 42 hours at an average of nearly 7 ½ knots. We even slowed down a bit at the end so that we could finish lunch and clear up in good order before arriving.
Naomi and I had been promised a good dinner by my old friends Michael and Sue Hall who live near Aldeburgh, and I so jumped ship for the night while Bernard and John dined in the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht Club whose marina we were moored in. Being a kind and considerate skipper, we reappeared the next day with the left overs: was Suffolk lamb better than Shetland or Barra lamb? We liked them all. And John was intrigued to hear of a new local venture - The English Whisky Co.. Will it catch on?
Distance Aberdeen to Lowestoft : 311.6nm. Total 2082.4nm. |
26 July: The last leg
http://www.passageweather.com/ showed a reasonable motor sailing wind from Lowestoft to North Foreland, but then a stiff beat down Channel which we could not avoid without another day or so in port. But we had by now concluded that the saying, 'men and ships rot in port', was entirely true.
We left as the tide turned south at 2000 and, after driving our way out of the mud in the marina, headed south outside the Thames sand banks and heading for the Gull Channel off Ramsgate. We passed the Kentish Knock wind farm under construction just after dawn and the rather officious guard boat shooed us away even though we were a good mile off. Round to Dover and into a foul tide we saw and respected some smaller yachts beating while we motor sailed, but then the wind veered and we had a good sail in flat seas as far as Dungeness. |
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Bang, bang, bounce
The next eighteen hours, beating into strong WSW winds with a foul short chop that reduced speed to three or four knots much of the time reminded me why I'd 'gone foreign' for a few years. Just before reaching Royal Sovereign, we turned back for a while so that the duct tape applied to the fore hatch two weeks ago in Ireland could be reinforced as the solid water charging up the deck was forcing its way below again.
The weather forecast had been promising the wind would back southerly for some time, but each forecast, the timing slipped again. All this continual banging and bouncing was all rather depressing and with a distinct lack of progress, I confess I even contemplated leaving the Isle of Wight out of our 'outside everything' voyage. We had done the Round The Island Race just four weeks previously, but as we had started the circumnavigation by going out of the Solent though the Needles, we had to go round the Island to come in that way to complete our circuit. I mentioned this to John as I went off watch at mid-night, to be reviewed when I returned on watch at 0600. |
Tuesday 28 July: What a difference a day makes
I went to bed very grumpy. I remember being pitched around as the boat bucked through the waves, and then ...
I woke up to switch the alarm off at 0540, got dressed in relative comfort and went on deck to find Bernard with a big grin on his face. At last the wind had gone round to SSW and we were well out to sea due south of the Nab Tower, a small lump on the horizon. Culver Cliff on the Isle of Wight was shining white in the morning sun and we were doing more than 10 knots over the ground. What a difference a day and a change of wind direction make.
As the westerly going tide built, so did our Speed Over Ground - 11.7 knots of SOG! I've never been past the Isle of Wight so quickly. But there was more to come. |
Uncharted depth
At 0740 as we passed St Catherine's about two miles off, I could see a line of breaking waves ahead. I steered up twenty degrees to avoid the worst bit and could see the plotter showing ridges of twenty to thirty metres depth stretching out from the Island. But suddenly, the echo sounder went from 70 metres to 12.5 and then 4.7 and then 3.7 metres and I thought, 'where will this end'! At eleven plus knots, there was no way out. And then the depth increased to 65 metres as quickly as it had shoaled to 3.7 metres.
I felt distinctly rattled. That was really scary and so I called the Solent Coastguard with the depth and co-ordinates to report an uncharted depth. What on earth was down there? And why had we picked it up when thousands must have been there before? Was it a new wreck? Whatever, it was a frightening experience. |
Back round the Needles
Calming down, we rounded the Needles and headed east for home at 0900, and so completed our circumnavigation in just under four weeks, including weekends off.
The wind was now dead astern, so we rolled the genoa away and drifted under main alone up the Solent as the tide turned to the east, savouring the sun, light airs, flat sea, no chop, sunshine and the opportunity to have a shower before arriving at the 'Southern'.
Being mid-week, there was hardly a boat on the water until we intercepted the IKEA 'flat pack' ferry on its way to Cowes, dropped the main off Hamble Spit and motored up the river.
'W E L C O M E B A C K'
We'd organised a space to unload on the Royal Southern pontoon and as we arrived, saw a little flurry by the flag pole:
'W E L C O M E B A C K' was being spelt out in code flags as the Commodore strode down the pier to welcome us back and claim his glass of Boysterous champagne. |  |
Thank you very much for the welcome, John; you were the last to see us out and the first to see us in!
Note that we are still clutching our prize box of Wine Gums from Baltasound and a special bottle of 12year old Chivas Regal from the Strathisla distillery with a 'Boysterous Round Britain & Ireland' commemorative label on the reverse.
Dick Long, Jan Wright and Shira Robinson joined us on board, and we accompanied the Boysterous champagne with some Speyside smoked salmon, having carried Shetland smoked salmon from Hamble to Shetland and then brought Speyside back.
Tidying up can wait: lunch in the Club was more important and the clearing up followed, except for turning on the washing machine which always takes priority when we have shore power and water.
I won't dwell on tidying up although we did get all the contents of the lazarette out for a good drying. Bernard went home - all of 200 yards away - to get his bag and then drove John through the queues in Hamble Lane to the railway station to catch his train back to Oxford. And suddenly it was all over.
Distance Lowestoft to Hamble: 230 nm. Total distance by log: 2332.4nm. |
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Later ...
A few days later, I'm catching up with this narrative, and I'll return to it again to add the pictures and maybe a few comments here and there.
This trip started off as an idea for a last challenging offshore trip for Boysterous before putting her up for sale. Then I thought, 'If I'm doing it, why don't I get some others to join in?', and so for a while, we had a joint venture with World Cruising Club and the Royal Southern Yacht Club for the ARC Round Britain, a cruiser race type of event. That fell by the wayside because of the recession, but we did it ourselves anyway. |
So what's it like?
Already just a memory as the day to day admin of life ashore takes over.
We had some great experiences with the natural world and especially the bird life; the comradeship of three men doing their bit, relying on each other and in turn being relied upon themselves; some fun times ashore and the further north we sailed, the better everything was. We had wonderful weather in the Western Isles and Shetland and the reward of joining in with the island communities as they made their own entertainment. |
Bernard Lightbound Colin Hall John Laczik |
I always think it's nice when it stops, particularly after the foul trip back down Channel, although that improved with the high speed run round the Isle of Wight and the leisurely drift back up the Solent. But I haven't mentioned our time in Kinsale, now just three weeks ago. Maybe I'll leave all this for a while and then come back to it to see what lives on.
In the meantime, thank you for reading us, and if you want to see more pictures, just go to: www.laczik.org/Sailing/Round_The_Islands/slideshow/index.html where there are lots more pictures keyed to a map of our route: - Round Britain and Ireland, outside everything.
You should do it one day because if we can, you can.
 Colin Hall
(RSrnYC Commodore 2002 -2004) |
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